The Medical device space provides us with a unique opportunity to explore solving industry specific challenges and the value DocuSign CLM can add to the organization. Our med device client, Carobin Industries*, is a perfect example for this.
Before their DocuSign digital transformation, Carobin Industries was relying on emails, local drives and fax machines to manage their contracts. Their contract flow – redlining, approvals, and signatures – also lacked a centralized repository and standardized process that often resulted in delays or lost contracts; these issues were easily resolved with DocuSign CLM’s out of box functionality. However, there were 2 industry-specific problems Carobin Industries was hoping DocuSign CLM would solve:
This checklist required a department lead sign-off and the checklist itself was paperclipped to every contract. Sometimes these checklists were lost, incomplete, or not up to date, which incurred cost to the company. Additionally, rolling out updated Compliance Checklists proved difficult to adopt across the organization.
This approval matrix factored 3 key data points of a) Contract type b) Contract value c) Compliance regulation, to determine which individuals within the organization needed to approve the contract prior to signature. Carobin frequently observed incomplete approvals, clerical error and poor auditing ability frequently – all reducing the speed at which contracts were being executed.
Compliance Checklists are something we often see in the Med Device industry. It provides organizations with a method to track their Compliance with federal and international regulations, preventing stalls in the value chain. These checklists are a common example of something we can automate to DocuSign CLM; we created a set of custom digital data that automatically captures the Compliance data Carobin needs to track, filter and report on. This data set is then “paperclipped” to each contract.
Delegation of Authority and similar approval matrices are another commonality in medical device organizations. With DocuSign CLM, we were able to automate this approval matrix into a workflow that takes the contract data key inputs and drives it through the necessary approvals based on the system logic provided. When regulations change, Carobin could update this approval matrix to have an up-to-date organization-wide approval standard.
Managers observed a 90% reduction in lost compliance data over the first 3 months of rolling out DocuSign CLM. Because their data was now created automatically in a digitized process, the data became more accurate, and managers were also able to search and report on this data.
As regulations changed, they were able to easily roll out changes to their digitized “Compliance Checklist” since it became a centralized data set, shooting up organization wide adoption to new Compliance regulations by 300%.
Carobin also observed a reduction in overall end-to-end contract process time, from 4.5 days to 2. The greatest optimization was through the streamlined Approval Matrix. Since the system automated the approval requests, reminders and notifications, obtaining approvals took half the length of time.
Additionally, full audits of each contract’s approvals were available and reportable as needed. Leadership could then identify the inefficiencies in their organization’s approvals and then streamline requirements in their internal supply chain.
This project was a great challenge for our team. By focusing on the unique industry challenges, we were able to help a customer achieve quick results, and make running their business an easier experience.
*Client name has been changed to Carobin Industries for privacy purposes
Written by Oskay Taskin, DocuSign CLM Solution Architect at Uptima