Which contract management software vendors are best for large, complex organizations?
This Buyer’s Guide to the enterprise segment of the Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) market is an essential resource for CIOs, legal operations leaders, procurement heads, and institutional investors. It provides focused analysis of the CLM vendors most capable of serving large enterprises, along with independent MGI 360 Ratings™, MarketLens™ comparisons, and practical insights into enterprise adoption challenges.
Contracts lie at the heart of every global enterprise. Behind every procurement deal, sales transaction, HR agreement, and compliance obligation is a contract that governs relationships and financial outcomes. For organizations managing hundreds of thousands of agreements across geographies, legal entities, and regulatory regimes, the complexity is immense. And yet, many enterprises still rely on outdated tools, fragmented repositories, or siloed workflows that fail to deliver value.
CLM is no longer just a nice-to-have but a must-have for large enterprises. Today it is a clear strategic imperative with increasingly well-defined budgets, ownership, and accountability. Buyers are shifting out of their first or second CLM implementations and adopting more sophisticated solutions capable of tackling multiple use cases — legal, procurement, sales, human capital management (HCM), finance, and beyond.
But selecting the wrong vendor at enterprise scale is costly. Nearly 40% of first-time CLM buyers replace their system within 36 months. Failed implementations drain budgets, stall transformation, and erode executive confidence. With Gen AI commoditizing once-advanced features like clause extraction and obligation tracking, vendors look more similar on the surface, making it harder to differentiate and easier to make expensive mistakes.
This Buyer’s Guide is your safeguard.
The Most Comprehensive Guide for Enterprise Buyers
The 2025 CLM Buyer’s Guide for Enterprises from MGI Research provides independent, structured, and deeply researched insights to help you:
- Understand current and future CLM market dynamics at enterprise scale
- Match vendor capabilities to large, complex, multi-entity use cases
- Avoid pitfalls in vendor selection and implementation across global organizations
- Build a business case for investing in CLM as a core enterprise system
- Benchmark vendors and see where they rank with MGI 360 Ratings™ and MarketLens™
This guide is also a valuable resource for vendors and investors seeking to understand the enterprise segment, identify growth opportunities, and assess vendor viability in a rapidly changing and AI-driven market.
CLM Vendors Under Coverage
This report covers the 11 most consequential vendors for enterprise buyers. All are MGI 360 Rated™, the only quant-based rating methodology in the market.
Vendors in this report: Agiloft, Conga, ContractPodAi, GEP, Icertis, JAGGAER, Malbek, Onit, Pramata, Sirion, and Workday (acquired Evisort).
These suppliers were selected for their proven ability to meet the demands of large enterprises, including scale, complexity, multi-jurisdictional compliance, and deep system integration.
The Most Significant Enterprise CLM Solutions
Hundreds of vendors compete in the CLM market. This guide narrows the field to the 11 that matter most for enterprises, based on MGI’s field research, client inquiries, and industry interviews.
To be included, vendors must meet one or more of the following criteria:
- Market visibility: The company has one or more of these characteristics: above-average growth, frequently shortlisted in buyer evaluations, large installed base, and/or MGI clients express interest in the company or mention them in analyst calls.
- Innovation: The product has unique capabilities and the potential to disrupt the market. Buyers should be aware of this product/company, even if it is not a fit for them today.
- Solution strength: Breadth and depth of solution, support for various business models and use cases, and the supplier’s ability to help customers implement and gain value from the solution.
- Demonstrated success: Most, but not all, vendors covered are able to provide MGI with reference customers and partners to interview. Independent of the provision (or lack thereof) of vendor references, MGI conducts its own interviews and research on customers, partners, and investors.
Inclusion is not based solely on size, funding, or vendor participation. Instead, it reflects impact, relevance, and alignment with the needs of large, complex organizations.
Avoiding Enterprise CLM Pitfalls
Evaluating CLM solutions based on surface-level demos, AI buzzwords, or feature checklists is risky. Enterprises face unique challenges, from multi-entity hierarchies to global compliance to large-scale change management. Many implementations fail because the chosen solution is not designed for enterprise-grade complexity.
This guide helps you avoid those mistakes by:
- Comparing real-world enterprise performance, not just vendor claims
- Highlighting vendor-specific enterprise use case fit
- Exposing the real impact of Gen AI commoditization on vendor differentiation
- Offering insights into CLM maturity stages, data readiness, and enterprise integration challenges
MarketLens™ Charts & 360 Ratings™
The report includes four proprietary MGI MarketLens™ charts comparing enterprise CLM vendors by:
- Go-to-Market Strength vs. Solution Strength
- Agility vs. Complexity
- Agility vs. Volume
- Complexity vs. Volume
MGI 360 Ratings™ offer structured evaluations across five categories: Product, Management, Channels, Strategy, and Finance. Each vendor receives a numerical score (0–100) and a letter grade (A, B+, B, or B−), backed by analyst research and enterprise customer interviews.
Who Should Read This Report?
- Enterprise buyers evaluating or replacing CLM systems
- IT, legal, procurement, and finance teams building evaluation frameworks
- Executives seeking to align CLM with enterprise digital transformation
- Investors and analysts tracking the evolution of the enterprise CLM market
- Vendors seeking insight into enterprise buyer priorities and competitive dynamics
This report is a must-read for anyone evaluating CLM at scale, whether you are selecting a solution, marketing to enterprise buyers, or assessing the future of this market segment.
SPEAK TO AN ANALYST: Organizations looking for support in building an evaluation strategy or conducting an independent vendor assessment should contact MGI Research here.
For coverage of all market segments, see the CLM Top 35 Buyer’s Guide.
