Precisely first met Åsa in Copenhagen, where she was a keynote speaker at a conference on contract management. She made a good point during her presentation — someone has to dare to take the lead for others to follow — and the same goes for contract management. Digitizing your contract management process might present some challenges, but it will most likely pay off within a short time frame.
One of the most important things Åsa did early on was to define what “agile” actually means in a legal context. For her, it means being responsive to business needs without sacrificing control — exactly the balance that good CLM tooling enables. For a deeper look at the strategic thinking behind in-house legal digitalization, see Strategic Thinking: The True North for In-House Legal Digitalization.
Starting with the fundamentals
Åsa’s advice to legal teams beginning their digitalization journey is consistent: start with contracts. They are the most visible legal output, they affect every department, and the pain points are easy to articulate to leadership. Getting templates, approvals, and signing under control creates immediate, measurable value — and builds the credibility to expand further.
She also emphasizes the importance of involving other departments early. Legal transformation only succeeds when the people who use the contracts feel ownership over the process, not just the lawyers who design it. For a guide to managing that organizational change, see How to Use Change Management for True Legal Transformation.
Measuring what matters
One of Åsa’s strongest points is that legal teams need to get comfortable measuring their own performance. Contract turnaround time, self-serve rates, and missed renewal rates are all trackable — and they tell a clear story to CFOs and COOs who ask what Legal actually contributes to the business.
For a practical look at what contract data can reveal and how to use it, read Using Contract Tracking Data for Strategic Business Decisions. For a look at the common challenges that measurement helps to surface, see 7 Common Contract Management Challenges and How to Overcome Them.
