Let’s skip the part where I claim we’ve cracked the code to contract management. We haven’t. You haven’t. And frankly, anyone who tells you they have is either trying to sell you something expensive or hasn’t spent enough time living with the aftermath of their own systems.
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The pursuit of the “perfect” contract management solution is a money pit and a time suck. I’ve done it. Twice. If I had a dollar for every hour I spent diagramming the “ideal” contract workflow, I’d have enough to pay someone else to diagram it for me. (Which, by the way, is how half these custom system disasters start). When Trident was smaller, we built our own contract database. It was… fine. Not world-class, not terrible, but it worked. |
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Then we outgrew it, tried to fix it, broke it, fixed it again, and eventually scrapped the whole thing for something bigger. There’s nothing noble about this. Most growing companies hit that wall at some point. The details are messy, the feelings are mixed, and if you’re doing it right, you’ll have regrets and learn something.
Perfect is a Mirage
But chasing “perfect” never pays off:
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Your business will change. Guaranteed. The thing you need now won’t be what you need in 18 months. Build for flexibility, not perfection.
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You’re not as unique as you think. You’re not as unique as you think. Don’t get me wrong, every company has its quirks, and your workflows do have their own personality. But as soon as you start mapping them out, you realize you’re only about three process steps away from every other “unique” workflow out there. Underneath it all, most of us are just building the same bike, but with different paint jobs.
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Customization is a trap. The more you tweak and bend your system, the more likely you’ll break it (or lock yourself into a support nightmare).
At some point, we decided that “good enough, but reliable and scalable” was the smarter play. That’s why we switched to a more established, scalable system as our foundation. Was it a magic bullet? No. But it let us focus on what actually mattered: keeping everything structured, accessible, and (mostly) out of my inbox at 2 AM.
The Real Questions to Ask
If you’re evaluating contract management systems (or CLM platforms like PoseidonCLM), don’t get lost in the weeds thinking about every feature on the planet (plus a few you’ll never use but might look good on a sales deck). Ask yourself these questions instead:
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Will it scale with our team, without needing to hire three new admins?
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Does it keep our contract data organized and accessible?
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Can we automate the grunt work, or will we be stuck doing it by hand?
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Is it secure enough that I don’t have to explain a breach to the board?
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Does it force us to rethink our bad processes, or just automate them?
If the answers are yes, congratulations, you’re already ahead of most.
What Actually Matters
After 30 years in this business, here’s my shortlist for “actually useful” contract management:
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Structured data. If you can’t run a report on contract renewals, you don’t have a system, you have a landfill.
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Automated reminders. Humans forget. Systems don’t (unless you set them up wrong, which… well, see above).
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Clear permissions. Not everyone needs to see every contract. Especially Bob in marketing. Sorry Bob, unless you’re suddenly in legal, you’re sitting this one out.
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Simple onboarding. If it takes longer to train someone on the system than it does to explain your contracts, something’s wrong.
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Survivability. Will this still work if your best admin quits? If not, fix it now.
Sorry Bob, unless you’re suddenly in legal, you’re sitting this one out.
Effective Beats Perfect
Bob in marketing would tell you the system is flawless. (No system is.) What matters is that it works: it’s organized, it scales with the business, and nobody’s stuck playing “where’s the latest version” after hours. If you’re sitting there mapping your dream CLM in Visio for the seventh time this year, take a breath. Go for what actually moves the needle, clarity, scalability … not some mythical feature checklist. The point isn’t perfection, it’s effectiveness.
And if you want to see how we solved this, check out PoseidonCLM. No mythical unicorns, but you will get contract management off your plate so you can get back to running your business.