Product Design
The Contract Platform That Cut Cycle Times by 75%
How we reimagined contract management for one of the world’s largest FMCG companies — streamlining collaboration, reducing errors, and scaling to 150K+ contracts annually.
Year :
2019
Industry :
FMCG
Client :
Unilever Limited
Project Duration :
16 weeks
Reinventing Contracts for Speed & Scale
The procurement team was drowning in a manual, fragmented system that handled over 120K contracts a year. Contract creation took 30–45 days, approvals dragged on for weeks, and dispersed teams struggled with visibility.
The process was error-prone, time-intensive, and expensive. We set out to rebuild it into a platform that was fast, collaborative, and transparent, and the results were transformative.
The Approach: From Pain Points to Principles
Through global stakeholder interviews and cross-functional workshops, we uncovered the critical blockers: redundant data gathering, multi-step approvals, manual validation, and siloed communication.
From these insights, we framed five design principles:
Simplify workflows with fewer, logically grouped fields.
Automate the repetitive (notifications, validations, approvals).
Enable collaboration across global teams with real-time data.
Modernize the experience for usability and adoption.
Build transparency into the entire contract lifecycle.
What Changed
The result was a dynamic, cloud-based Contract Agreement Manager (CAM) platform. Workflows were simplified, data validation became AI-driven, approvals were automated, and collaboration moved from inboxes to real-time dashboards. The interface was redesigned to be minimal and intuitive, cutting training from three weeks to just three days.
The Impact
The outcomes were measurable across every dimension:
Metric | Before (Legacy System) | After (CAM Platform) |
|---|---|---|
Contract Creation Time | 30–45 days | 7–10 days (↓ ~75%) |
Approval Cycle Time | Multi-step, 2–3 weeks | Automated routing, ↓ ~60% |
Turnaround Time | High, unpredictable | Reduced by ~40–50% |
Cross-functional Collaboration | Manual, siloed | Streamlined, real-time, saving 15–20 hrs/month per manager |
Data Validation | Manual, error-prone | 80% faster with auto-validation |
User Adoption | Low, required 3 weeks of training | 90%+ adoption in 1st quarter, 3 days training |
Error Rate in Contracts | Frequent (~10–15% delays) | ↓ 65% errors eliminated |
Compliance Adherence | ~70–75% | 95%+ |
Annual Contract Capacity | 120K contracts | 150K+ contracts without adding staff |
Operational Cost | High, administrative overhead | ↓ 20–25% costs |
More Projects
Product Design
The Contract Platform That Cut Cycle Times by 75%
How we reimagined contract management for one of the world’s largest FMCG companies — streamlining collaboration, reducing errors, and scaling to 150K+ contracts annually.
Year :
2019
Industry :
FMCG
Client :
Unilever Limited
Project Duration :
16 weeks
Reinventing Contracts for Speed & Scale
The procurement team was drowning in a manual, fragmented system that handled over 120K contracts a year. Contract creation took 30–45 days, approvals dragged on for weeks, and dispersed teams struggled with visibility.
The process was error-prone, time-intensive, and expensive. We set out to rebuild it into a platform that was fast, collaborative, and transparent, and the results were transformative.
The Approach: From Pain Points to Principles
Through global stakeholder interviews and cross-functional workshops, we uncovered the critical blockers: redundant data gathering, multi-step approvals, manual validation, and siloed communication.
From these insights, we framed five design principles:
Simplify workflows with fewer, logically grouped fields.
Automate the repetitive (notifications, validations, approvals).
Enable collaboration across global teams with real-time data.
Modernize the experience for usability and adoption.
Build transparency into the entire contract lifecycle.
What Changed
The result was a dynamic, cloud-based Contract Agreement Manager (CAM) platform. Workflows were simplified, data validation became AI-driven, approvals were automated, and collaboration moved from inboxes to real-time dashboards. The interface was redesigned to be minimal and intuitive, cutting training from three weeks to just three days.
The Impact
The outcomes were measurable across every dimension:
Metric | Before (Legacy System) | After (CAM Platform) |
|---|---|---|
Contract Creation Time | 30–45 days | 7–10 days (↓ ~75%) |
Approval Cycle Time | Multi-step, 2–3 weeks | Automated routing, ↓ ~60% |
Turnaround Time | High, unpredictable | Reduced by ~40–50% |
Cross-functional Collaboration | Manual, siloed | Streamlined, real-time, saving 15–20 hrs/month per manager |
Data Validation | Manual, error-prone | 80% faster with auto-validation |
User Adoption | Low, required 3 weeks of training | 90%+ adoption in 1st quarter, 3 days training |
Error Rate in Contracts | Frequent (~10–15% delays) | ↓ 65% errors eliminated |
Compliance Adherence | ~70–75% | 95%+ |
Annual Contract Capacity | 120K contracts | 150K+ contracts without adding staff |
Operational Cost | High, administrative overhead | ↓ 20–25% costs |
More Projects
Product Design
The Contract Platform That Cut Cycle Times by 75%
How we reimagined contract management for one of the world’s largest FMCG companies — streamlining collaboration, reducing errors, and scaling to 150K+ contracts annually.
Year :
2019
Industry :
FMCG
Client :
Unilever Limited
Project Duration :
16 weeks
Reinventing Contracts for Speed & Scale
The procurement team was drowning in a manual, fragmented system that handled over 120K contracts a year. Contract creation took 30–45 days, approvals dragged on for weeks, and dispersed teams struggled with visibility.
The process was error-prone, time-intensive, and expensive. We set out to rebuild it into a platform that was fast, collaborative, and transparent, and the results were transformative.
The Approach: From Pain Points to Principles
Through global stakeholder interviews and cross-functional workshops, we uncovered the critical blockers: redundant data gathering, multi-step approvals, manual validation, and siloed communication.
From these insights, we framed five design principles:
Simplify workflows with fewer, logically grouped fields.
Automate the repetitive (notifications, validations, approvals).
Enable collaboration across global teams with real-time data.
Modernize the experience for usability and adoption.
Build transparency into the entire contract lifecycle.
What Changed
The result was a dynamic, cloud-based Contract Agreement Manager (CAM) platform. Workflows were simplified, data validation became AI-driven, approvals were automated, and collaboration moved from inboxes to real-time dashboards. The interface was redesigned to be minimal and intuitive, cutting training from three weeks to just three days.
The Impact
The outcomes were measurable across every dimension:
Metric | Before (Legacy System) | After (CAM Platform) |
|---|---|---|
Contract Creation Time | 30–45 days | 7–10 days (↓ ~75%) |
Approval Cycle Time | Multi-step, 2–3 weeks | Automated routing, ↓ ~60% |
Turnaround Time | High, unpredictable | Reduced by ~40–50% |
Cross-functional Collaboration | Manual, siloed | Streamlined, real-time, saving 15–20 hrs/month per manager |
Data Validation | Manual, error-prone | 80% faster with auto-validation |
User Adoption | Low, required 3 weeks of training | 90%+ adoption in 1st quarter, 3 days training |
Error Rate in Contracts | Frequent (~10–15% delays) | ↓ 65% errors eliminated |
Compliance Adherence | ~70–75% | 95%+ |
Annual Contract Capacity | 120K contracts | 150K+ contracts without adding staff |
Operational Cost | High, administrative overhead | ↓ 20–25% costs |