How Akshayam Corporate transformed their agreement workflow
Bhuvana Raman, Founder Director of Akshayam Corporate Advisors, and her team faced a mounting challenge: Executing more than 25 contracts monthly and managing 300+ annually across fragmented spreadsheets. Given the scale at which the company was growing, the contract management process was becoming overwhelming for the team, impacting the turnaround times. See how they solved their contract challenges with Zoho Contracts.
"Leveraging Zoho Contracts, we've efficiently templatized our engagement letters, significantly reducing the time and resources spent drafting proposals. We further integrated Zoho CRM, streamlining our process from lead generation through deal conversion. The entire workflow—from initial lead to contract execution and subsequent ledger creation in Zoho Books—is now fully automated and seamless. We thank Zoho, whose integrated modules have enhanced our operational effectiveness and enabled us to focus on delivering greater value to our clients."
About the company
Established as a private limited entity in 2015, Akshayam Corporate has since evolved into a full-spectrum professional services firm. Over the years, the company has expanded its expertise across FEMA advisory, NBFC consulting, alternate investment funds, legal and compliance services, mergers and acquisitions, and litigation support. Akshayam Corporate is also the first Company Secretary firm to establish a branch in GIFT city, Gujarat.
The challenges
Poor visibility into contracts
Bhuvana and her team handle the execution of MSAs and SOWs with their clients. They managed these contract templates using Word documents, while contract metadata and links to finalized contracts were tracked in spreadsheets. This fragmented storage of templates, signed contracts, and the corresponding metadata led to poor accessibility, visibility, and time delays.
Difficult collaboration and review processes
Previously, internal collaboration happened on WhatsApp, in phone calls, and during face-to-face meetings to review contracts. This informal approach made it difficult to maintain a consistent review and approval process because there was no centralized storage for contracts. Changes to MSA or SOW clauses often led to confusion due to different teams using multiple versions of the same template. With various teams involved, the lack of a clear audit trail and version control become a compliance risk.
Missed renewals and opportunities
The team faced difficulties tracking renewals and expiry dates because contract metadata was managed in spreadsheets with no automated alerts. The absence of a defined process or streamlined CLM system often led to missed renewal deadlines and operational inefficiencies.
"Without a centralized contract management system, we faced visibility, collaboration, and renewal tracking challenges. Managing templates across multiple drives and relying on informal communication led to inefficiencies in our contract authoring process and compliance risks."
The solution
A central storage system
The central repository in Zoho Contracts solved the visibility and control challenges Akshayam Corporate faced. The template library ensures organization-wide access to the most up-to-date versions. Now, the team no longer wastes time finding templates or contracts, minimizing errors and accelerating their entire contracting process.
Real-time collaboration and faster review
Zoho Contracts is powered by Zoho Writer, our full-blown word processor with real-time collaboration capabilities. The team now effortlessly collaborates on contract documents with features like redlining and commenting. Bhuvana can also mandate approval workflows for critical contract types, further streamlining the review process. The standardized templates and mandated approval workflows help improve their efficiency and compliance.
Automated notifications
The dashboard and monthly calendar in Zoho Contracts gives them clear visibility into upcoming renewals and expirations. This, combined with automated reminders and notifications, is a game-changer, ensuring that Bhuvana's team never misses a renewal. Smart letter templates streamline the renewal process by automatically capturing all contract changes, removing the need to review the entire document manually. This significantly speeds up the renewal workflow.
The added advantage - Zoho CRM Integration
While Zoho Contracts streamlined the contract management process for Akshayam Corporate, Bhuvana's team was looking for broader efficiency gains.
They adopted Zoho CRM for comprehensive customer relationship management. This laid the groundwork for a truly unified workflow; the built-in Zoho Contracts–Zoho CRM integration enables the team to initiate contract requests directly from within the CRM. Building on this seamless foundation, Akshayam Corporate further optimized operations by integrating Zoho Books through Zoho Flow for automated ledger creation.
"Zoho Contracts transformed our contract management by providing a centralized repository, giving us complete visibility and control over all templates and contracts. Real-time collaboration, seamless approval workflows, and an up-to-date clause library have significantly accelerated our review process while ensuring compliance. Automated notifications ensure there are no missed renewals."
Benefits and ROI
After adopting Zoho Contracts, the most significant benefit for Akshayam is the 75% improvement in their contract turnaround times.
From four days to complete contract execution, to signing contracts in a day, Zoho Contracts has significantly streamlined processes and boosted efficiency for Akshayam Corporate. The team has also reported good control and better visibility into their contracting process using Zoho Contracts. With streamlined operations and automation, Bhuvana and her team can now focus on delivering the best service to their clients rather than spending time on paperwork and manual contract management.
Looking forward
Having streamlined their contract and customer relationship management processes, Bhuvana and her team are now focused on enhancing efficiency across all areas of the business. Their goal is to deliver even greater value to their clients while continuously optimizing their business processes.