Interviews

Full-lifecycle platform and deep AI capabilities set Sirion apart from other players in the business

CXOToday has engaged in an exclusive interview with Mr. Ajay Agrawal, Founder and CEO of SirionLabs

 

Tell us about Sirion’s main services and products.

Sirion is the global leader in artificial intelligence (AI)-powered contract lifecycle management (CLM). We help the world’s leading businesses contract smarter by bringing together category-leading innovation, unrivaled contract management expertise, and a deep commitment to customer success. Powered by intelligence uniquely connected across the complete contract lifecycle, Sirion’s easy-to-use, highly configurable CLM platform enables legal, procurement, sales, and business teams to author stronger contracts, improve risk management and strengthen counterparty relationships.

 

What sets Sirion apart from other CLM solution providers in India?

Sirion is trusted by over 250 leading organizations to manage 5 million+ contracts worth more than $450 billion across 70+ countries. What sets us apart from any other player in this sector is our full-lifecycle platform, deep AI capabilities, unified but extensible platform capabilities and top-notch customer experience. These are just a few of the reasons that industry analysts recognize us as the preeminent CLM provider. In fact, Sirion was recently named a Leader in the 2022 Gartner Magic Quadrant report, and we ranked first in three of five use cases—including the full lifecycle use case—in the 2022 Gartner Critical Capabilities for Contract Life Cycle Management report.

 

How is contract automation changing the way we do business and why does it matter to businesses?

A modern CLM system connects different teams across an enterprise, giving them access to a central repository where they can search, retrieve and analyze valuable contract data. This single source of truth enables enterprises to streamline processes, and focus on strategic initiatives that drive profitability and reduce revenue leakage.

As enterprises continue to adapt to largely remote work settings where digital contracts and workflow automation are more important than ever, Sirion’s end-to-end platform provides a powerful tool to stay connected and increase efficiencies. It’s an invaluable resource in times such as these, and our clients report reductions in contract costs of 25% or more as well as 100% return on investment (ROI) since implementing Sirion.

 

How is CLM a business need that is driving IT spending even during this worldwide economic downturn?

Between inflation in the U.S., a war in Europe and the ripple effect from lockdowns in China disrupting supply chains, businesses are in a cautious mood about spending. The technologies that companies are most likely to spend on are those that reduce uncertainty, mitigate risk and impact the bottom line in a demonstrable way.

CLM software, a technology that garnered a lot of attention during the pandemic for precisely these reasons, will see sustained growth. One of the big advantages contract management software offers is the ability to see every single source of expenditure along with contractual obligations in one place. It’s difficult to slow spending without visibility into where the money is going and knowing the consequences of terminating or renegotiating a contract.

CLM also helps to quickly identify the areas where companies can make the most difference immediately. On the revenue side, if everyone is in cost-cutting mode, how do companies preserve their own revenues? Better contract management is an ideal place to start. World Contracting & Commerce data shows that poor contract management can cost companies 9% of revenue.

These are some of the reasons that spending on software to manage contracts soared during the pandemic—and why the market size is expected to more than double, reaching $3.3 billion by 2027.

 

How does AI change the contract analytics game and how does it play a major role in their functioning?

AI is completely transforming contracts analytics. An AI-powered CLM solution mines rich data from even the largest contract portfolio to provide invaluable insights that help businesses detect risks and identify opportunities. It changes contracts from static documents to dynamic sources of deep analytics.

One of the key differentiators of the Sirion platform is deep AI capabilities built on a foundation that combines machine learning and natural language processing. Our powerful homegrown AI engine unlocks the intelligence hidden in contracts and delivers deep analytics capabilities. Enterprises can interrogate digitized contracts to tap into a steady stream of intelligence to manage risk, ensure compliance, uncover opportunities and enable data-led decision making. The system also offers insights based on past contracting data, which can be leveraged to gain an edge during negotiations.

 

How does SirionLabs see India as a market moving forward and growth plans?

Digital transformation has become a priority for major enterprises in India seeking competitive advantages in the post-pandemic business world. And the growing focus on new business technologies has CLM at its center. A large number of enterprise companies in India are ready to spark their digital transformations with CLM software. These organizations are in need of a CLM provider that can support their growth as they work to compete on a global scale. Sirion continues to invest in India by expanding our footprint with offices in major metropolitan areas such as Gurgaon, Bengaluru and Pune.

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