Fortune 1000 Financial Services A stalled CLM program stabilized for go-live.
A global financial services firm had spent over a year on its Docusign CLM implementation without a go-live. Our professionals supported the COO, connected the dots across workstreams, and delivered an accountable plan to roll out contract lifecycle management for 30+ contract types.
At a glance
- Service
- CLM program rescue: Salesforce intake and Docusign CLM
- Scope
- A program stalled for more than a year, with several technology teams, consultants, and vendors
- Outcome
- A stabilized program and a go-live plan for 30+ contract types; 30 core templates evaluated
What the problem looked like
The firm had spent over a year on its CLM implementation without a successful go-live, with several technology teams, consultants, and vendors working on the solution.
Contract intake revolved around the sales team, who worked in a proprietary Salesforce-based solution, and Docusign CLM had been acquired to manage key portions of the contracting lifecycle and long-term governance. The COO was considering shelving the project: stakeholders were facing burnout, open questions were piling up, and nobody was connecting the work end to end.
What Swiftwater did
01 Diagnose and stabilize
An independent assessment of the in-flight build and timeline; Salesforce, sales, deal desk, legal, and finance aligned on a single target model; and a reset plan with clear owners and acceptance criteria.
02 Rebuild on best practices
Repository design guided by system-of-agreement best practices and 30 core templates evaluated; workflows defined and hardened with the Salesforce team; contract initiation, deal review, and data capture streamlined.
03 Test, train and go-live
UAT plans and scripts across every persona, iterative test cycles with defects triaged to resolution, and a detailed plan to support a successful go-live.
Why it worked
Our specialists had sat in legal operations, legal department, contracting, sales, and IT seats. They supported the process experts and technologists enabling the Salesforce platform, the Docusign platform, and the sales processes, and used multi-platform expertise to find process, technology, and adoption gaps quickly and provide concrete remedial actions.
What changed
- The stalled CLM rollout was stabilized.
- Every stakeholder had a second set of eyes, with industry- and client-calibrated answers to the gaps.
- End-to-end business scenarios supported testing, focused on user buy-in and adoption.
- A clear, accountable plan to roll out contract lifecycle management for 30+ contract types.
See also Docusign and Salesforce integration.
Best for
- CLM programs that have stalled past their go-live date
- Firms where contract intake starts in Salesforce
- COOs and General Counsel deciding whether to rescue or shelve a program
Frequently asked questions
How do you rescue a stalled CLM implementation?
Start with an independent assessment of the in-flight build and timeline, align every function on one target model, reset the plan with clear owners and acceptance criteria, then rebuild on best practices and test. That is how Swiftwater stabilized this client’s program after more than a year without a go-live.
How should Salesforce intake connect to a CLM?
Contract intake should start where the sales team works. For this client, Swiftwater partnered with the Salesforce team to define and harden the workflows that start contracts in Salesforce, and streamlined contract initiation, deal review, and data capture.
What does UAT for a CLM rollout cover?
UAT plans and scripts for every persona, iterative test cycles with defects triaged to resolution, and end-to-end business scenarios that check user buy-in before go-live.
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