The hesitation we hear all the time

“We’re planning to get a CLM, so we don’t want to commit to something else right now.”

We hear this a lot. The logic seems reasonable: if a heavyweight end-to-end system that claims to do it all is on the horizon, it makes sense to wait. Why invest time or money into something you might replace?

But that logic breaks down the moment you look at what CLMs actually require to work. CLMs rely on structured, accurate contract data — but don’t help you build it.

CLMs expect you to do the hard part

CLMs offer plenty of useful features: managing workflows, tracking key information, sending notifications, and generating reports. But those benefits only exist if the data is right. The catch is that CLMs don't help you guarantee this.

We see this over and over again. A company rolls out a CLM, then realises their data is unusable. Contracts are mislabelled, grouped inconsistently, or missing entirely. Key fields are missing or incorrectly captured.

So they come to us: not to replace the CLM, but to rescue it. We’re asked all the time: “Can you help us populate the CLM we’ve just bought?” The answer is yes. But the better answer is that you shouldn’t be in this position in the first place.

You have to do the work either way — Nomio just makes it easier

Whether or not Nomio is part of your setup, one thing is unavoidable: if you’re planning to implement a CLM, you’ll need to build a clean, structured database of your contracts.

That means:

• Defining what’s in scope and filtering out irrelevant or outdated documents
• Structuring each agreement and mapping the relationships between linked documents
• Capturing key data points accurately and consistently across all contracts
• Handling exceptions, edge cases, and non-standard formats
• Identifying and resolving ambiguity, duplication, and missing information
• Categorising and labelling agreements in a way that reflects your business context
• Building a schema and data model tailored to how your organisation actually operates
• …and a whole host of other considerations covered in our Contract Repository Quality Checklist

You can try to do this reactively during implementation — under time pressure, without internal capacity, and with no guarantee of getting it right. Or you can do it proactively, supported by an expert team that does the work for you and has the experience needed to do it right.

Nomio gives you the second option. We specialise in building the structured contract data layer that CLMs require but don’t provide. And we do it as a fully managed service, so your team doesn’t have to lift a finger.

You don’t lose anything by starting now

CLM projects often take more than a year to fully roll out. During that time, the problems that drove the investment — limited contract visibility, scattered files, manual data entry — continue to slow your team down.

Instead of suffering in the interim, Nomio helps stop the bleeding immediately. And unlike CLMs, we don’t require any structure or preparation to get started. We meet you where you are, whether that’s a messy shared drive or a folder full of poorly-named PDF scans.

Importantly, none of this work is wasted. We don’t just provide a stopgap — we build something that lasts. Whether or not you move to a CLM, you’re left with a clean, functional repository that wins back your time from day one and supports any future system you choose.

Avoid rollout chaos when the CLM goes live

Implementing a CLM often becomes harder than it needs to be because the groundwork wasn’t done beforehand.

When your contract data is already in order, the project runs more smoothly. Your team isn’t left with a backlog of manual cleanup or admin work, and implementation isn’t held hostage by issues that could have been resolved months earlier.

That puts you in control of the process. Instead of troubleshooting data issues or fixing gaps, you’re able to focus on the implementation itself — configuring, adopting, and actually using the system.

Start with clarity

CLM rollouts lose momentum because teams only start understanding their repository requirements mid-implementation.

With Nomio, those questions are addressed early — and the answers are already implemented by the time you begin your rollout.

• Which contracts/documents are in scope?
• How should access and permissions be structured?
• What data points should be tracked?
• How should agreements be categorised and labelled?

You don’t make these decisions alone. We guide you through the process, suggest what’s likely to work best, and do the implementation work of shaping the repository around your business needs.

There’s also a whole other layer of technical complexity you don’t need to worry about. Things like data modelling, maintaining consistency, and enforcing naming conventions are handled entirely by us.

It’s a completely different experience from starting with a blank slate in a CLM, where every decision and implementation overhead lands on your team. With Nomio, that work is already done.

Nomio fits into your roadmap, whatever it looks like

Nomio doesn’t insist on replacing your existing or future systems. We fit in where needed — either as a foundational layer to another tool, or as the system that solves your problem directly.

Everything we build is fully structured and exportable, ready to plug into any other system you decide to adopt. We don’t assume that we’re the end point, but we’re confident that we give you the best possible starting point.

If you do bring in a CLM, two big things are already done:

• Your team isn’t bogged down doing manual prep, so they’re already operating with more leverage.
• Onboarding is easier because you’re starting from a repository that’s already built and organised, rather than trying to build one from scratch.

Plenty of customers have come to us expecting Nomio to be a stepping stone. Some moved on to a CLM. Others found they didn’t need to, because once their contract data was properly organised and maintained, they realised we had solved the problem they were trying to fix — extinguishing the need for a bigger, far more expensive tool.

If you want your CLM to work, this is where you start

No matter what your longer-term plans are, you need accurate, structured data to do anything meaningful with your contracts. Without it, a CLM can’t deliver what it promises.

Trying to build that foundation of rock solid data yourself is rarely feasible. It takes time, coordination across teams, and a level of information architecture expertise that most businesses aren’t equipped to handle.

That’s why Nomio is a no-brainer if a CLM is in your plans. We do the foundational work for you, so you’re not scrambling to make your data usable when the CLM arrives. Whether you move forward with one or not, you’re left with a structured, dependable contract repository that makes everything else easier.