How Pennylane signed 2,500 contracts in one year without quadrupling its legal team

With rapid growth and the e-invoicing reform, Pennylane needed a solution that could sign fast, at scale, without losing control of its risk.

• 2,500 contracts signed in 12 months,
• A contracts team that did not have to quadruple in size,
• Fast adoption of Tomorro by the business teams.

Pennylane's legal team explains how Tomorro helped it become a partner in the company's growth.

Pennylane's challenge

A company growing at Pennylane's pace signs contracts all the time: with its clients, partners, suppliers and freelancers.

This kind of growth can break in two ways. Either contracts wait for legal approval and the business slows down. Or they are signed without review and the company loses control of its risk.

“We couldn't tell ourselves we would hire a new lawyer at every new stage of growth.”

The e-invoicing reform added a time constraint. To prepare for it, Pennylane formed strategic partnerships with several hundred software publishers, while continuing to sign with its accounting firm clients. For the company, it was a major business opportunity. For the legal team, it had to be ready to support the partnerships and sales teams and move very fast, while protecting Pennylane's interests.

How Pennylane uses Tomorro

Rather than routing every contract through legal, Pennylane used Tomorro to standardize and automate its contract processes with every team in the company.

A secure framework for the whole ecosystem

The legal team standardized the client terms and conditions, then built a clear framework for the whole ecosystem: partners, accountants, suppliers and freelancers. Templates and clauses are approved upfront.

Autonomous business teams

Within this framework, teams create their contracts, negotiate them and send them for signature without involving legal at every step.

A legal team focused on what falls outside the framework

Lawyers step in on assignments and contracts that fall outside the framework, and on long, strategic negotiations.

“Thanks to Tomorro, I spend less time being a bottleneck for the teams. Things move faster, and I can focus on topics with more impact for Pennylane.”

How onboarding went

Before Tomorro, teams drafted their contracts in Word. It took about an hour to draft a contract, with more or less standardized clauses, and legal was involved at every stage of the contracting process.

The switch to Tomorro was easy. Paul Medioni, in charge of partnerships, says he got the hang of it by the second contract he generated. The first was sent to legal for review, which suggested a more suitable clause. The second went straight out.

“The learning curve for Tomorro was, like, two contracts.”

This is a decisive point in a CLM project: legal chooses the tool, but it is the business teams who use it every day. At Pennylane, they adopted it immediately.

Tomorro's day-to-day impact at Pennylane

• Volume absorbed without mass hiring. 2,500 contracts signed in 12 months, without quadrupling the contracts team.
• Autonomous teams. Partnerships, sales and operations handle their routine contracts from creation to signature.
• Controlled risk. Every contract is signed within a framework defined and approved by legal.
• A legal team refocused on strategy. Lawyers spend their time on high-stakes negotiations.
• A legal team that contributes to the business. The legal team takes a direct part in the company's growth.

“We managed to significantly increase the number of contracts signed while keeping our risks under control.”

Watch the video testimonial