As legal operations software continues to evolve and innovate, the offerings available to in-house legal teams grows at rapid speed.
So do the acronyms – CLM, MM and ELM among them. What exactly is CLM, MM and ELM software? Even MLM gets some airtime. What do these mean, and how do you know which is the best for your in-house Legal Department? We answer the hard questions below! Learn the differences and benefits of a CLM, MM and ELM software below.
A legal CLM software stands for Contract Lifecycle Management. A CLM software solution handles your most common type of work - the contract lifecycle.
CLM is the process of digitizing, automating, managing and storing contracts through every stage from initiation, drafting, review, negotiation through to approval and signature. Steps in the contract management process includes:
This could include agreements made with your customers, partners, vendors or employees. The aim of contract management software is to achieve greater efficiency at every stage of the contract process, and improved collaboration with stakeholders both inside and outside your organization.
The Association of Corporate Counsel benchmarks estimate that the average in-house lawyer handles 173 contracts each year – more than three a week. Indeed, 97% of Legal Departments handle contracts in-house, surpassing all other work types tracked by the ACC, including:
Given this workload and concentration, it stands to reason that Contract Lifecycle Management solutions are often a Legal Department’s first foray into LegalTech. According to the ACC, 41.3% of in-house legal teams have adopted CLM systems, exceeding every other technology category except for electronic signatures.
Furthermore, according to research by Forrester, inefficient or manual contract agreement processes create problems for 98% of organizations. Hence efficient, effective and modern contract lifecycle management solutions are important in helping businesses save time, money and minimize risk.
There are many benefits Contract Lifecycle Management solutions can bring to your in-house Legal Department including:
Contracts may be a cornerstone of a Legal Department’s work, but they are far from the entirety of an in-house lawyer’s workload. For that, it’s time to think more broadly and consider an in house legal software.
MM stands for Matter Management and is sometimes referred to as MLM or Matter Lifecycle Management. A matter management software is an in-house legal technology solution that handles ALL types of legal work from inception through to conclusion.
A Matter Management (MM) software solution covers the matter lifecycle of any type of corporate legal project, including contracts but also enveloping litigation, transactions, IP registrations, investigations, regulatory issues, compliance and more.
A modern matter management system is a cloud based legal software that tracks all work - however resourced - for a Legal Department, providing complete clarity on who is working on what and for whom. This legal matter management system focuses on the four primary steps of a legal project, as outlined by the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium:
As milestones, these four steps are critical. But it’s what lies between them – and the interplay among them – that can truly transform Legal Department service, performance, results and more.
A legal management software provides a single source of truth for all legal matters and can help your Legal Department to:
ELM stands for Enterprise Legal Management. An ELM software solution handles all aspects of the Legal Department. Enterprise legal management software help to manage a team's legal operations and include a range of different features, including legal analytics, spend management, billing, legal intake, knowledge management, legal matter management, entity management, IP registrations and more.
Enterprise Legal Management software (ELM) addresses the entire ecosystem of a Legal Department. While Contract Lifecycle Management and Matter Management tools address finite pieces of the Legal Department, an Enterprise Legal Management solution aims to encompass the entire puzzle.
The best Enterprise Legal Management software solutions provide a single legal-centric system to manage a legal team's:
Beyond simply tracking these subjects, an ELM solution offers powerful analytics and reporting capabilities. This allows true knowledge management and offers in-house users opportunities to spot trends, identify and eliminate risks, and demonstrate the Legal Department’s monetary and strategic value to the C-suite and board.
Some of the benefits of an Enterprise Legal Management solution include:
However, ELM software can be very heavy, complex, difficult to use and expensive to implement.
As you explore in-house legal department technology offerings, know that all three types of tools – CLM, matter management and ELM software – can provide meaningful benefits within your in-house team. What’s critical is to understand which in house legal management software tool is right for your specific needs and circumstances. Your Legal Department need not go from zero to 100 by transitioning from spreadsheets to a complex enterprise legal management solution - a modern matter management system that captures some of the contract management or ELM tools you need may lead to a smoother adoption, while still managing your workload and providing critical intel via real-time data analytics and reporting.
You can certainly start with one piece of the proverbial puzzle. Just take caution to plan accordingly with a legal technology roadmap so that as you add additional elements, everything fits together. By taking the time to assess your Legal Department’s goals and priorities – and your users’ attitudes and aptitudes – you can ensure you have the right in house legal software in place for the right reasons.
Where Legal Departments stumble navigating the alphabet soup of CLM, MM and ELM is in the capricious purchase of a legal operations software that sounds great – but doesn’t quite fit your needs. It's worth the time to make sure any LegalTech purchase is purposeful. On the march to improve your legal process, productivity and impact, one acronym covers them all: ASAP.
Tip: If you're on the hunt for new LegalTech software, check out our blogs: Evaluating LegalTech tips and Does your legal technology match your business needs to help you along your journey.
Download our modern matter management for corporate legal departments eBook now to learn more. This eBook outlines:
To learn more about our matter management software and how it can help your legal department without the expensive implementation costs, speak to the Xakia team today for a demo.