10 steps to CLM success with Ikon Science

In our recent In-House Connect webinar about empowering sales and legal teams and the real impact of contract lifecycle management (CLM) software, we were joined by Summize customers Ikon Science to explore how CLM solutions not only impact legal teams but the wider business.

Ikon Science’s General Counsel and VP of Sales Operations delved into their CLM journey, from identifying the contracting challenges they needed to solve to rolling out Summize across both sales and legal teams. Their experience highlighted how CLM success depends as much on process and adoption as it does on technology.

Take a look at their top 10 steps to achieving CLM success!

1. Engaging sales influencers helped ensure sales CLM adoption

Engaging sales influencers during implementation was a pivotal strategy for Ikon Science. Rather than positioning CLM as a top down legal rollout, the team actively brought sales users into the process early and incorporated their feedback into configuration and rollout decisions.

This helped ensure the system reflected how sales actually worked in practice, which was critical for adoption.

“Sales is not going to do it if they have to click too many buttons. Making it simple and easy to use was game-changing.”
- Leah Samia, VP of Sales Operations

2. Put in the work pre-implementation for even greater success

Ikon Science’s CLM journey began with a critical pre-implementation phase focused on process mapping and identifying inefficiencies. This included uncovering reliance on manual spreadsheets, fragmented workflows and inconsistent contracting practices across teams.

This step proved essential in making sure the CLM didn’t just digitize existing friction, but instead supported a more aligned and structured contracting process between legal and sales.

“You need to bridge the two sides of the business, you need to build a bridge between those and you have to make sure that whatever is going to happen with the sales process works with the legal process and that they complement each other.”
- Leah Samia, VP of Sales Operations

3. Don’t do everything in one go, take a staged approach to CLM

Rather than attempting a full-scale rollout, Ikon Science took a phased approach to their CLM implementation, starting with high-priority contract types like MLAs and NDAs.

This allowed the team to validate workflows early, resolve issues in a controlled environment and build confidence across users before expanding to more complex agreements. It also helped demonstrate value quickly, which is often critical for sustained internal buy-in.

4. CLM implementation and adoption can be simple tasks

Ease of implementation and user experience played a significant role in Ikon Science’s success. Because Summize integrates into tools businesses already work in (like Microsoft Word, Outlook and Teams), the system avoided the friction that often slows down adoption.

Our “meet users where they are” approach reduced training overhead and made the transition feel like an extension of existing workflows rather than a new system to learn.

5. A CLM with quick adoption will create a stronger ROI

Ikon Science found that the speed of adoption directly influenced the speed of value realization. Because users were able to get up and running quickly, the organization began seeing benefits almost immediately in terms of efficiency and reduced manual effort – in fact, the sales team implemented the session with just two 30 minute training sessions.

"Being able to get the sales team trained and get user adoption in a 30 minute session is pretty unheard of!"
- Leah Samia, VP of Sales Operations

6. Sales enablement via efficient self-serve functionality

One of the most significant shifts was enabling sales teams to self-serve contract creation through structured templates and guided workflows. This reduced reliance on legal for standard agreements and removed bottlenecks that previously slowed down the deal cycle.

Importantly, this wasn’t about removing legal oversight, but shifting legal focus towards exceptions, while allowing sales to move faster within pre-approved boundaries.

7. Contract transparency improves internal collaboration

Real-time visibility into contract status improved alignment across legal, sales and leadership teams. Instead of chasing updates manually, stakeholders could see exactly where contracts were in the process at any time.

This shared visibility reduced internal friction and created a more predictable contracting environment, where expectations around turnaround times were clearer and easier to manage.

“Anyone, even the CEO, can go in and see where every deal is in the negotiation cycle and if there are any issues.”
- General Counsel

8. CLMs drive business-wide benefits beyond legal and sales

Beyond legal and sales efficiency, Ikon Science saw broader operational benefits from their CLM implementation. Improved contract visibility supported more accurate forecasting, while standardized workflows strengthened governance and audit readiness. In this sense, CLM became less of a departmental tool and more of an operational layer supporting commercial-decision-making.

9. CLM solutions simplify and standardize contract management across departments

Standardized templates ensured that users across the business were consistently working from approved, up-to-date documents. This reduced the risk of outdated clauses circulating and eliminated unnecessary rework for legal teams.

As a result, legal effort shifted away from repetitive review tasks and toward more meaningful exception handling and advisory work.

“Now I see whenever someone creates a document, I get a notification they’ve created an NDA but I don’t have to review it because I know they’re using the standard document and they know as well.”
- General Counsel

10. AI transforms contract reviews and risk management

AI capabilities improved risk management and contract reviews even more. Automated clause extraction and red-flag detection allowed the team to identify non-compliance terms and standardize agreements across regions. This meant they could move away from manual line-by-line review and focus on exceptions and higher-risk areas instead.

One example showed how the system flagged an outdated payment term that had previously gone unnoticed, reinforcing the value of proactive contract intelligence.

Dive deeper into the Ikon Science's CLM guidance

Ikon Science’s experience highlights that successful CLM adoption is less about the technology itself and more about aligning processes, users and governance from the outset.  

For teams at the start of their CLM journey, the key takeaway is that value doesn’t just come from implementation, but also how deeply the system is integrated into everyday workflows across legal and commercial teams.

Listen to their full conversation by watching the webinar on-demand below.