Icertis Connect East Marks the Biggest Icertis Customer Event Ever

More than 225 customers, partners and Icertians were in an “Empire State of Mind” last week when they gathered at Icertis Connect East, our annual customer event in New York City.

Inside the Times Square offices of our host Microsoft, the familiar cacophony and chaos of bright lights and traffic faded away as the largest Icertis Connect ever welcomed 82 leading enterprises from the US and Europe to network and share insights from their journeys to realizing value through the power of contract intelligence.

We design our Connect events to address a wide range of topics, from user adoption to contracting best practices to product roadmap. We also prioritize opportunities for customers to hear directly from each other—after all, they are the true subject matter experts on how the Icertis platform delivers value! 

Last week’s event was no different, packed with seasoned users, innovators and best practices, far too many to recap here. But the “four Cs” below recount some of the most memorable experiences and themes from the event:

1. Connect. Connect is the name of the customer event series, and, indeed, it was also the name of the game. Our customers connected with each other at more than a dozen customer-led sessions, over meals, and at receptions. In more intimate roundtable and 1:1 settings, they also found the opportunity to pick the brains of a host of product and contract lifecycle management (CLM) experts hailing from Icertis and our trusted partners.

These connections are noteworthy in light of the diversity of the customers in attendance: varied by industry, geography, functions and contracting maturity. The latter fact is shared with great pride, as Connect East we were able to showcase best practices from “veteran” customers who have mature Icertis deployments with those newly minted and just initiating their contract transformation journey.

2. Contract Center of Excellence. During the sessions held on Tuesday morning, attendees wrestled with an age-old CLM question: who owns contracts and contracting in a large, matrixed enterprise? Contracts, as an asset, are touched by so many during the lifecycle, adding to the complexity of contract operations. Is it Legal or Legal Operations? Should it be Procurement? Or maybe the CFO and CRO, in charge of sales and revenue? How do you best rationalize this complexity?  

In light of these questions, two customer speakers, John Kundrat from Cencora and Lee Ann Labecki from KPMG, in their respective sessions touted the benefit of establishing a Contract Center of Excellence (CCoE), which bring together contracting stakeholders from across the business to chart a shared course to better contracting outcomes. The benefits of a CCoE are numerous, but creating one is “easier said than done.” However, Lee Ann delivered a master class detailing KPMG’s CCoE. Indeed, Icertis was featured as a technology that enables the CCoE, but Lee Ann also mapped out their strategies and execution around developing people, process and policies, and data analytics to achieve their contracting goals.  I am certain her blueprint will be the seed that successfully launches many more CCoEs in the future.

3. Copilots & other technical capabilities. A mainstay of the Connect events are the deep dives and product roadmap sessions with our Product and AI leaders. Of particular interest was a session on user experience enhancements in the Icertis platform and practical tips to streamline contract task execution, hosted by product leader George Painumkal and solution advisor Greg Prevost. CLM leaders understand that a solution is only successful if people use it, and the room was very excited for the improved usability and administrative tools offered by these updates.

Also highly anticipated was the AI session led by Farhad Fetrat, an AI leader on our Product Management team. Farhad provided a high-level overview of the Icertis AI roadmap, showing how we are infusing AI across our core platform and productivity applications.

While all agree that AI and GenAI will be major sources of operational efficiency in pre-execution workflows, Icertis is also focused on developing AI tools for post-execution value realization. To this end, product leader Vivek Bharti provided an early preview of an application to help companies realize the full intent of their contracts by better enabling full realization of contract terms to ensure trusted business relationships and operations. This is AI that delivers incredible value to customers.

4. Capturing Value.  And speaking of value—the last session of the day, led by Farhad and Amit Kumar of BCG, put a bow on the entirety of the event’s conversations, sessions and exchanges. Why do we connect to learn from each other in the Icertis community? Why do we strive to collaborate across functions in a Center of Excellence? Why do we introduce powerful technology into our contract operations? The answer lies in the core objective of every customer in the room: to capture more value from contracts and contracting.

Too often, the contract is reduced to a “necessary evil” – a tool for risk allocation in the event something should go awry between contractual parties.  And yet, each humble contract, filled with its commitments and obligations, holds a company’s greatest assets and promise. The final session challenged each customer to identify those clauses that drive critical value for their organizations. For example, how can improved identification and management of critical clauses like price adjustments, rebates, and volume discounts help you better manage through economic headwinds and capture value? There was no better way to end Icertis Connect 2024 than with a conversation around capturing and unlocking value in contracts.

I want to personally thank every one of our customers who made the effort to attend Connect East, or any of our other Connect events this year. They inspire Icertis to continue to deliver for our customers through the power of contract intelligence.

The customer conversation doesn’t stop here; more is in store for Icertis customers before year-end. Check back for news about enhancements to the Icertis Community shortly.