Contract Lifecycle Management Challenges: What You Need to Know Before You Sign

Contract lifecycle management challenges do not begin only when a company buys enterprise software.

They start much earlier.

A contract gets drafted in one tool, reviewed over email, signed somewhere else, saved in a folder nobody remembers, and then rediscovered six months later when someone needs to check a renewal date.

That is already a contract lifecycle problem.

Contract lifecycle management, or CLM, is the process of managing agreements from their creation through review, approval, execution, storage, ongoing obligations, renewal, and eventual expiration or termination.

The exact stages vary by organization and framework. Gartner, for example, describes CLM software as helping organizations manage contracts from initiation through award, compliance, and renewal.

For a freelancer or small business, you may not need a full enterprise CLM platform. But you still need a reliable process for knowing:

• which version is current
• who still needs to sign
• where the final agreement is stored
• what obligations are coming up
• when the contract renews or expires

The right solution can be a spreadsheet, calendar, shared folder, e-signature platform, or full CLM system depending on your volume and complexity.

This article breaks down the most common contract lifecycle management challenges and shows how to decide what level of tooling you actually need.

At a glance

What Is Contract Lifecycle Management?

Contract lifecycle management is the organized handling of agreements from the point a contract is requested or drafted through the end of its useful life.

A lifecycle can include activities such as:

1. request or initiation
2. drafting
3. review and negotiation
4. internal approval
5. execution
6. storage
7. obligation and deadline management
8. amendment
9. renewal, expiration or termination

There is no single legally required number of CLM stages.

Different organizations combine or separate these activities based on how their contracting process works.

CLM is more than getting a signature

Electronic signature is one part of the contract lifecycle.

CLM can also include:

• template management
• clause libraries
• approval workflows
• redlining
• version control
• searchable repositories
• obligation tracking
• renewal alerts
• reporting
• integrations with CRM, procurement or finance systems

That distinction matters when choosing software.

If your only recurring problem is getting an agreement signed, buying an enterprise contract-management platform may solve far more problems than you actually have.

If 200 employees are negotiating hundreds of supplier agreements across departments, a basic signing tool may be nowhere near enough.

The Contract Lifecycle in Practice

A useful way to think about CLM is as a continuous flow rather than a fixed checklist.

Before signing

The process can include:

• requesting a contract
• choosing the right template
• drafting terms
• negotiating changes
• collecting approvals

During signing

The focus shifts to:

• selecting the correct final version
• assigning signers
• confirming authority
• collecting signatures
• recording completion

After signing

The contract still needs to be managed.

That can include:

• storing the executed copy
• tracking obligations
• recording amendments
• monitoring notice periods
• preparing for renewal
• closing or terminating the agreement

This final stage is where small teams often discover that signing was only part of the problem.

Full CLM Software vs a Simpler Signing Workflow

The correct choice depends on the process, not company size alone.

A five-person company negotiating complex regulated agreements could need more contract management capability than a 100-person business using a small set of standardized contracts.

The Most Common Contract Lifecycle Management Challenges

Contract management problems usually build on each other.

A scattered drafting process creates version problems. Version problems delay approvals. Delayed approvals hold up signatures. Poor storage makes it difficult to manage the contract after execution.

Challenge 1: Contracts Are Scattered Across Too Many Places

A draft may live in Google Drive.

Comments may live in email.

The signed PDF may be attached to a message.

An amended version may sit on someone's desktop.

The problem is not simply untidy storage.

It becomes difficult to answer basic questions:

• Where is the executed agreement?
• Which version was signed?
• Who has access?
• Was this contract later amended?
• When does it expire?

A single source of truth becomes more important as contract volume grows.

A simple fix

For a low-volume workflow, start with one repository and a consistent naming structure.

For example:

ClientName_ContractType_YYYY-MM-DD

Keep drafts separate from executed agreements.

Do not use filenames such as:

final.pdf
final-new.pdf
final-FINAL-v3.pdf

Those names tell the next person almost nothing.

Challenge 2: Version Control Breaks Down During Negotiation

Contracts rarely move directly from first draft to signature.

One party edits indemnity language.

Another changes the payment schedule.

Legal adjusts the limitation of liability.

Someone else forwards an older attachment.

Now there are multiple copies in circulation.

The central question becomes:

Which version is actually approved for signature?

What helps

Use a process where:

• edits happen in one controlled copy
• versions are clearly identified
• ownership of the current draft is clear
• the final execution copy is locked before signing
• old drafts are not mistaken for the final agreement

Full CLM systems can provide sophisticated version controls.

For smaller workflows, disciplined document handling may be enough.

Challenge 3: Internal Approvals Take Too Long

Many contracts need approval before an authorized person can sign them.

A deal might need:

Sales → Finance → Legal → Executive signer

If nobody knows who owns the next step, contracts can stall quietly.

