Evaluating AI-Enabled CLMs: Why Evisort Rises Above the Rest

In the rapidly evolving field of contract management, legal operations professionals are tasked with a pivotal challenge: identifying the most effective and efficient Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) system. Our quest to find the ideal AI-enabled CLM solution led us to rigorously evaluate and demo a variety of platforms, including Evisort, LinkSquares, Ironclad, and ContractPodAi. While each offered distinct advantages, it was Evisort that particularly stood out for a number of key reasons that I will detail in this blog post.

1. Seamless Document Integration

The initial obstacle in contract management is often the simplest yet the most cumbersome: getting your documents into the system. Evisort eliminates this hurdle through an impressive feature that requires no human element or verification for documents to be uploaded, OCRed, and indexed for searching. This automation accelerates the set-up process and ensures that your contract repository is ready to be queried without manual oversight, a substantial time saver.

Evisort shines in this regard. Its approach is geared towards immediacy and efficiency. The ability to upload a document and watch it be seamlessly ingested and indexed by the system is incredibly satisfying. Within minutes, not hours or days, I can start querying the document. This is critical for a business like ours, where M&A activities are frequent and often require swift, decisive action. When our team needs information, they need it promptly, and Evisort's almost instantaneous processing aligns perfectly with the urgency of our operations. Whether it's a due diligence request or an urgent compliance query, Evisort’s swift document onboarding ensures that our team can deliver timely insights.

2. Versatile Bulk Uploading

Evisort's bulk uploading capabilities are tailored to meet the needs of diverse organizational structures and maturity levels. For new businesses with the luxury of well-organized contract management processes from the outset, the depth of Evisort's integration options might not initially seem crucial. These businesses may have their contracts uniformly stored and neatly categorized, which could simplify the migration process.

However, in our case, the scenario was starkly different. Our business inherited a vast and varied dataset of contracts—accumulated over years and stored without uniformity. This diversity in our document storage presented a significant challenge for migration. Evisort's flexibility to synchronize data from multiple sources, like SharePoint and Salesforce, was not just a convenience; it was an absolute necessity for us. By providing a variety of synching options, Evisort addressed our complex requirements head-on, enabling us to integrate a fragmented contract repository without the need for a painstaking manual overhaul. It's this level of adaptability that has made Evisort an indispensable asset in our transition to a more organized and efficient contract management system.

One particular feature of Evisort that impressed us was its ability to handle multiple SharePoint Syncs simultaneously. This was instrumental for us, considering the myriad of SharePoint instances we operate. The parallel processing means that our various departments can have their contracts uploaded and synchronized without interfering with each other, streamlining the entire process across the board.

By contrast, it's important to note that my understanding is that Evisort currently supports only one Salesforce sync at a time. This can be a limiting factor for organizations that work with multiple Salesforce instances, as in our scenario. While this did present a hiccup in our synchronization strategy, given the breadth of our operations, it wasn't a dealbreaker. The overall benefits and efficiencies gained from Evisort's comprehensive syncing capabilities far outweighed this limitation. This particular aspect is something for businesses to consider and plan for when structuring their contract management ecosystems with Evisort, especially if they operate within a complex Salesforce environment.

3. Folder Structure

Evisort's folder-based organization for files became a cornerstone in our permission management strategy. In a world where data sensitivity and compliance are paramount, the ability to meticulously control and validate permissions is not just a preference; it's a requirement. We found that some solutions in the market relied on tagging mechanisms for permission control, which for us, did not offer the level of assurance we required. Given our need for a complex and layered permission structure, Evisort's folder-based system allowed us to implement a clear and hierarchical access model that could be tightly managed and audited.

However, it's also essential to address one limitation we encountered with Evisort's permissions framework. Currently, Evisort administrators have access to all folders within the system, which poses a challenge when dealing with highly sensitive documents, such as employment agreements. The inability to restrict certain folders from administrators should be considered if you're planing on using Evisort to store employment agreements. While this has not been a dealbreaker for us, it is an area where Evisort could further develop its capabilities by offering functionality which would allow you to make certain folders only visible to named individuals or groups and exclude access to administrators.

4. Evisort's Proprietary AI: Ensuring Privacy and Precision

One of the key distinguishing features of Evisort's conversational AI is that it's entirely developed in-house. This aspect is particularly important as it ensures that there's no sharing of data with third-party entities, which can often be a concern for businesses concerned with data privacy and confidentiality. The internal development of this AI technology means that all the sensitive contract data we handle remains within the controlled ecosystem of Evisort, which is a critical requirement for our operations.

What's more, the AI's functionality lives up to the expectations . It's intuitive—interacting with it feels as natural as posing a question to a colleague. Moreover, when the AI provides answers, it also supplies links to the exact contractual language it referenced to reach its conclusions. This transparency is invaluable, as it allows users to quickly verify the AI-generated responses, ensuring their accuracy and relevance. It's this combination of privacy, intuitiveness, and the ability to easily validate Evisort's AI that gives us confidence to use and trust the conversational AI.

5. The Document X-Ray Innovation

Perhaps the most exciting development is Evisort's soon-to-be-deployed Document X-Ray. This functionality will allow users to employ conversational AI across subsets of agreements to extract specific answers to targeted questions. The responses are then added as attributes to the respective agreements which can then be exported with other relevant data into excel. For legal and finance professionals engaged in M&A due diligence, this represents a game changing advancement, letting the user conduct a rapid, AI analysis of a document set.

Conclusion

Selecting a CLM system is not just about choosing software; it's about choosing a partner for your organization's future. In our experience, Evisort has proven to be that partner. Its commitment to innovation and user-centric features makes it a standout choice for professionals and lawyers looking for an AI enabled CLM.

As legal operations continue to intersect with technology, it is imperative to stay informed and savvy about the tools available. Evisort, with its suite of advanced features, has set a high bar in the CLM space, promising not only to manage your current contract landscape but to evolve with it, ensuring lasting relevance and value.