Microsoft Cloud Operations Supports Rapid Growth with Icertis Contract Intelligence
Digitizing contract lifecycle management to streamline supplier contracting and support rapid cloud infrastructure expansion.
Challenge
Managing high-volume supplier contracts through manual processes
As Microsoft accelerates its AI strategy, the demand for cloud infrastructure continues to grow. Supporting data center expansion requires thousands of supplier contracts covering land procurement, infrastructure, and sustainability considerations.
Before implementing Icertis, contract creation and execution relied on manual coordination between business, legal, compliance, and commercial teams. Business users created tickets and worked across multiple teams to finalize contracts before purchase orders could be issued, resulting in longer turnaround times and increased risk during contract finalization.
Solution
Centralizing and digitizing contract lifecycle management
Microsoft’s Cloud Operations and Innovations team partnered with Icertis to implement a centralized platform for contract creation, review, and execution. The solution digitized contract processes and streamlined collaboration between business teams, suppliers, and internal stakeholders.
More than 10,000 contracts are now managed on the platform, helping reduce turnaround time and improve efficiency. Microsoft also leveraged Icertis Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) capabilities to deploy updates faster and integrated the platform with SAP Ariba to connect contracting with sourcing, purchasing, and invoicing workflows. Before implementing Icertis, contract creation and execution relied on manual coordination between business, legal, compliance, and commercial teams. Business users created tickets and worked across multiple teams to finalize contracts before purchase orders could be issued, resulting in longer turnaround times and increased risk during contract finalization.
Benefits
Faster contract processing and improved operational efficiency
By digitizing contract management, Microsoft reduced turnaround times across the contract lifecycle and improved efficiency for business users and suppliers.
Integration with SAP Ariba reduced the time required to send executed contracts for purchase order issuance from two hours to fifteen minutes, helping accelerate business operations. Automated summaries, approval paths, and AI-driven insights also help stakeholders quickly review key contract information and streamline decision-making. This foundation is now enabling predictive and intelligence-led contracting.
