Everything You Need to Know About Agiloft’s Winter 2021 Release

Leading contract lifecycle management (CLM) provider, Agiloft, recently announced their Winter 2021 update, and the features are taking collaborative contracts to a whole new level. Agiloft has already set the standard when it comes to CLM, but they continue to make exciting strides as they work toward creating a tool that seamlessly streamlines both writing and editing contracts across numerous fields, departments, and companies.

Agiloft CEO Eric Laughlin summed up the overall goals of the software and the features still to come in the future in a statement about the Winter 2021 update, Connected Experiences: “The market for CLM is evolving rapidly, and it’s time to rethink attitudes about contracts. For too long, we’ve thought of contracts solely as a defensive shield, relegated to dead-end digital representations of paper. Agiloft is re-imagining contract data as a digital asset—the DNA of business relationships—that can be analyzed and acted on across the business. With our new Connected Experiences, Agiloft empowers people across the organization by connecting them to contract processes and data in the tools they already use, shifting CLM from legal to enterprise tech and taking the value of CLM to a new level.”

Agiloft’s latest update is all about this sense of connection. The aim of the software is to make CLM integration as painless as possible across all departments of the company, not just sales or legal. Connected Experiences works with a company’s existing software, particularly Word and Microsoft Teams, to provide easy access to Agiloft features without ever having to switch applications. At the moment, Microsoft Teams stands as the main priority for this level of integration, but there are plans to provide the same connected experience for Slack and other popular collaborative tools down the line.

So What’s New?

The Connected Experiences update includes 5 new features that work together to revolutionize the contracting process by allowing employees to collaborate digitally with newfound speed and efficiency, elevating the potential of CLM and what it can help businesses accomplish. Let’s take a closer look at each of these key improvements and what they bring to the table.

New Microsoft Teams App

The basis of the Connected Experiences update is the new Microsoft Teams app. The updated app integrates several of Agiloft’s features directly into the Microsoft Teams experience, eliminating the need to constantly switch back and forth between applications. This fusion effectively unites the two platforms in a way that enables digital collaboration in contract processes on a whole new level.

Notable Agiloft features that have made their way into the Teams environment include notifications for approval requests and any contract changes that occur in Agiloft as well as one-click contract approvals. Such improvements have the potential to drastically reduce the length of the approval cycle and speed up the contracting process.

Amazingly, this is just the first stage of Agiloft’s Teams integration plan. There are updates still in the works that will strive to connect the two platforms more deeply and make collaboration even easier. Some of these prospective enhancements include initiating contract requests and gathering information via a form within Teams, enabling collaborative contract writing on Teams, and a function to search contracts.

Redesigned Agiloft Contract Assistant to Word

The Contract Assistant available in Agiloft’s Connected Experiences update is a Microsoft Word add-on that takes advantage of the familiar, user-friendly Word environment by enhancing it with Agiloft’s sophisticated software and AI. The add-on showcases a variety of features, all of which aim to help employees streamline their contracting process without sacrificing the quality of their contracts.

Agiloft’s Contract Assistant allows users to create contracts easily via automated document templates that are based on existing clauses. The software uses these existing clauses to build a library of standard and fallback clauses which can be perused, selected, and inserted into a freshly created contract. It also includes a tagging feature that facilitates quicker revisions by allowing users to point out clauses in need of a particular employee’s attention.

Collaboratively, the add-on builds on Word’s existing technology and gives users the ability to compare and mark-up contracts digitally. This feature also extends to external parties who may need to comment on the contract during the negotiation process. Even without the Agiloft tool installed, a user can edit the contract and create comments that are tracked just as readily as those made via the Agiloft add-on.

Contract Assistant also contains the Template Designer, an essential tool for creating contracts both quickly and correctly. The Template Designer utilizes conditional clauses to generate contracts for specific clients based on data already contained within the template. This feature allows companies to speed up their contracting process while maintaining peace of mind knowing the contracts are being produced using the correct information.

New Salesforce App

In addition to the new Microsoft Teams app, Agiloft will also be launching a new Salesforce app. Salesforce users will experience a running start on the app, with integration time decreasing to just 15 minutes. The app also aims to accelerate sales by improving upon the existing Agiloft integrations with Salesforce, allowing users to initiate contract requests directly within the app.

New Tableau and Microsoft Dynamics Connectors

Designed to empower better business by making contracts more accessible across the entirety of the company, these two connectors allow employees to visualize data in order to make better decisions and close deals quickly. Data is synchronized between the applications, and Tableau users have the ability to create charts and dashboards that showcase different aspects of a contract’s negotiations.

Drag-and-Drop Layout Editor

Some of the Winter 2021 features, like the drag-and-drop layout editor, build on the Spring 2021 redesign to create a more straightforward experience. The layout editor expands the realm of possibilities when it comes to customization. Administrators can use this handy tool to tailor their experience and refine the software so that it adheres to their unique needs.

Why Is Agiloft’s Winter 2021 Update Important?

The Connected Experiences update provides two huge advantages for every company: faster processing and better collaboration. With tools like the Contract Assistant, Agiloft’s update has the potential to save legal teams a ton of time throughout both the drafting and the negotiation processes. The Template Designer even provides the option to draft contracts containing conditional values, thus expanding the range of automation outward for companies who handle contracts from various customers, regions, and industries.

In a world where distributed workforces have become the new norm, it is extremely important to maintain connection between employees and departments. Without connection and communication, processes slow down, mistakes are made, and revenue is lost. Agiloft’s update integrates with Microsoft Teams to eliminate the risks involved with a scattered workforce, bringing people together digitally to ensure that each and every contract is of the highest quality. 

With these new features and many more still to come, Agiloft is clearly committed to creating a CLM software that revolutionizes contracting processes not only through AI and automation, but through better collaboration as well.