– First ‘Self-Service’ Meets ‘Concierge-Service’ Contract Utility in Market –
– The Accelerator Platform Combines Self-Service Technology with Skilled Negotiators –
New York (September 9, 2015) -Axiom, a leading provider of technology-enabled legal and contracting services, today announced the launch of Axiom Accelerator™, a technology-powered contracting platform. The Accelerator platform is a groundbreaking solution for the contracting market: it represents the first and only contracting offering to combine self-service technology with a concierge capability that provides end-users with access to trained contract negotiators. Accelerator will enable business and legal users to execute Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs), simple sales contracts, and other routine commercial contracts, faster, more efficiently, and in full compliance with corporate policies and strategies. The Accelerator™ system is built on the Salesforce.com platform and integrated with DocuSign®, the Global Standard for Digital Transaction Management® and eSignature industry leader.
“So-called ‘routine agreements’ regularly delay deals, slow product development and impede the progression of business,” said Sandy Devine, Executive Vice President, Axiom. “Our ultimate goal is for legal and business users not to be bothered with routine NDA review again. With The Accelerator platform, we’re successfully unburdening the legal and business teams from the distractions of routine contracting hurdles.”
The Accelerator platform removes the friction from processing basic agreements by providing users with a portal for contract negotiation and management. For agreements where standard templates and in-policy terms and conditions are sufficient, the Accelerator platform provides a flexible tool delivering a smarter self-service contracting option that works cost-efficiently and business-effectively.
“But in real life,” said Sasha Morozoff, who heads this new business for Axiom, “even routine NDAs and other simple contracts don’t always fit neatly within pre-determined guidelines. It’s those redlines and counterparty paper that bring most self-service solutions to a halt.”
“In fact,” continued Morozoff, “many earlier-generation self-service contracting systems have done little more than frustrate users who, after exhausting the limits of one-size-doesn’t’-fit-all contracting forms, frequently must start over in a disjointed process that requires new legal review.”
Accelerator™ complements self-serve functionality, and its inherent limitations, with real people, via immediate access to Axiom’s experienced concierge contract negotiators. The integration of negotiators, who can tackle non-routine exceptions by seamlessly accessing client playbooks and in-draft documents, is the critical component, which allows Accelerator to succeed where other technology-only contracting solutions fall short.
On the legal side, frustrations with self-service systems center around the loss of visibility into contract cycles and, therefore, aggregate risk across the contracts portfolio. Accelerator tackles those concerns with ‘Contracting GPS’ functionality: a capability providing users immediate visibility into contract status and access to performance analytics, thereby minimizing the amount of time in-house lawyers and business teams will spend tackling or chasing down routine contracts. The Accelerator platform also maintains contracting templates in step with the user experience, keeping legal in control of the process, with full visibility for managing risk and compliance.
The Accelerator™ system is delivered over the cloud as a Business-Process-as-a-Service (BPaaS) utility, with an easy-to-buy/easy-to-deploy, contract volume-based subscription service. For the many companies that rely on external law firms to support routine contracting needs, Accelerator can deliver cost savings of 50% or more via the integration of Axiom’s contract negotiators with industry-leading technology from Salesforce and DocuSign.
“As the global standard for Digital Transaction Management with more than 50 Million users in 188 countries, DocuSign empowers anyone to transact business anytime, anywhere, on any device with trust and confidence,” said Reggie Davis, General Counsel, DocuSign. “We’re thrilled to bring legal teams and their internal business clients the power of DTM, integrated with a partner (Axiom) they already know and trust. Together, Axiom and DocuSign are helping streamline contracting to boost productivity, accelerate revenue and create better end user experiences.”
With the launch of the Accelerator™ platform, Axiom becomes the undisputed market leader in all things contracting. As such, Axiom is innovatively helping clients reimagine contracting as a strategic part of the business, not merely a cost center. Successes from Axiom’s Managed Service engagements, in which the firm builds and executes bespoke solutions for clients with complex and custom contracting needs, have fueled the creation of Accelerator.
Accelerator™ is the first solution in Axiom’s new Contracts-as-a-Service (CaaS) portfolio. The portfolio will include a range of technology-enabled offerings targeted to both financial services and enterprise clients, pioneering the next wave of how contracting “ecosystems” will be architected and delivered.
About Axiom
Axiom, a recognized leader in the business of law, provides tech-enabled legal, contracts, and compliance solutions for large enterprises. Axiom’s solutions combine legal experience, technology, and data analytics to deliver work in a way that dramatically reduces risk, cost and cycle-time. The firm comprises 1,300 lawyers, professionals, process engineers and technologists who serve over half the Fortune 100 across 15 offices and 5 centers of excellence globally.www.axiomlaw.com;www.contracts-as-a-service.com.
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