Consilio in Action: Powering Enterprise CLM Through the Consilio + Ironclad Partnership

How Consilio builds, scales and operates enterprise CLM programs that deliver measurable business value.

The Challenge: Turning CLM Ambition into Real-World Results

Enterprise legal and business teams increasingly view contracts as a strategic system of record, one that drives revenue, carries risk, and governs how organizations operate. But modernizing contract life cycle management (CLM) is rarely simple. Legacy data, inconsistent processes and limited internal capacity can undermine even the best technological investments.

When CLM programs stall at that point, Consilio is brought in. Legal, legal operations, procurement and revenue leaders need more than software: they need a partner who can design the right roadmap, migrate legacy contracts safely, re-engineer workflows and provide the operational discipline to keep everything running at scale.

Since 2021, Consilio has partnered with Ironclad, a leading AI contracting platform, to do exactly that, delivering hundreds of implementations annually with a focus on accelerated revenue, increased efficiency and reduced contract value leakage.

As Ironclad’s Vice President of WW Partners and Alliances, Troy Wright, shares, “Technology alone rarely solves a client’s business challenges. Ironclad delivers the most innovative AI contracting platform, and Consilio brings deep legal expertise to guide the CLM strategy, modernize legacy processes and streamline operations in a way that supports a client’s long-term innovation.”

A Partnership That Built a Specialized Consilio CLM Practice

When Consilio began working with Ironclad in 2021, the practice was two people. Today it is a dedicated global team with its own leadership, delivery model and methodology, operating across the U.S. and EMEA. “I completed my first Ironclad project back in 2021,” says Alfie Thackery, director in Consilio’s Ironclad practice. “Back then it was just me and one other person. Since then, we have delivered over 500 joint projects across our team. The growth and the scale at which we are operating now are beyond what I imagined.”

That growth has been built on structured delivery. Consilio developed documented processes, invested in planning and quality control, and applied client feedback systematically so each engagement improves the next.

Today, Alfie oversees all Ironclad projects Consilio runs in the U.S. and supports engagements across EMEA. “It means working very closely with teams across Ironclad in multiple regions to make sure our joint customers are set up for success,” he explains.

“When I first joined in 2023, it was still a very green practice,” recalls solutions architect and legal engineer, Sandra Odigbo. “Over time our processes have become so much better: more documentation, better planning, more staff. We constantly take client feedback and use it to improve how we deliver.”

Today, Consilio’s Ironclad practice spans joint AI strategy and advisory, implementations and workflow design, data services for migrations and AI-based extraction.

“Clients really feel the difference in how we work,” Sandra says. “We are not just here to check a box and deliver a project. We invest in the relationship, get deep into their processes and stay close throughout. Many clients come back to us and even request the same team because of the experience they have had.”

What Consilio Actually Does: Solving Enterprise CLM at Scale

By the time clients reach Consilio, their challenges rarely fit into a single problem category and often arrive with similar pain points: scattered legacy contracts, manual processes and no clear roadmap for change.

“A lot of times clients know they need something, but they do not know what that is,” explains senior director at Consilio, David Casanares. “Our role is to help guide them, not just on best practices for CLM, but also on which software and structure fit their goals. That is where we have gravitated so much toward Ironclad.”

Together, Consilio and Ironclad help clients:

• Eliminate data debt by migrating legacy contracts into a structured, searchable repository using AI-enabled extraction and standardized metadata.
• Accelerate revenue and cycle times through automated workflows and self-service contracting for business teams.
• Extend capacity via managed services that absorb contract surges and backlogs inside the client’s Ironclad instance.
• Improve compliance and visibility by creating a single source of truth across geographies and business units, reducing risk and contract leakage.

Data migration is one of the most complex and high-risk phases of any CLM implementation, and where Consilio's technical expertise is most critical.

“Ironclad gives us a clear structure to work with, and Consilio brings the expertise to actually move it and make it usable,” says Andrew Dunkley, director of data services at Consilio. “That combination lets us keep implementations as short as possible, control costs and get clients to value faster.”

Measurable Impact: Hours Saved, Millions Recovered and Better Reporting

The results Consilio and Ironclad deliver are measurable and significant. One global company implemented Ironclad’s AI contracting platform with Consilio’s support to eliminate the bottleneck its legal department had become and gain visibility into key contract terms, and the savings those terms could deliver across the business.

The outcome was substantial. Troy recalls, “There were thousands of hours of productivity gains recognized by the organization, and over $2 million in contract value leakage saved in the first year of the implementation.”

The transformation also changed how legal operations reported success. “Consilio and Ironclad helped this company realize that they could use Ironclad’s data analytics to prove value to the C-suite,” Troy explains. “Instead of just reporting on how many contracts were signed, the legal operations team began reporting on revenue acceleration, productivity gains and cost avoidance.”

Managing director of Consilio, Eric Miller, sees similar patterns across other joint clients. “When you have those types of numbers, it becomes much easier for legal and legal ops to make the case for continued investment in CLM,” he notes.

Consilio’s role is not only to get Ironclad live, but to configure and operate it in a way that surfaces tangible business value that teams can confidently take to finance and the C-suite.

Smooth Implementations and “Human” Delivery

Enterprise CLM implementations fail most often not because of the technology but because of how they are managed. Consilio's delivery model is built around that reality.

“With Ironclad, you can actually roll out in phases versus having to do a very long, drawn-out waterfall process,” David says. “You focus on a workflow at a time, so clients can start using the system quickly. There are a lot of advantages there.”

That approach builds the kind of trust that turns single implementations into long-term partnerships. “We have had multiphase, multiyear projects where clients keep bringing us back,” says Sandra Odigbo. “They tell us they see us as an extension of their team, and that level of trust shapes how they approach future phases and how they engage with Consilio and Ironclad over the long term.”

Consilio also operates as a direct feedback channel between clients and Ironclad. “I speak to the Ironclad team every day,” says Alfie Thackeray. “We give them open and honest feedback about the product, the way we deliver projects and the issues our clients are facing. This is a truly collaborative partnership. We are in a great position because we get to be the voice of the customer to Ironclad and the voice of the product to our customers.”

This combination of delivery discipline, embedded teams and ongoing feedback loops is a key way Consilio differentiates itself from more transactional implementation providers.

Built on Trust, Scale and a Shared Obsession with Outcomes

Underpinning the partnership is a shared focus on trust, communication and client outcomes.

“With Consilio, it is trust and their client obsession,” Troy says. “We trust each other explicitly, and we always work together to deliver outstanding client outcomes that drive real business results. That is why clients keep coming back to this platform and to the partnership.”

For Alfie, the strength of the product itself reinforces that trust. “The product keeps evolving in a way that makes sense for our clients,” he says. “That, combined with the way we design and support implementations, means customers see progress quickly and feel confident expanding what they do with the platform.”

For enterprise legal teams, the Consilio and Ironclad partnership delivers three things that are difficult to find together:

• Scale, through a dedicated Consilio Ironclad practice that has delivered more than 500joint projects and can support global, multiphase CLM programs.
• Measurable business outcomes, including thousands of hours of productivity gains and millions in contract value leakage saved, with legal ops now able to report on revenue acceleration, productivity gains and cost avoidance.
• Compliance and visibility, as standardized data and workflows turn contracts into a single source of truth, enabling dashboards and analytics that give leaders confidence in what has been agreed across the enterprise.

“As Ironclad and Consilio continue to invest in and innovate with AI, the opportunity only grows,” Troy notes. “Together we allow clients to gain contract efficiency that scales, insights that drive business outcomes and the compliance visibility businesses need.”