The problem gets worse when approvals occur across:

• email
• Slack
• meetings
• spreadsheets
• document comments

A useful approval workflow should answer:

Who needs to approve?

In what order?

What is currently blocking the contract?

Who can move it forward?

Gartner notes that fragmented contract processes are one reason organizations adopt CLM systems, with consistency and governance being important goals.

Challenge 4: Signature Requests Stall

Once the contract is ready, the signing stage introduces a different type of delay.

A recipient may:

• miss the email
• forget to sign
• be on leave
• have questions
• open an outdated version
• wait for someone else

Manual follow-ups add another task to someone's day.

A signing platform can reduce this administrative work by providing:

• recipient status
• routing order
• reminders
• completed-document delivery
• signing records

The platform cannot force someone to sign, but it can make the bottleneck visible.

Challenge 5: Nobody Has a Clear View of Contract Status

A useful contract-management process should make it easy to distinguish between:

• drafting
• internal review
• external negotiation
• awaiting approval
• awaiting signature
• fully executed
• expired
• terminated

Without that visibility, teams start maintaining parallel trackers.

One person uses a spreadsheet.

Another keeps a list in Notion.

Legal has a separate system.

Sales relies on CRM notes.

The more tracking systems exist, the less reliable any one of them becomes.

Challenge 6: Signed Contracts Are Stored but Not Managed

A signed agreement is not finished simply because the PDF exists.

The contract may contain obligations such as:

• payment dates
• reporting requirements
• service levels
• notice periods
• insurance requirements
• confidentiality obligations
• renewal deadlines
• termination windows

If nobody extracts and monitors these dates, the organization can comply with the signing process while still failing to manage the actual agreement.

Challenge 7: Renewal and Termination Dates Get Missed

Auto-renewal provisions can create avoidable surprises.

A contract might require notice:

• 30 days before renewal
• 60 days before renewal
• 90 days before renewal

Discovering the deadline after it passes may limit your options.

For a small contract portfolio, calendar reminders can work perfectly well.

For larger portfolios, automated obligation and renewal tracking becomes much more useful.

Challenge 8: Contract Data Is Difficult to Search

A folder full of PDFs stores contracts.

It does not necessarily make them easy to analyze.

Teams may need to answer questions such as:

• Which agreements renew this quarter?
• Which contracts use a particular liability cap?
• Which suppliers have termination-for-convenience clauses?
• Which NDAs expire this year?
• Which agreements are missing signatures?

Structured CLM systems can make contract information easier to search and report on.

If you only manage twelve contracts, manual tracking may still be simpler.

Challenge 9: Processes Differ Between Teams

Sales may send contracts one way.

Procurement uses another process.

HR stores documents somewhere else.

Finance maintains its own approval method.

This inconsistency creates:

• duplicate work
• missing approvals
• inconsistent terms
• unclear responsibilities
• reporting problems

Standardizing the process is often more important than purchasing software.

A new CLM system placed on top of an undefined process can simply digitize the confusion.

Challenge 10: Adoption Fails

Software creates value only when people actually use it.

This is where the original draft's “30% to 50% of CLM implementations fail” claim needed to be removed. There is no reliable universal failure rate supported by the sources reviewed.

What is supported is that implementation quality matters.

Forrester's CLM implementation research has highlighted problems such as failing to define the process before engaging a vendor and relying on overly broad implementation approaches.

Gartner's more recent implementation guidance likewise focuses on lessons from organizations deploying CLM solutions rather than claiming one universal failure percentage.

Contract Lifecycle Management Challenges: A Step-by-Step Guide

Before buying software, diagnose your process.

1. List your contract types. Identify NDAs, client agreements, vendor contracts, employment documents and other recurring agreements.
2. Map the current path. Record what happens from initial request through signing and storage.
3. Identify every participant. Note who drafts, reviews, approves, signs and manages the contract afterward.
4. Find the slowest stage. Determine whether the real problem is drafting, negotiation, approval, signing, storage or renewal.
5. Measure contract volume. Count how many active and new agreements you actually manage.
6. Identify repeatable work. Look for templates, reminders, routing and standard clauses that could be standardized.
7. Choose the smallest solution that solves the bottleneck. Do not start with the longest feature list.
8. Create one source of truth. Decide where final agreements and key dates will live.
9. Assign ownership. Someone should be responsible for renewals, obligations and updates.
10. Review the system periodically. Add more automation only when the existing process starts creating measurable friction.

Why Small Teams Experience CLM Problems Differently

Small businesses do not have simpler contracts by definition.

What they often have is less administrative capacity.

The same person may:

• negotiate the deal
• prepare the contract
• send it
• follow up
• manage the client
• issue the invoice
• remember the renewal date

That concentration of responsibility creates a different kind of risk.

