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Even well-intentioned agreements harbor hidden risks—risks that surface too late and cost greatly in compliance, liability, reputation, and money.
But they’re easier to catch than you think.
Contract lifecycle management (CLM) surfaces these risks before they amount to larger issues, making contracts safer for you and faster for your sales teams.
Care about reducing your legal exposure, avoiding regulatory fines, and maintaining control? Read on to discover five contract risks many organizations often skip over and how a robust CLM can eliminate or greatly mitigate each.
Risk #1: Missed Renewal, Termination, or Obligation Deadlines
Contract renewals sneaking up on you? Don’t get caught scrambling when clients request contract changes or suddenly terminate. CLMs raise awareness to fast-approaching renewal dates and mitigate risk so you can prepare through:
- Automated alerts and metadata tracking: CLMs let you tag key terms, clauses, and dates like renewal and termination deadlines with metadata so you can easily search for them later.
- Centralized repository vs. scattered storage: Instead of searching email chains, Google docs, or shared drives, everything lives in one secure system so you always know what’s coming due.
Intellistack Streamline CLM offers a Document Repository with versioning and audit history so you can quickly find agreements by counterparty or expiration date to manage renewals and stay ahead of deadlines. You’ll have a single, secure location for all executed and in-progress agreements.
Risk #2: Ambiguous or Non-standard Clauses that Increase Liability
Vague terms like “reasonable time” or “best efforts” add ambiguity to your agreements. Now add outdated clause libraries or custom edits that haven’t been vetted by legal and you’ve opened the door to gray areas and internal misunderstandings. CLMs leave less room for error with:
- Playbooks and pre-approved clauses: Embed legal-approved playbooks or templates that guide negotiators toward safe, standardized language.
- AI clause tagging and review: CLMs flag risky or non-compliant language automatically. That way, you can focus where it matters, rather than reviewing every clause manually.
Intellistack Streamline CLM offers template libraries and built-in clause review. Plus, AI provides language recommendations to eliminate confusion.
Risk #3: Version Control Failures and Loss of Audit Trail
How can you keep track of the latest version when multiple parties redline documents, send versions back and forth via email, or save copies locally? Lacking an audit trail is not only confusing—it can be a compliance or legal risk. CLMs change the game with complete traceability thanks to:
- Live redlining and integrated collaboration: Rather than exchanging documents by email, CLM provides in-workflow redlining, comments, and version history. No tracking down documents or guessing which one is most current.
- Audit history and locked, signed versions: Once a contract is executed, CLMs can archive versions as read-only with a full version timeline so you know what was changed or agreed upon and when.
Intellistack Streamline CLM is built for today's deals, which often require multi-party collaboration. Our workflow Collaboration Step lets internal and external collaborators review, comment, and redline before signature, with version history built in.
Read the Blog: From Draft to Signature: How CLM Streamlines the Entire Legal Workflow
Risk #4: Compliance Gaps—Internal Policy Drift and Regulatory Changes
Regulations shift. Internal policies evolve. Without centralized, enforced clause libraries and workflows, contracts may continue to use old, non-compliant terms. And non-compliance carries fines, legal risk, and reputational harm. CLMs help you stay on top of shifting policies and regulations with:
- Standardized templates and legal oversight in playbooks: Ensure every contract originates from a template that reflects current internal policy and regulatory requirements.
- Automated compliance flagging and clause review: CLM systems can detect when non-standard or deprecated clauses are used or when regulatory obligations are missing. Legal teams can then correct them before signature.
- Central audit and reporting: Because all contracts and contract metadata (terms, dates, jurisdiction, obligations) are stored centrally, legal and compliance can run regular audits to ensure contracts in force comply with current laws and policies.
Intellistack Playbook Assistant allows you to compare contract language with pre-approved legal clauses to ensure standardization and compliance without requiring legal to approve every edit.
Risk #5: Revenue Leakage, Hidden Costs, and Lifecycle Expenses
Revenue leakage isn’t always obvious—but it’s costly. You could lose money, not because of bad deals, but because of inefficiencies like underbilling, missed escalations, contracts rolling over at outdated rates, or the overhead cost of chasing versions across email threads. These hidden costs erode margins and slow growth.
But centralized insight from a CLM keeps expenses surface-level and controlled with:
- Faster turnarounds and fewer review cycles: By integrating drafting, redlining, approvals, and signatures in one platform, CLMs shrink cycle time.
- Real-time status tracking and dashboards: Being able to see where contracts are in process (pending review, signed, etc.) lets teams act before delays incur cost.
- Unlimited users and transparent pricing models: Avoid surprise licensing or per-envelope/per-seat costs that grow as more departments use the system.
Intellistack offers real-time tracking and dashboards for leaders to see where bottlenecks lurk. That means you can save money by shrinking review cycles from weeks to days.
What to Look For in a CLM
To eliminate risks, a CLM must include certain capabilities. If your tool lacks one or more, these risk areas remain exposed.
-Centralized, searchable contract/document repository with metadata
Find contracts, monitor deadlines, review audit status
-Version control and real-time collaboration/redlining
Ensure traceability and reduce ambiguity
-Pre-approved clause libraries/playbooks and template enforcement
Standardize and ensure compliance
-Alerts/automated reminders for key dates and obligations
Prevent missed renewals or deliverables
-Integrations with CRM and other business systems
Reduce manual data entry errors and ensure accurate prefill of contracts
-Transparent pricing/unlimited collaborators
Scale across legal, sales, and procurement without unexpected costs
Intellistack Streamline CLM offers all these features—document generation, redlining and commenting, AI clause tagging, metadata and audits, built-in collaboration, e-signatures, and unlimited users—to help you accelerate deals, speed up revenue recognition, and keep legal teams in full control.
See Intellistack Streamline CLM in Action
Want to see how these features and workflows perform in practice? Check out our short, but valuable webinar, Cut Contract Chaos: Why Formstack Customers Are Adopting Streamline CLM, to discover:
- How Streamline CLM fits into the Intellistack portfolio
- How manual processes can slow down your CLM process
- Why you should consider Intellistack Streamline CLM as an easier-to-use and secure way to manage your contracts
All you need is an email address! Watch and see the difference today.
