Making the case for a new contract management system when you already have one can be a tough sell.
You’ve already made a financial investment in the software, and you’ve already asked your team—both on and beyond legal—to learn the platform. Besides, is the new solution really going to solve all of the issues your current system can’t? (Spoiler alert: Lexion will—but we’ll get there in a minute.)
So how did leading medical equipment manufacturer MicroVention decide to ditch their incumbent CLM for one they’d only just learned about? It started with a Kaizen event—and a lot of legal headaches.
Nobody wants to use a complex system
When Legal Operations Manager Trung Do joined MicroVention, the organization’s contracting processes felt like riding on square wheels—they worked, but with regular bumps in the road.
“The repository wasn’t easily searchable, so in addition to storing documents there, we kept active copies of contracts on a separate shared drive. Managing working drafts was difficult too, so version control was a mess.”
As a result, the system saw little use.
“We weren’t using our previous CLM to its fullest extent,” he explained. “It was too technical and challenging to use.”
The challenges weren’t limited to Trung and the Legal team, either.
During the Kaizen, “we asked other departments what wasn’t working with the Legal team,” explained Trung. “What we heard from people was that it felt like their legal requests went into a blackhole, and from others who had issues with our clunky intake process.”
"Ultimately, we realized that we needed a new solution that would improve visibility—for our team and our stakeholders—and which would integrate easily with other departments’ workflows."
Earning trust (and adoption) with ease
The MicroVention team initially considered 20+ CLMs, and Trung himself has reviewed over 40+ throughout his career in legal operations.
“When it comes to evaluating a CLM, you have to go by how it feels—when you actually start using a system, you can tell pretty quickly whether it’s going to solve your challenges in a way that your business will actually use,” shared Trung.
"Hands-on experience and intuition can tell you a lot a list of features and sales demos can’t."
A powerful and easy-to-use solution is exactly what Trung found when he first started using Lexion.
“We found Lexion late in the game, but our first impression was that it had everything we need—an intuitive intake process, customizable workflows, searchable repository, and all in one integrated system.”
One of the main selling points about Lexion was the AI-powered repository, which makes extracting key information from MicroVention’s thousands of contracts easy.
“Our CEO and GC wanted instant reports on active contracts. With our prior CLM, it would have taken me anywhere from six months to a year to make that possible,” said Trung. “But with Lexion, I can run these kinds of reports on-demand anytime. It’s a huge advantage for helping other departments figure out what's going on with their agreements.”
Rather than holding time-consuming formal training sessions with new business users, Trung simply gave other departments access and waited for any questions they had. (There weren’t many.)
"Lexion is simple and intuitive enough that I can let stakeholders learn it on their own time. As they do, they share valuable feedback that I can use to further refine our workflows and processes inside the platform. Lexion is very flexible in that way."
Ultimately, it adds up to fast, streamlined workflows that fit MicroVention’s processes like a glove—which is having a profound effect on the business.
MicroVention’s scaling superpower: automating with Lexion
Lexion triggered a powerful shift in mindset, and it’s saving MicroVention many hours spent on routine tasks.
“With Lexion, we’ve been able to really improve the efficiency of our intake process,” said Trung. “Depending on the intake form our stakeholders choose, the correct contract templates are automatically selected and generated with the details they shared and routed for the appropriate review and approvals.”
"Legal had to be very hands-on with every request in the past, but we don’t have to be involved at every stage anymore to know that things are going to be done right. Lexion does that for us."
Streamlining intake was just the beginning. MicroVention continues to find new uses for Lexion across its business to scale its processes.
For procurement, for example, Lexion allowed MicroVention’s Legal team to absorb the internal process for waiving an NDA requirement. Previously, MicroVention’s procurement team had managed the process manually themselves through emails. With Lexion, they were able to automate the process and centralize those documents, improving the speed and efficiency with which procurement can get deals done.
"Leveraging Lexion to help other departments scale is highlighting the value of our Legal team. And now, with all of our workflows and contracts together in one place, Lexion is truly the single source of truth across our organization—just like a CLM should be."