No dedicated contract owner

Large organizations may have legal operations, procurement, sales operations or contract managers.

In a small company, nobody may officially own the contract after it is signed.

Fewer backup systems

If one employee keeps the contract tracker and leaves the company, critical information can disappear with them.

Less time for administration

A freelancer does not want to spend an hour tracking whether an NDA was signed.

Administrative overhead directly competes with billable or revenue-producing work.

Tool complexity matters more

A platform that requires significant configuration, training and maintenance can cost more in time than it saves.

This is why software should match the actual workflow rather than an abstract idea of what “professional contract management” should look like.

How Software Can Help

Software is strongest when the problem is repetitive and structured.

Centralized storage

A contract repository can make completed agreements easier to locate.

More advanced systems can add metadata, permissions, search and reporting.

Templates

Templates reduce repeated drafting and help teams start from approved language.

They should still be reviewed when the transaction differs materially from the scenario the template was designed for.

Approval routing

Workflow tools can send agreements through the appropriate internal reviewers.

This can reduce manual forwarding and make bottlenecks easier to identify.

Electronic signatures

Electronic signing removes printing and scanning from many contract workflows.

Under the US ESIGN Act, a contract or signature relating to a covered transaction cannot be denied legal effect solely because it is electronic.

That does not mean every agreement is automatically enforceable simply because it was signed electronically. The underlying contract still needs to satisfy applicable law.

Reminders

Automated reminders can help with:

• pending signatures
• renewal dates
• notice deadlines
• internal tasks

Reporting

More advanced systems can answer questions across the full contract portfolio rather than requiring someone to inspect each PDF manually.

What CLM Software Cannot Solve

Technology is useful, but several contract problems are not software problems.

It Cannot Decide Whether a Deal Is Good

Software cannot tell you whether:

• the price is commercially acceptable
• liability is balanced
• the payment terms are fair
• the indemnity clause is appropriate
• you should accept the renewal mechanism

Those are business and legal decisions.

It Cannot Replace Legal Judgment

Templates, clause libraries and AI can help with drafting.

They cannot automatically determine whether every provision fits the specific transaction and jurisdiction.

High-value, unusual or regulated contracts may deserve qualified legal review.

It Cannot Fix Unclear Ownership

If nobody knows who approves the agreement, automation does not solve the underlying responsibility problem.

You need the process first.

Then software can enforce or accelerate it.

It Cannot Guarantee People Follow the Process

People can still:

• send contracts outside the system
• store documents locally
• ignore reminders
• use outdated templates
• skip required fields

Implementation and adoption remain operational issues.

It Cannot Make Every Contract Searchable Without Good Data

Automation becomes much more useful when the organization captures consistent information.

If every agreement uses different naming, metadata and filing rules, reporting quality will suffer.

When Manual Contract Management Is Enough

You do not automatically need CLM software because contracts exist.

A lightweight process may be sufficient when:

• contract volume is low
• agreements are relatively standardized
• the same few people handle them
• negotiations are simple
• you can reliably locate every executed copy
• renewals are easy to track
• approvals are straightforward

A basic setup could consist of:

Templates + e-signature + shared folder + calendar reminders

That is still a contract-management system.

It is simply manual and lightweight.

When Full CLM Becomes More Useful

CLM becomes more compelling as complexity grows.

Common signs include:

• contracts regularly get lost
• multiple departments participate
• approvals have several stages
• negotiation histories are difficult to reconstruct
• teams use inconsistent templates
• renewal dates are missed
• obligations need ongoing monitoring
• leadership needs contract reporting
• users need role-based permissions
• contracts must connect with CRM, procurement or finance systems

The decision should be driven by recurring operational problems rather than contract count alone.

A Practical Maturity Model

Instead of jumping directly from email to enterprise software, you can improve contract management in stages.

There is no prize for reaching Stage 5.

The correct stage is the simplest one that reliably manages your risk and workload.

Best Practices for Managing Contract Lifecycle Management Challenges

Keep one authoritative repository

Decide where executed agreements live.

Do not make people search:

• email
• chat
• desktops
• personal drives
• several shared folders

for the same contract.

Separate drafts from signed agreements

Do not overwrite the final executed version with later working copies.

Make it visually obvious which document was actually signed.

Standardize recurring agreements

Maintain approved starting templates for frequently used contracts.

This reduces avoidable variation and repeated drafting.

Define approval ownership

Document who approves:

• commercial terms
• legal terms
• pricing
• data security
• procurement
• final execution

Not every contract needs every approval.

Track important dates at signing

When an agreement is completed, record:

• effective date
• expiration date
• renewal date
• notice deadline
• major milestones

Do not wait until renewal season to extract them.

Review auto-renewals early

If an agreement requires 60 days' notice, a reminder five days before renewal is useless.

Set alerts far enough ahead to make a decision.

