Contracts: online portal
Legal services disruptor Axiom has claimed to be “the undisputed market leader in all things contracting” after launching an online platform that enables businesses to handle routine contracts with little effort.
Axiom said its Accelerator system – which is being offered by the US-based business’s UK arm as well – was “the first and only contracting offering to combine self-service technology with a concierge capability that provides end-users with access to trained contract negotiators”.
Built on the Salesforce platform and integrated with e-signature service DocuSign, it allows business and legal users to execute non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), simple sales contracts, and other routine commercial contracts “faster, more efficiently, and in full compliance with corporate policies and strategies”.
Accelerator provides users with a portal for contract negotiation and management. Agreements where standard templates and in-policy terms and conditions are sufficient can be produced by the user.
“But in real life,” said Sasha Morozoff, who heads the new business for Axiom, “even routine NDAs and other simple contracts don’t always fit neatly within pre-determined guidelines. It’s those redlines and counterparty paper that bring most self-service solutions to a halt.
“In fact, many earlier-generation self-service contracting systems have done little more than frustrate users who, after exhausting the limits of one-size-doesn’t’-fit-all contracting forms, frequently must start over in a disjointed process that requires new legal review.”
Where self-service is not sufficient, users have immediate access to Axiom’s ‘concierge contract negotiators’, who tackle non-routine exceptions by accessing client ‘playbooks’ and in-draft documents.
Accelerator also has what Axiom called a ‘Contracting GPS’ functionality: “a capability providing users immediate visibility into contract status and access to performance analytics, thereby minimising the amount of time in-house lawyers and business teams will spend tackling or chasing down routine contracts”.
It also maintains contracting templates in step with the user experience, “keeping legal in control of the process, with full visibility for managing risk and compliance”.
The system is delivered over the cloud as a Business-Process-as-a-Service (BPaaS) utility, with a volume-based subscription service. Axiom claimed that Accelerator can deliver cost savings of 50% or more for companies that rely on external law firms to support routine contracting needs.
Axiom said the aim was to help clients “reimagine contracting as a strategic part of the business, not merely a cost centre”. It came out of the work of its Managed Service, in which the firm builds bespoke solutions for clients with complex and custom contracting needs.
Accelerator is the first element of Axiom’s new Contracts-as-a-Service (CaaS) portfolio. The firm said the portfolio will include “a range of technology-enabled offerings targeted to both financial services and enterprise clients, pioneering the next wave of how contracting ‘ecosystems’ will be architected and delivered”.
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