Contract Management

Building Custom CLM Workflows with No-Code/Low-Code Platforms

N. Rowan

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No-code and low-code platforms are lowering the barrier to create tailored CLM workflows. This article highlights how teams can use these platforms to automate approvals, clause assembly, and post-signature processes with minimal developer involvement.

Why no-code/low-code matters for CLM

Legal teams want agility: fast template updates, new approval flows, and niche contract types. No-code/low-code tools allow business owners to build and iterate without lengthy IT projects.

Capabilities to expect

• Visual workflow builders: Drag-and-drop approval routing, conditional logic, and notifications.
• Clause libraries and templating: Tokenized templates with conditional clauses inserted based on metadata.
• Integration connectors: Prebuilt connectors for SSO, eSignature, ERP, CRM, and storage.
• Event triggers: Post-signature triggers to create invoices, send reports, or start onboarding flows.

Good governance practices

• Role separation: Business users can assemble workflows but legal/IT should approve and publish templates.
• Change logs and rollback: Ensure version history and the ability to revert to prior templates.
• Testing sandbox: Build and test flows in non-production before publishing.

When to choose low-code over no-code (and vice versa)

• No-code: Best for simple routing and template changes managed by the business.
• Low-code: Better when integrations or custom logic need light development and API orchestration.

Example workflow: Automated supplier onboarding

1. Sales or procurement triggers a template with supplier metadata.
2. Conditional clauses inserted based on supplier region and risk profile.
3. Automated routing to legal for high-risk clauses, otherwise to the business approver.
4. Post-signature: create supplier record in ERP and kick off onboarding tasks.

Measuring success

• Time from request to fully executed contract.
• Number of manual handoffs eliminated.
• Template error rate and rollback frequency.

Conclusion

No-code and low-code CLM tooling empowers teams to iterate faster and keep pace with business needs. Pair those tools with governance and sandboxing to gain agility without sacrificing control.

• Top Expert

2040 Overall Score

N. Rowan

Director, Program Research, Business-Software.com
Program Research, Editor, Expert in ERP, Cloud, Financial Automation