Challenge
Complexity Across a Global Organization
AkzoNobel, one of the world’s largest paint and coatings manufacturers, operates in over 150 countries with 8 business units.
When it came to managing customer agreements, each region and business unit had its own way of working, its own templates, and its own tools for storing contracts—from OneDrive to Excel files to shared drives.
For AkzoNobel, this meant a daily search to locate agreements, understand risk exposure and standardize legal processes.
“Our contracting was fragmented—different templates, different repositories and no single source of truth,” says Matilde Montanari, Legal Operations Manager, AkzoNobel. “To manage risk and move faster, we needed a global solution everyone could use with confidence.”
Adding to the complexity were integration requirements across SAP and homegrown CRM systems, as well as tens of thousands of legacy documents needing migration and OCR processing. By demonstrating early success and delivering exceptional user experience, the legal team has managed to get a global mandate and establish Icertis as a single system for commercial contracts.
Solution
Simplified and Standardized Foundation for Enterprise-wide Contract Intelligence
AkzoNobel selected Icertis Contract Intelligence to modernize its sell-side contracting process and create a foundation for enterprise-wide contract intelligence.
Working closely with Icertis Professional Services and Customer Success, Matilde and her team focused on ease of use and adoption first. Every workflow, field and screen was evaluated through a user lens to minimize friction and maximize acceptance across the business.
Key capabilities included:
- Streamlined contract intake and approval workflows for speed and consistency
- Adobe Sign integration for frictionless e-signatures
- User-friendly dashboards and saved searches for immediate transparency
- Bulk data uploads and master data management to handle high-volume SKUs and customer records
- Seamless integration of customers and product data.
Platinum Support and Enhanced Dedicated Services to ensure stable operations and continuous improvement
A three-phase rollout model allowed AkzoNobel to introduce change incrementally, building confidence and momentum across regions.
Benefits
Rapid Adoption and New Levels of Transparency
Today all eight business units and an estimated 90% of new commercial contracts are being created and executed in Icertis.
Within a short period, AkzoNobel rapidly scaled its digital contracting processes and digitized a large backlog of legacy contracts in the first year. All new agreements are now created, approved and signed within Icertis based on the standardized templates, significantly improving compliance and reducing legal review burden.
By standardizing and digitizing contract management with Icertis, AkzoNobel has turned a once-fragmented process into a scalable, data-driven engine for growth. With all their contracts in one place, digitized and made searchable, AkzoNobel is using Icertis as a business enabler to get insights and find opportunities to optimize the commercial terms.
“Icertis has helped us transform contracting from a manual necessity into a strategic capability,” says Matilde. “It’s not just about signing faster—it’s about seeing further.”
