The Challenge
CLM implementations fail because they are treated as technology projects.
Most organizations have contracts scattered across email threads, shared drives, and legacy systems. Renewal dates are missed. Obligations go untracked. The legal team becomes a bottleneck. CLM technology promises to fix this, and too often does not, because the implementation was treated as a technology deployment rather than a business transformation.
The result is expensive shelf-ware: a system that legal uses reluctantly, procurement ignores, and commercial teams work around. The problem is almost never the technology. It is the absence of a genuine change program, and a delivery approach that prioritized going live over being used.
Where CLM projects break down
Implementation scoped around the technology, not the underlying business process
Contract data not migrated, or migrated without normalization
Change management treated as a training day, not a program
Stakeholder alignment across legal, procurement, and sales skipped or rushed
No post-go-live fine-tuning plan. The system launches and the project team leaves
Platform Experience
We select the platform that fits your business, not the one we are certified to sell.
Our practitioners hold implementation experience across leading CLM platforms. We remain vendor-agnostic at the selection stage, and deeply capable across the major systems once a decision is made.
If you are currently managing contracts on shared drives, email, or a spreadsheet tracker, we have mapped that environment before. Our CLM Maturity Diagnostic starts by understanding what you have, not what a vendor told you that you need.
Our Approach
From diagnostic to fully adopted program. Every step covered.
01
CLM Maturity Diagnostic
We begin by assessing where you are. Our diagnostic maps your current contract environment, identifies gaps, and gives you a clear starting point, before any technology decision is made.
02
Readiness Assessment & Strategy
Is CLM the right investment at this stage? We assess contract volume, process maturity, stakeholder readiness, and your technology landscape to determine the right path forward.
03
System Selection & RFP
Vendor-agnostic evaluation across Onit CLM, DocuSign CLM, Agiloft, Conga, SpotDraft, and others. We recommend what fits your processes, not what we are incentivized to sell.
04
Implementation & Configuration
End-to-end CLM implementation aligned to how your legal, procurement, and commercial teams actually work. Workflows, approval chains, and clause libraries built for adoption, not just go-live.
05
Contract Migration & Data Normalization
We migrate your existing contract library and normalize the data. Not a file dump. Structured, searchable, and auditable from day one.
06
Commercial Contracting Program Design
We build the contracting program around the system: standard form suites, playbooks, approval frameworks, and escalation paths designed for the commercial reality of your business.
07
Stakeholder Alignment
Legal, procurement, and sales teams have different needs from a CLM system. We align them before go-live, not after. Adoption follows alignment.
08
Training & Adoption Program
A structured change and adoption program that drives actual usage. A CLM system that your commercial team does not use solves nothing.
09
Post-Implementation Fine-Tuning
The first six months of a live CLM system surface the real configuration needs. We stay engaged to optimize as your business actually uses it.
The Swiftwater CLM Difference
Change management is not a phase. It is the program.
Most CLM implementations are treated as technology projects. The vendor configures the system, the team trains on it, and the project closes. Six months later, three people in legal use it and everyone else works around it. The reason is not the technology. It is the absence of a genuine change program.
Swiftwater builds change management into every CLM engagement from the first stakeholder interview, not bolted on at the end. Gary Wheeler leads platform implementation and commercial contracting program design. Every engagement includes a structured adoption program designed to move all three stakeholder groups (legal, procurement, and sales) to active use.
Faster contract processing cycle through CLM implementation and process automation
CLM programs and legal ops teams built for Fortune 500 companies from the ground up
We ensure coordination between the relevant stakeholders based on your project scope
CLM Practice
Named practitioners. Built-in change management.
Gary Wheeler
CLM & AI Lead Consultant
Gary has built CLM programs and created legal ops teams for multiple Fortune 500 companies. His focus: designing contract programs that commercial teams actually adopt, not just systems that go live. He brings equal depth in CLM platform implementation and commercial contracting program design.
CLM • Onit CLM • DocuSign CLM • Contract Program Design
Tina Meisberger
Change Management Leader & Senior PM
Tina leads change management across Swiftwater’s CLM and technology implementations. She has built adoption programs that turn CLM go-lives into genuine business change, engaging legal, procurement, and sales stakeholders rather than just delivering training.
Change Management • Training Design • Adoption Programs • Senior PM
Jonathan Gilman
Senior ELM / CLM / LSR Expert
Jonathan has delivered CLM programs across complex enterprise environments, with deep strength in contract data migration and systems integration. Earlier in his career, he was part of the product development team for a leading CLM platform, bringing inside knowledge of how these systems are built, not just how they are configured.
CLM • Product Development • Data Migration • Systems Integration
Start Here
CLM Maturity Diagnostic
Before selecting a platform or scoping an implementation, we assess where your contract management function currently sits. The CLM Maturity Diagnostic maps your current environment, identifies the gaps, and gives you a clear, honest picture of what a successful CLM program would actually require at your organization.
It is free, takes less than 30 minutes of your time, and gives you something concrete to act on, regardless of whether you engage Swiftwater afterward.
Request the Diagnostic →Also relevant to this practice
Implement Legal Technology
→CLM and ELM implementations frequently run on an integrated platform. Onit delivers both.
Transform with AI
→AI-powered contract analysis and intelligent clause libraries can significantly accelerate CLM programs.
Reduce Legal Spend
→CLM programs surface contract obligation data that drives outside counsel cost reduction.