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to create their own standard contracts
were improved and digitalised
can be created to future-proof the solution
Kloeckner Metals UK is the UK business of Klöckner & Co, a German listed €848m EBITDA international producer-independent distributor of steel and metal products with a network that spans across 13 countries, 140 locations and employs over 7,200 people worldwide.
The organisation operates in all major market sectors across the UK with specialisations in nuclear, defence and construction and is known for its disruption of the traditional steel industry through the use of cutting-edge technology as well as its unrivalled ability to be key global partner in the customers’ supply chain. As pioneers of digital transformation in the steel and metal industry, Kloeckner continuously adds value to its customers by investing in digital technologies and introducing solutions that make processes more efficient.
A key pillar of Kloeckner’s strategy is further successful rollout of digital platforms to increase automation and reduce carbon emissions. Digitalising contract lifecycle management at Kloeckner is a huge step forward in both improving efficiency and targeting legal resource.
The primary challenge for Kloeckner was to speed up the contract lifecycle and streamline appropriate legal processes. The legal team received repetitive and similar urgent requests for certain contracts from the wider business. It was therefore clear that this was an area that could benefit from automation which would free up the legal team to focus on more impactful work.
Additionally, as Kloeckner is a fast-paced business with an aggressive growth strategy, the legal team wanted to keep up with its growing demands and set a good foundation for future growth. So, Kloeckner set out to digitally transform the legal process, enable ongoing analysis of risk and as a result, better support the wider business and Kloeckner's growing customer portfolio.
Kloeckner is committed to providing customers with the latest fabrication and processing technologies and the most innovative customer service solutions. As a pioneer of digital transformation in the steel and metal industry we continuously strive to add value to our customers by investing into digital technologies and introducing innovative eProcurement solutions. This commitment also applies to the continuous improvement of our internal end to end business processes. Through the implementation of intuitive technologies such as Summize, we aim to free our people from mundane, time-consuming, repetitive tasks so they can focus on higher-value activities and delivering customer excellence.
Helen Shaw, Head of Digital Transformation
Kloeckner’s ethos is to make management of the metal supply chain easy for our customers and for us to be seen as a cohesive part of that. For me, the Legal team is no different. It’s crucial that we use our resource as wisely as possible so that we can have an impact in the right areas in order to support our rapid growth whilst also managing risk. For that reason, when I arrived at Kloeckner two years ago I focussed on building a strong digital foundation to improve our processes and Summize is one key (and carefully chosen) component of that.
Kristel Graham, UK Chief Compliance Officer, General Counsel and Company Secretary
To digitalise the contract lifecycle and streamline legal processes, Summize created a legal front door using its Microsoft Teams integration, a well-established platform in Kloeckner's current operations. By using the Summize Microsoft Teams Add-In, now any user can create or review a contract without having to send a request to legal.
On top of this, by using Kloeckner's bespoke templates created in Summize, any business user can automatically create contracts by answering a series of questions. The questions are set up and designed by legal, who can approve the contract before it is sent to a customer.
Kristel Graham, UK Chief Compliance Officer, General Counsel and Company Secretary : "When searching for a contract automation partner, it was critical that our chosen provider would be flexible enough to fit with familiar applications for ease of adoption for our colleagues whilst also allowing us to develop and future proof it to meet the changing needs of the business. Summize’s ability to integrate into MS Teams and Word has empowered business users to self-serve and their flexibility and openness to suggestions from both the Legal and Digitalisation team has meant that Summize now fits neatly into our user experience. Summize has enabled us to shift our focus away from repetitive but important high volume tasks eg NDAs to be real strategic partners to our colleagues and it also allows us to gain valuable insights into the risk profile of the business at the touch of a button."
Empowering business users to create simple but bespoke contracts (e.g., NDAs) has meant Kloeckner’s legal team can shorten the contract lifecycle and speed up internal processes.
Integrating directly into current tools has made using digital contracting software seamless, and the whole business can already see the benefits.
For Kloeckner’s customers and employees, this is yet another step forward in the company's digital transformation journey to deliver innovative solutions and create efficient supply chains.
Using Summize has changed the game regarding legal processes. We can execute contracts quicker than ever before.
Hayley Steel, Legal Assistant
The HCI Group partnered with Summize to help them halve their time creating contracts and reduce departmental stress from heavy workloads.
Littlefish implemented Summize’s game-changing Contract Lifecycle Management solution, empowering non-legal teams to self-serve in Teams on contractual tasks.
Day Wireless Systems implemented Summize’s game-changing contract review and management solution, modernising its entire contract lifecycle process.