Interview: How we’re reimagining contract workflows in Word

When we talk about improving contract workflows, it’s easy to jump straight to AI, automation and the next big leap forward. But sometimes, the biggest impact comes from fixing the most frustrating part of the day-to-day.

For our latest product release, our Microsoft Word Add-In 2.0, we sat down with Summize’s Product Owner Leanne Hayes and Senior Customer Success Manager Eden Cunningham, to talk about the thinking behind the new Word Add-In, and why this update is about much more than “just” Word.

Supporting the way in-house lawyers already work

Leanne describes the starting point simply:

“You receive a document from a counterparty. You want to open it straightaway, review it, make your changes and then you’re away.”

That natural flow is important – you don’t want to pause mid-review to think about tracking, uploading or switching tools. You want those things to happen alongside the work, not instead of it.

Before this release, keeping documents fully tracked sometimes meant stepping outside that natural workflow – moving to the web app to upload a new version, manually associating documents to requests or checking conversations and tasks in a separate window.

As Leanne explains: “There was a lot of tool swapping. You’d have to close it down, go to the Web app, upload it as a new version and break your natural process.”

The updated Word Add-In removes that extra step. When a document is opened in the regular Word for Desktop as we’re all used to, it’s recognized and associated with the correct request. Uploading a new version, viewing request details, responding to conversations or checking tasks can all happen within the document itself. As always, our goal isn’t to change how lawyers work, but to support the process more effectively.

Why does it matter that it’s in Word Desktop?

This release focuses in on Word Desktop improvements for a simple reason: we know that’s where legal teams prefer to work.

As Leanne puts it:

“That’s where every lawyer is working, they’re spending most of their time in that document. They want all the relevant information in front of them, not having to change screens or change context.”

Previously, some tracking features were more closely tied to Word for the Web. While functional, that isn’t always the preferred experience, especially when it comes to complex formatting, collaboration or larger documents. Our customers were clear in their feedback – they wanted the full tracking and context capabilities available in the desktop version of Word.

Eden hears this regularly in customer conversations: “People like working in Desktop. That’s what they’re comfortable with.”

This update brings document tracking, request information, conversations and tasks directly into Word Desktop. Legal teams can stay in the environment they know and trust while keeping their contract lifecycle fully captured.

What does this change day to day?

When asked what this means in practical terms, Eden replied directly: “Sanity.”

From a Customer Success perspective, the benefits are incremental but meaningful. Eden estimates that removing repeated clicks, downloads and version searches can save up to 30 minutes during a single negotiation cycle – and those 30 minutes add up over multiple cycles.

The other significant impact is consistency. Because documents are automatically recognized and users are prompted to save new versions within Word Desktop, version histories are now more complete, fewer iterations are missed, the risk of sending the wrong version is reduced and lifecycle data becomes more reliable.

Leanne highlights the longer-term value:

“You get a much clearer picture of that contract’s lifecycle. We’re making it as easy as possible for that data to be accurate and up to date, so you can actually do something with it.”

When tracking happens as part of the review – rather than as an additional task – adoption improves. When adoption improves, legal teams can rely on their data to report on turnaround times, negotiation cycles and workload trends with greater confidence.

Is this update just for legal teams?

Although legal teams might be the primary users, the updated Word Add-In also supports wider business teams. Leanne explains: “We’re bringing the front door to legal right inside Word.”

For teams in sales, procurement, HR, finance or other business teams who have access to the Add-In, it means they can submit new requests or upload documents directly from within Word, without needing to navigate to another tool first. In practice, that means:

• Sales teams can attach redlines to the correct request immediately

• Procurement teams can submit vendor documents without switching tools

• Legal receive better-tracked, more complete information from the start

Eden has seen customers increasingly empower business teams to take a more active role in contract processes, and making Word the central point of entry supports that shift.

A practical foundation for everything else

There’s a lot of discussion in the contract lifecycle management (CLM) market about automation and AI in contracting, and those developments are important, but they depend on accurate, consistent data. Eden makes the point clearly:

“It’s great having automated workflows, but if the core foundation of what you’re doing isn’t built, it will crumble.”

This update focuses on that foundation – if every version is saved, if every negotiation step tracked, if every conversation sits alongside the document itself, legal teams have the data and visibility they need to improve performance and demonstrate impact.

As Leanne puts it:

“Lawyers should be using their expertise and effort in the actual negotiation, not using software. That should always be easier.”

See the Word Add-In in action

Is your team still downloading, reuploading and manually tracking versions to keep contracts recorded accurately? It might be time to look at how that process can be simplified.

Our new and improved Word Add-In brings:

• Full document tracking in Word Desktop

• Automatic version association

• Conversations and tasks alongside the document

• Front door to legal functionality within Word

All designed to support the way legal teams already work – not change it.

If you’re already a Summize customer and would like to see the changes in detail, head to the Summize customer hub. And if you’re not yet a customer and want to learn more about Summize and how we partner with you to create solutions that work for you, not against you, book a demo by clicking below.