The 2024 World Commerce & Contracting APAC Summit on 12 and 13 August was a great reminder of the importance of contracts in everything we do and the need to create more value in our contracting.

It also demonstrated that the means of effecting change is all around us and that getting better outcomes doesn't need to be an overwhelming massive project.

The exhibition area at the conference was packed with options. Icertis and Sirion were there representing the large end of town and demonstrating in their sessions the full extent of their capabilities for those large organisations with the budgets and other resources to take on that level of change.

DocuSign, Saasam (representing Agiloft and Creatio) and Conga were also present, with demonstrations showcasing their solutions and how they have succeeded in the Australasian market.

Our business, LawHawk, was also exhibiting, and we enjoyed our conversations with attendees discussing their current situations, their priorities and budgets, and which solutions might best suit their needs. This can range from point solutions with advanced capability in document creation (such as HotDocs) through to full platforms like the above, and anywhere in between.

Having been trained on DocuSign CLM implementation, we were able to talk about the strengths of DocuSign's solution for the Australasian market, while we were also able to showcase what can be done primarily using the technology that their organisation already has and is paying for (e.g. Microsoft 365) and some complementary add-ins such as Cognito Forms, OnePlace Solutions, and AdobeSign or DocuSign.

An example of a Contract Management PowerApp built by our partners at The SharePoint Agency

We've also been certified recently on NetDocuments' PatternBuilder MAX AI solution, which is another option for those in the NetDocuments world to combine more traditional contract automation approaches with generative AI.

Of course, not all improvements need technology at all. Many of our successful projects are more about improving our customers' documents and underlying processes before automating. It was also great to catch up again with World CC Fellow Verity White from Checklist Legal and hear more about her great work on contract simplification and design, which is also a great precursor to automation.

It's ok to start small – just make a start!

As Alex Hamilton noted in his keynote, many organisations are not ready or able to adopt a full CLM, and they are often better to build their way up and out, starting with the areas that will deliver the most impact and learning and adapting as they go. The results that Alex's firm, Radiant Law, has achieved with this approach should have inspired attendees.

World CC's research continues to show an average of 8.6% of contract value is lost, and much of this is avoidable. With so much choice available, doing nothing shouldn't be an option.

If you are interested in improving your contracting outcomes and reducing the amount of value lost in your contracting processes, talk to us about which options are best suited for your situation.