Executive Summary

Key Takeaways

Contract lifecycle management has expanded from document storage and approval routing into coordinated management of agreements and commercial obligations. Enterprises need reliable contract information that connects legal, sales, procurement and finance activities throughout the agreement lifecycle. AI-assisted drafting, review and extraction extend automation, while integration, data governance and human oversight determine whether contract intelligence supports accountable decisions.

Software Provider Summary
The ISG Buyers Guide™ for Contract Lifecycle Management evaluates 18 software providers offering products that support contract creation, negotiation, execution and ongoing obligation management. The research ranked the top three overall as Conga, CobbleStone and Oracle. Providers were classified using weighted performance in Product Experience and Customer Experience for ISG quadrant placement. CobbleStone, Conga, Docusign, Ironclad, Leah and Oracle were rated Exemplary, with Icertis and Zoho rated Innovative. GEP, Sirion and Workday were rated as providers of Assurance, and Coupa, LawVu, LinkSquares, Malbek, PandaDoc, SAP and SpotDraft were rated as providers of Merit.

Product Experience Insights
Product Experience, representing 80% of the evaluation, focuses on Capability (40%) and Platform (40%), including adaptability, manageability, reliability and usability. Conga, CobbleStone and Oracle were designated Product Experience Leaders, with the evaluation examining clause libraries, CRM and CPQ intake among its specific capabilities. Enterprise-grade platform capabilities were assessed for applicability across business and IT roles and contexts.

Customer Experience Value
Customer Experience, representing 20% of the evaluation, focuses on validation and TCO/ROI. Conga, CobbleStone and Docusign were the Leaders in this category, best communicating commitment and dedication to customer needs. Lower-performing providers did not provide sufficient information to demonstrate customer success or articulate a commitment to customer experience.

Strategic Recommendations
Enterprises should evaluate CLM software using representative agreements that test governed authoring, exception routing and ongoing obligation tracking. Assess integration depth and extraction accuracy to determine whether contract information can reliably inform business operations. Require AI-assisted findings to be explainable and subject to human review, with decision traceability throughout the agreement lifecycle.

The Findings

The software providers and products evaluated in this research offer product and customer experiences, but not every feature is equally valuable to every enterprise or is needed to support the relevant business processes and use cases. Moreover, having too many product capabilities may be a negative factor for an enterprise if it introduces unnecessary complexity. Nonetheless, you may decide that a more comprehensive set of capabilities is important and meets your enterprise’s requirements.

An effective customer relationship with a software provider is vital to the success of any investment. The overall customer experience and the full lifecycle of engagement play a key role in ensuring satisfaction and long-term success. Providers with dedicated customer leadership, such as chief customer officers, tend to invest more deeply in theseISG_BG_CLM_Overall_2026 relationships and prioritize customer outcomes in line with TCO and ROI expectations. It is equally important that this commitment to customer success is evident throughout the provider’s website, the buying process and the customer journey.

Overall Scoring of Software Providers Across Categories

The research finds Conga atop the list, followed by CobbleStone and Oracle. Providers that place in the top three of a category earn the designation of Leader. CobbleStone and Conga have done so in four categories, Oracle in three and Docusign, Icertis, Ironclad and Sirion in one category.

About the authors

Barika Pace

Barika Pace

Barika Pace leads ISG’s research on CRM and Revenue Technology within the Office of Revenue practice. Her work explores how organizations align people, process, and technology to drive revenue growth. She covers the evolving ecosystem of CRM, Revenue Operations (RevOps), Revenue Intelligence, Partner Relationship Management (PRM), and subscription and commerce platforms. Barika helps enterprises and technology providers optimize their customer and revenue lifecycles through trusted, research-based insights.
Robert Kugel

Robert Kugel

Rob heads up the CFO and business research focusing on the intersection of information technology with the finance organization and business. The financial performance management (FPM) research agenda includes the application of IT to financial process optimization and collaborative systems; control systems and analytics; and advanced budgeting and planning. Prior to joining Ventana Research he was an equity research analyst at several firms including First Albany Corporation, Morgan Stanley, and Drexel Burnham, and a consultant with McKinsey and Company. Rob was an Institutional Investor All-American Team member and on the Wall Street Journal All-Star list. Rob has experience in aerospace and defense, banking, manufacturing and retail and consumer services. Rob earned his BA in Economics/Finance at Hampshire College, an MBA in Finance/Accounting at Columbia University, and is a CFA charter holder.