In 2025, the global CLM software market is expected to reach $1.78 billion, on a path to $3.24 billion by 2030 at a 12.7% CAGR (2025–2030). The opportunity is real, yet value leakage is common. Research across 1,200 organizations found average contract value erosion of 8.6% when contracting processes are fragmented.
For many enterprises, the challenge isn’t deciding to invest in CLM, it’s ensuring the technology delivers on its promise. Poor integrations, low user adoption, inconsistent compliance, and outdated processes can all slow implementation and stall ROI. Without a clear adoption strategy, even the most advanced CLM platform risks becoming an underutilized expense rather than a driver of efficiency, compliance, and growth.
In this article, we outline the business case for CLM in 2025, the risks that derail ROI, and a practical path to effective implementation and adoption, including where Whatfix fits to accelerate time-to-value.
Why Effective CLM Implementation Matters for Enterprise Leaders in 2025
In 2025, CLM has evolved from a legal operations tool into a strategic enabler for enterprise growth. For CIOs, legal executives, and digital transformation leaders, the value lies in turning contracts into actionable business intelligence, accelerating deal cycles, ensuring compliance, and improving operational agility.
To achieve this, leaders are focusing on four key drivers that shape the success and ROI of any CLM initiative:
- Risk mitigation and compliance: Regulatory environments are tightening, and non-compliance carries higher financial and reputational costs. Centralized contract management ensures terms, obligations, and renewals are tracked consistently across the organization.
- Contract velocity and operational agility: In industries where speed to market determines competitiveness, lengthy approval cycles can mean missed opportunities. Streamlined CLM workflows shorten contract lifecycles, enabling faster sales closures, vendor onboarding, and procurement.
- Cost optimization and productivity gains: Automating repetitive contract tasks reduces the administrative burden on legal and procurement teams, freeing them to focus on strategic negotiations and value creation rather than manual document handling.
- Governance, transparency and data-driven insights: Modern CLM platforms act as a single source of truth, providing visibility into contract performance, identifying bottlenecks, and surfacing opportunities for optimization. This governance framework supports informed decision-making at the executive level.
Key Challenges That Undermine CLM ROI
Even when CLM initiatives are well-intentioned, many fail to deliver expected results. Here are the most common obstacles that derail ROI and the data that underscores their frequency:
- High failure rate for first-time implementations: According to Gartner, nearly 50% of first-time CLM implementations fail to deliver expected benefits. This high failure rate often stems from misaligned goals, lack of user engagement, or inadequate strategy.
- Low user adoption and people-centric failures: Broader implementation studies show that up to 70% of change initiatives fail due to poor focus on people and processes, rather than technology. Without effective user onboarding or workflow integration, CLM systems risk becoming underutilized.
- Overly complex or unrealistic scope: Organizations frequently attempt to deploy everything at once, integrating every contract type and system, but over-customization slows adoption and increases maintenance costs.
- Integration and data migration hurdles: Complexity in linking CLM with CRM, ERP, e-signature, and procurement systems often results in stalled automation, data silos, and user frustration. Similarly, migrating legacy contracts brings risks of data loss, poor searchability, and inconsistent metadata.
- Inadequate change management practices: Failing to align stakeholders, manage expectations, or prepare teams for new workflows leads to resistance to change and widespread fallback to legacy processes.
- Lack of visibility into adoption and usage metrics: Without real-time analytics and insights, leaders can’t identify usage gaps, adoption roadblocks, or measure ROI, making it difficult to course-correct implementation strategies.
How Whatfix Enables Effective CLM Adoption
A successful CLM implementation isn’t defined by go-live, it’s measured by how quickly and consistently users across the organization adopt the platform, execute workflows correctly, and generate ROI. Whatfix enables this by embedding in-app guidance, change communication, and analytics directly into the CLM environment, ensuring that every stakeholder, from legal and procurement to sales and compliance, can work efficiently from day one.
