The AI revolution is widespread–penetrating through processes like Contract Management. Discover the power of innovative approaches in this insightful interview.
With an AI-powered Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) system, SirionLabs delivers insights that can help businesses answer critical questions, identify underperforming relationships, locate upsell opportunities, and uncover hidden risks. Under the leadership of its Co-founder and President, Kanti Prabha, the team realized the importance of contract authorship and ownership and expanded its platform to include AI to maximize the bottom line.
In this interview, Kanti will discuss how SirionLabs uses AI to revolutionize the way businesses approach contracts, and the impact it has on companies in today’s uncertain economic climate.
Below are the interview highlights:
Kindly brief us about yourself and your journey as the co-founder and President at SirionLabs.
I’m one of the co-founders and President of the leading AI-powered contract lifecycle management (CLM) company, SirionLabs. At the beginning of my career, I graduated with a degree in chemistry and after college was working a job reviewing patents. That is when Sirion’s co-founder and CEO Ajay Agrawal approached me. He was planning to launch a patent start-up and told me about his vision for the business. I was instantly interested in joining him.
Our first customer was Hewlett-Packard (HP). They had recently gone through a large acquisition and asked us to put thousands of contracts into a centralized, searchable repository. Starting from scratch, we built a software platform that made this task possible. During this process, Ajay and I quickly realized the other opportunities in contract lifecycle management (CLM). It has been very rewarding to continue to expand our offerings, as our market reach continues to grow.
Please share your source of inspiration for exploring various facets of technology and contract businesses.
We started SirionLabs to create technology that would help companies manage complex contracts in the post-signature process throughout the contract lifecycle. We wanted to save customers money, reduce complexity, and break contracts down into something easy to understand. The goal was to create access to information held in contracts across an enterprise, allowing different people within an organization to access contracts. It did not take us long to realize the homecourt advantage to drafting your own contracts, because whoever authors the contract technically owns it, and so we joined the contract authoring space.
As our platform became more advanced, we began to infuse AI into the CLM processes to maximize the bottom line. A CLM system powered by AI unlocks the wealth of insights contained in contracts, delivering answers to a range of critical questions, such as why some business relationships are underperforming, where to upsell clients, and where hidden risks exist. Having such strategically critical information at your fingertips is a formidable strategic advantage, especially in an uncertain economic climate.
Kindly brief us about SirionLabs.
SirionLabs is the global leader in AI-powered CLM, which is deployed by the world’s leading businesses such as STIHL, Vodafone, and Raiffeisen Bank International to get the most value out of their contracts.
What are the core values on which the organization is built, and what is the mission of the organization?
I use the term empathy to describe Sirion’s customer-centric approach to growing our company. We listen to the needs of our customers and build solutions to address their challenges. Often, if one company has a serious need, another will have the same need. If we can solve the problem for one customer, it is likely many other customers will benefit from product upgrades or improved solutions.
Being a thought leader, how do you strategize to further SirionLabs’ mission and vision?
Contracts are the hearts of any business, and making contracts accessible and easy to understand, manage and modify is our mission.
The key though is to keep building the product by keeping the customer and the use case in mind. As a product company, we would like to showcase everything we have built and everything available, but that is not always relevant to all users. Each user has unique needs and Sirion should design the user experience, intelligence, and the use of AI to meet their needs and make them feel heard and taken care of by the product.
In the world of digitalization, how does SirionLabs help the world’s leading businesses contract smarter through its standout product?
Surrounded by economic upheaval over the past few years, organizations have recognized the need to remain agile in order to make it through these tumultuous times. As we faced a global pandemic, and now are dealing with inflation and geopolitical tension, agility has become paramount for maintaining stability amidst much uncertainty. Digital transformation initiatives allow enterprises to stay ahead of the curve, equipping them with smarter decision-making capabilities and flexibility to navigate disruption. CLM systems offer an invaluable support system for teams today, unifying all expenditure sources and contractual obligations in a single viewable platform.
For example, when considering preserving revenue, businesses that proactively review and manage their contracts through an automated CLM system can act preemptively to safeguard both costs and revenues. By gaining visibility into current spending activities while also assessing near-term contractual commitments, organizations have the power to make informed decisions that recognize potential cost savings without compromising long-term profits.
Please brief our audience about the emerging trends of the new generation and how you plan to fulfill the dynamic needs of the contract lifecycle management niche.
We see the future of CLM expanding beyond just the process of contract management. CLM solutions prioritizing learning from post-signature performance provide a wealth of transactional data captured from contracts over the years. This knowledge is valuable in providing business insights for improved efficiency and profitability across the entire enterprise. In addition, customer-facing teams can leverage valuable contract insights to better support customer needs and negotiate stronger business deals.
What is your opinion on leveraging technological advancements like AI and ML in the contract management niche?
By leveraging AI automation, enterprises can experience a more streamlined approach to contract management and other complex workflows. Automation allows an organization to benefit from accelerated iterative learning, driving up speed and efficiency while combatting compliance issues, risk management problems, and revenue leakage.
Our AI-powered approach to CLM is revolutionizing the way businesses handle their contracts. Combining machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP), it dramatically improves efficiency in tasks such as importing legacy agreements, negotiations, and contract performance analysis – freeing up valuable time and resources for other crucial activities.
Can you mention a few challenges and the most important lessons you learned from them?
As a female co-founder, in a mostly male-dominated industry, bias is part of the game. I always remind myself, other people’s opinion of me is none of my business and I focus on my own priorities and objectives. Eventually, your work does the talking, and building an environment of equity and diversity and openness to ideas from every team member is the way to pay it forward.
What would be your valuable words of advice for budding entrepreneurs?
Don’t be afraid to ask questions and learn as you go. I have found that even the most focused software engineers are happy to pause to explain their process and that customers will really open up to you about their challenges if they feel like you are listening. By developing two-way communication with all partners, you are able to continue learning and improving your offerings.
Kanti Prabha
Co-founder and President at SirionLabs
Kanti Prabha is one of the co-founders and President of Sirion, the global leader in artificial intelligence (AI)-powered contract lifecycle management (CLM), which is deployed by the world’s leading businesses such as STIHL, Vodafone and Unilever to maximize the value of their contracts. In 2014, she and her team founded Sirion with the vision of developing an automated CLM platform that simplifies collaboration and provides businesses with smarter contract management. She is the mother of two daughters and lives in Toronto.