Keep an execution record

Retain the completed contract and relevant signing evidence made available by the signing platform.

Electronic signing records can provide useful evidence of the transaction.

Archive rather than delete

Expired agreements can remain relevant for:

• audits
• disputes
• warranties
• confidentiality
• historical pricing
• prior amendments

Follow the retention rules appropriate to your organization and legal obligations.

How to Choose Between Manual Tracking, E-Signature and CLM

Ask these questions:

1. Where is the actual pain?

If the answer is:

“Clients take forever to sign.”

Start with electronic signing.

If the answer is:

“Nobody knows which contract language is approved.”

You need template and drafting controls.

If the answer is:

“We keep missing renewals.”

You need deadline and obligation tracking.

If the answer is:

“Nobody can report on our 2,000 contracts.”

You are much closer to a full CLM use case.

2. How many people touch the agreement?

More stakeholders usually mean more workflow complexity.

3. How different are your contracts?

Twenty nearly identical service agreements can be easier to manage than five highly negotiated regulated contracts.

4. What happens after signing?

If nothing needs monitoring until the contract expires, storage may be enough.

If the agreement creates recurring obligations, the post-signing phase matters much more.

5. What would happen if your current system failed?

This helps determine how much control you actually need.

The best contract-management system is not the one with the most features. It is the one that reliably answers: What is the current version, who needs to act, what did we sign, and what happens next?

How LoreSign Fits

LoreSign is focused primarily on preparing documents and moving them through the electronic signing workflow.

A user can:

1. prepare or upload a document
2. add recipients
3. place required signing fields
4. send the document
5. track signer progress
6. retain the completed agreement

That can address the execution stage of the contract lifecycle without requiring an organization to adopt a full enterprise CLM system.

If your main problems involve advanced negotiation management, clause analytics, large-scale obligation extraction, procurement workflows or enterprise reporting, a broader CLM platform may be more appropriate.

If your main problem is getting documents prepared, signed and returned without losing track of them, a signing-focused tool may cover what you actually need.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the most common contract lifecycle management challenges?

Common problems include scattered documents, version confusion, slow approvals, delayed signatures, poor status visibility, inconsistent processes, missed obligations and renewal dates, and weak adoption of contract-management systems.

What are the stages of contract lifecycle management?

There is no single mandatory stage model. A practical lifecycle can include request, drafting, negotiation, approval, signing, storage, obligation management, amendment, renewal and termination. Different CLM frameworks group these activities differently.

How many CLM implementations fail?

There is no reliable universal percentage that should be quoted as the failure rate for CLM implementations. Research instead points to recurring implementation risks such as unclear process definition, poor adoption, fragmented workflows and overly broad deployment approaches.

Do small businesses need CLM software?

Not automatically. A small business with standardized agreements and low contract volume may be well served by templates, electronic signing, shared storage and calendar reminders. More advanced CLM becomes useful when workflow, negotiation, reporting, obligations or contract volume become difficult to manage manually.

What is the difference between CLM and e-signature software?

Electronic signature software primarily supports document execution. CLM covers a broader process that can include contract request, drafting, negotiation, approval, signing, repository management, obligations, renewals and reporting.

Can contracts be managed without dedicated software?

Yes. Low-volume workflows can be managed with disciplined templates, storage, naming conventions and reminders. Dedicated software becomes more useful when the manual process stops being reliable or efficient.

The Bottom Line

Contract lifecycle management challenges are usually symptoms of one underlying problem: contract information and responsibility are spread across too many people, tools and stages.

The answer is not automatically a large CLM platform.

Start by mapping the process.

Find the real bottleneck.

Standardize what you can.

Keep executed agreements in one authoritative location.

Track important deadlines at the moment the agreement is signed.

Then add technology where it removes a recurring problem.

For some teams, that means a calendar and shared folder.

For others, it means an electronic signing workflow.

For organizations handling complex approvals, negotiations, obligations and large contract portfolios, full CLM can provide the structure that manual systems can no longer maintain.

Sources and Further Reading

Gartner, Peer Lessons Learned for Contract Life Cycle Management Solution Implementation
Discusses fragmented contract processes, governance, consistency and implementation experience across CLM deployments.

Gartner, Peer Lessons Learned for Contract Life Cycle Management Software Implementation
Describes CLM software as creating and storing contracts in a centralized repository and managing them through initiation, award, compliance and renewal.

Forrester, Contract Life-Cycle Management: Implementation Lessons Learned
Highlights implementation risks including poor process definition and problematic deployment approaches.

15 U.S.C. § 7001, Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act
Establishes that covered contracts and signatures may not be denied legal effect solely because they are electronic.

About LoreSign

LoreSign helps individuals and businesses prepare, send, sign and track documents online. Add recipients and signing fields, send documents for signature, monitor completion and retain the signed agreement.