Here are six key ways Whatfix drives faster, more effective CLM adoption:
1. Pre-Go-Live Testing and Workflow Simulation
Rushed deployments without user validation often lead to adoption gaps and costly rework.
How Whatfix Helps:
With Whatfix Mirror, teams can replicate CLM environments such as Icertis, Agiloft, or DocuSign CLM in a secure sandbox. This allows legal, procurement, and sales teams to test role-specific workflows, validate integrations, collect feedback, and train staff without impacting live contracts or data.
2. Role-Based Onboarding Across Functions
Generic, one-size-fits-all training slows adoption and increases dependency on support teams.
How Whatfix Helps:
Whatfix delivers contextual, in-app onboarding tailored to each role. Legal teams receive guidance on clause libraries and compliance checks, procurement on vendor onboarding workflows, and sales on contract request and approval processes. Task Lists and step-by-step walkthroughs accelerate time-to-proficiency while ensuring process compliance.
3. Embedded, In-Workflow Support
Switching between applications or documentation slows work and disrupts productivity.
How Whatfix Helps:
The Self Help widget surfaces instant, contextual answers within the CLM interface whether it’s clarifying approval rules, locating a template, or explaining a compliance requirement. Users get what they need without leaving their workflow, reducing support tickets and increasing self-sufficiency.
4. Real-Time Change Communication
Policy updates, process changes, or compliance alerts buried in emails often go unnoticed.
How Whatfix Helps:
Pop-Ups, Beacons, and Smart Tips deliver change notifications directly within the CLM environment, at the exact moment and location users need them. This ensures that critical updates, like new approval thresholds or updated contract templates, are acted on immediately.
5. Driving Adoption of Underutilized Features
Many CLM capabilities, like analytics dashboards, clause playbooks, or AI-driven risk scoring, go unused, stalling ROI.
How Whatfix Helps:
Proactive nudges, contextual prompts, and targeted walkthroughs guide users toward high-value features. With Product Analytics, admins can identify adoption gaps and deploy interventions that increase utilization and unlock full platform value.
6. Measuring and Optimizing Adoption for Continuous ROI
Without visibility into how users engage with the CLM, it’s difficult to identify friction points or measure success.
How Whatfix Helps:
Whatfix Product Analytics tracks completion rates, feature usage, and drop-off points in real time. This empowers leaders to refine workflows, retrain specific groups, and continuously improve both user experience and contract process performance.
CLM Implementation FAQs
How can organizations ensure high adoption rates for CLM software?
High adoption depends on role-specific onboarding, in-workflow support, and continuous training. Clear communication of process changes and access to on-demand resources also help teams transition without losing productivity.
How long does a typical CLM implementation take?
Timelines vary depending on scope, integrations, and customization, but most enterprise implementations take between 3 and 9 months. Complex data migrations or multi-department rollouts can extend the schedule.
What metrics should be tracked to measure CLM success?
Key performance indicators include contract cycle time, approval turnaround, error reduction, compliance rates, feature utilization, and user proficiency levels. These metrics help validate ROI and guide optimization efforts.
How does a Digital Adoption Platform support CLM implementation and ROI?
A DAP embeds guidance, change notifications, and analytics directly into the CLM interface, enabling faster onboarding, consistent process adherence, and real-time performance tracking, all of which accelerate value realization.
Software Implementation Clicks Better With Whatfix
CLM implementations are high-stakes when they fall short, they waste valuable resources and can erode trust in change initiatives.
Success doesn’t end at go-live. Employees need continuous, role-specific guidance to integrate the CLM into their workflows, navigate its interface, and use its features to full potential.
Whatfix embeds directly into your CLM platform, delivering in-app content libraries, non-intrusive cues, step-by-step walkthroughs, and tailored learning paths for every role from legal teams and finance leaders to HR and third-party vendors. The result: faster adoption, higher productivity, and measurable ROI from your CLM investment.
Book a free demo to see how Whatfix ensures your CLM delivers on its promise from day one.
