Powering Enterprise-Wide Contracting Excellence

By BJ Birtz, Vice President, Account Management, Icertis

According to World Commerce & Contracting, 29% of the average workforce is involved in some form with contract management, and contract data is stored across 24 different systems. That’s a lot of people and a lot of data to manage in a centralized way, which is why many companies don’t bother – resulting in massive inefficiencies, lost revenue, and risk.

KPMG has taken a different path. 

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Lee Ann Labecki, Managing Director at KPMG’s Transformation Enablement Office, to discuss how KPMG is developing an enterprise-wide Contracting Center of Excellence. KPMG is a massive organization, with annual revenue of $38.4 billion, and I was so excited to discuss with Lee Ann how her group is delivering value across such a vast operation through contract excellence.

As expected, the conversation was full of fantastic insights for any business leader interested in realizing more value from their business relationships via levers found in contracts. I highly recommend you view the full conversation here, but in the meantime, here are some highlights.

What Is a Contracting Center of Excellence?

At its core, a Contracting Center of Excellence (CCoE) consolidates domain expertise, centralizes contract management, and ensures alignment across people, processes, and technology. As Lee Ann explained, it’s not just about deploying new tools; it’s about creating a framework that ensures those tools deliver value.

KPMG’s CCoE has been instrumental in addressing critical challenges:

• Eliminating inefficiencies in manual contracting workflows.
• Reducing risk by standardizing processes and improving compliance.
• Enhancing the visibility of contract data, enabling data-driven decision-making.

As Lee Ann put it: “It really is a model of how you manage contracting which enables you to put your expertise in one location within your organization. And it enables you to have domain experts in one place improving your contract efficiency and transparency.”

What Are the Benefits of a Contracting Center of Excellence?

For KPMG, the desire to create a CCoE grew out of a larger effort to find ways to enhance client experiences, empower staff, and enable digital operations. Contracting emerged as a key focus area due to several pain points:

• Protracted workflows with excessive handoffs (up to 68 steps in some cases).
• Limited access to contract data, hindering informed decision-making.
• Time-consuming manual processes creating bottlenecks.

By establishing a CCoE, supported by Icertis Contract Intelligence, KPMG was able to power automation, processes and best-practices that vastly improved the client experience and powered improved front-line performance for the business. 

“Getting professional contract managers and administrators to do the contracting work will free up your front office staff to do the client delivery work,” Lee Ann noted. “Speed to market will improve and will reduce cost because you're going to process it more quickly and more efficiently. You're going to reduce risk because you're going to reduce the errors that we're seeing now in the protracted processing time. These efficiencies and cost savings will be music to the ears of your financial staff.” 

How Can an Organization Ensure the Success of a Contracting Center of Excellence?

Lee Ann offered several actionable takeaways for organizations embarking on a similar journey:

1. Baseline Readiness: Conduct surveys to assess stakeholder sentiment and readiness for change. This helps identify gaps and establishes a benchmark for measuring progress.
2. Streamline Processes First: Before automating, review and optimize workflows to eliminate inefficiencies. Automation should enhance, not replicate, flawed processes.
3. Invest in Training: Build robust training programs for both technical and soft skills. At KPMG, this included a digital desk manual and tailored sessions for contract managers.
4. Measure What Matters: Identify key performance indicators (KPIs) aligned with your goals. KPMG’s metrics include end-to-end processing time, value leakage reduction, and compliance tracking.
5. Leverage Data Strategically: Develop a data strategy to drive insights and decision-making. Advanced tools like AI can further enhance compliance and analytics capabilities.

The Unique Value of the KPMG-Icertis Partnership

If you are an Icertis customer, leveraging KPMG’s expertise to create your own CCoE offers advantages. What sets KPMG apart is its dual role as both a customer and partner of Icertis. This gives them the ability to:

1. Apply Firsthand Experience: KPMG has learned directly from their own implementation of Icertis Contract Intelligence, allowing them to advise joint customers with practical, proven strategies.
2. Offer End-to-End Support: From defining governance models to implementing technology and driving adoption, KPMG brings a comprehensive approach to contracting excellence.
3. Focus on Long-Term Value: By combining their expertise with Icertis’ capabilities, KPMG helps customers realize ROI through streamlined workflows, enhanced compliance, and actionable insights.

As Lee Ann emphasized during the webinar, “The right time to build a CCoE is when you recognize the need to realize the full value of your contracting processes and technology investment.”

Tune In to Learn More

Our discussion with KPMG is packed with actionable insights for anyone managing contracts at scale. By registering for the on-demand recording, you’ll learn:

• How to structure a Contracting Center of Excellence.
• The steps to streamline workflows and improve efficiency.
• Strategies to measure and maximize ROI on your CLM investment.
• The unique advantages of partnering with KPMG and Icertis.

Watch now.

Want to speak to a real person?

Contact us at KPMG-CCoE@icertis.com to start your journey toward contracting excellence with KPMG and Icertis.