Why Success Criteria Matter After You’ve Implemented a Contract Management System
Once you’ve purchased and implemented a contract management software system, it’s tempting to expect everything to improve at once: faster approvals, fewer compliance issues, better renewal tracking, higher adoption, measurable cost savings—and yes, maybe even world peace.
Ambition is good. But after go-live, when every outcome is labeled a priority, focus disappears. Without clear success criteria, organizations struggle to measure progress, demonstrate ROI, or agree on whether the system is actually delivering value. The result is activity, opinions, and dashboards—but not clarity.
Success criteria are what separate “we implemented a contract management system” from “we are getting value from it.”
Why Success Criteria Matter After Purchase
Success criteria are the measurable outcomes that define what success looks like after a contract management system is in place. They function like ROI receipts.
Instead of saying, “the process feels better,” success criteria translate improvement into proof:
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“Contract cycle time dropped 22%"
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“Renewal capture increased by 5%”
Clear success criteria make it possible to:
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Prove return on investment
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Prioritize enhancements and process changes
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Keep legal, procurement, operations, and IT aligned on what actually matters
Without them, teams often confuse feature usage with business value—and those are not the same thing.
Where Success Criteria Fit in the Customer Success Journey
At Contracts 365, we view success as an ongoing journey—not a one-time implementation milestone. Well-defined success criteria sit at the center of that journey. After the system is live, we work with customers to:
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Define measurable outcomes tied to their original business goals
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Document how those outcomes will be tracked
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Review progress regularly and adjust as needed
This approach ensures the contract management system your organization invested time and money in doesn’t just exist—it gets used, adopted, and continuously optimized. It also aligns legal, procurement, operations, and IT around shared outcomes, so implementation activity turns into sustained results.
What Quarterly Success Reviews Look Like
A short, structured review keeps success criteria visible and actionable. In a quarterly success review, teams should:
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Confirm or refine success criteria
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Document each criterion and how it will be measured
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Review results quarter over quarter
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Validate that workflows and processes support outcomes—not just features
The goal is simple: ensure the solution is not only implemented, but actively delivering visible, defensible value.
How to Prepare for a Success Review
Preparation doesn’t need to be complex. Spend a few minutes drafting an initial list—perfection is not required. The review meeting is where targets are refined and aligned.
Before the review, bring:
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Your top 3–5 priorities for what contract management should improve
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A baseline for each (estimates are acceptable)
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A target for the next quarter
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A clear measurement method (time, count, percentage, or compliance rate)
Having this information ready allows the conversation to move quickly from discussion to execution.
Sample Success Criteria by Role
These examples illustrate how success criteria can vary by function:
Legal
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Reduce average redline review cycle from 10 days to 8 days
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Increase contract compliance rate to 95%
Procurement
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Cut supplier approval time by 20%
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Achieve X% annual procurement cost savings
Contract Management / Operations
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Increase renewal capture rate from 85% to 95%
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Reduce missed obligations by 50%
Business Leaders
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Shorten contracting cycle so revenue recognition starts 10% faster
IT / Adoption
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Reach 70% active user adoption for contract workflows within the first quarter after rollout
Make Success Criteria SMART
Effective success criteria are SMART:
Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
If a criterion lacks a clear measurement or timeframe, it’s an intention—not a success criterion. Intentions are useful. ROI prefers math.
Pulling It All Together
Clear, measurable success criteria turn post-implementation ambition into direction. By narrowing a long list of possibilities into a focused set of outcomes—each with a baseline, a target, and a way to measure progress—you give your organization a shared definition of what “success” actually means.
Revisit these goals quarterly, refine them as your organization evolves, and use your Customer Success Journey as the cadence that keeps teams aligned. When success is something you track and tune—rather than hope for—you create accountability, momentum, and lasting value.
Contracts 365 –Leading Contract Management Software for Microsoft 365 Customers
Contracts 365 has leveraged Microsoft and its AI capabilities to bring new innovations to the contract management community. If you’d like to learn more about how our contract management software can improve your contract management process, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us or, even better, request a demo and we can show you how it works in real-time.
