Here’s a compact, practical guide to choosing and implementing contract-management (CLM) software for telecom companies — what to look for, vendor options by use-case, and a short RFP/implementation checklist you can use right away.

Why telecom contracting is special (so your CLM must support):

• Very large volume of long-lived agreements (tower/site leases, interconnect/MNO agreements, OEM/device vendor rebates, service provider/partner SLAs).
• Complex, measurable SLAs and financial/penalty calculations that must tie to operations and billing.
• Need to integrate with OSS/BSS, ERP/billing (SAP, Oracle, Amdocs, etc.), procurement tools, and CRM (e.g., Salesforce).
• Multilingual, multi-jurisdiction compliance (tax, telecom regulation), many counterparty templates and clause variants.
  These needs drive requirements for automated obligation extraction, SLA monitoring/alerts, strong integrations, and analytics.

Vendor short-list (by typical telecom scenario)

• Tier‑1 / global telcos (scale, complex integrations, advanced analytics): Icertis — has a dedicated “Telecom” solution and large telco references (e.g., Airtel). (icertis.com)
• Post‑signature performance & SLA monitoring (heavy focus on managing supplier performance and value leakage): SirionLabs — recognized by analysts and with telecom SLA/alert use cases. (businesswire.com)
• Enterprise e‑signature + tightly integrated CLM workflows (sales + procurement use-cases): DocuSign CLM — positioned as an enterprise CLM leader in recent market assessments. (investor.docusign.com)
• Procurement-heavy / spend-management + CLM (if you want contracts tightly tied to sourcing and invoice‑to‑pay): Coupa (Source-to‑Contract + Telecom spend pages). (coupa.com)
• Highly configurable / no‑code platform (fast customization, mid-to-large deployments): Agiloft — used widely for business services and complex workflows. (agiloft.com)

Which features matter most for telecom (must-have)

• Obligation & clause extraction with SLA metric parsing (automated extraction, not manual tagging).
• SLA computation, breach detection and automated alerts (with audit trail and escalation flows).
• Native connectors / APIs to OSS/BSS, billing/ERP (SAP/Oracle/Amdocs), Salesforce, procurement systems (to tie contract terms to invoices/orders).
• Template & clause library + playbooks for regulatory/local variations and redline/negotiation workflows.
• Lifecycle triggers (renewal auto‑alerts, auto‑escalation for expiring tower leases), centralized repository with role-based access.
• Robust reporting, analytics and contract‑value capture (identify rebates, on‑contract vs off‑contract spend).
• Security, data residency and compliance controls (encryption, certifications, retention policies).

Practical RFP / evaluation checklist (top-line items)

• Core capability: automated metadata extraction, obligation tracking, SLA calculation engine.
• Integrations: list required systems (OSS/BSS, ERP/billing, Salesforce, procurement) — ask for existing connectors and API docs.
• Post‑signature: Does vendor provide ongoing performance monitoring, invoice reconciliation, penalty/credit workflows? (very important for telecom).
• Data migration: plan and estimate for migrating legacy contracts (volume, languages, non‑standard templates).
• Configurability: no‑code rules engine for creating custom workflows and SLA rules.
• Search & analytics: full-text, clause-level search, dashboards and exportable reports.
• Security & compliance: SOC2/ISO27001, support for data-residency and regulatory auditing.
• TCO: licensing model (per-user vs. per-contract vs. enterprise), implementation services, integration and ongoing support costs.
• References: ask for live telecom references and one or two case studies for similar use cases (tower leases, SLA monitoring, OEM rebates).

Implementation approach & best practices

• Start with a high-value pilot: choose 1–2 contract types that deliver quick ROI (e.g., tower leases or large OEM rebate programs).
• Clean and standardize data first: taxonomy, party names, clause normalization — spend time mapping out the most common templates.
• Build clause/library & playbooks during pilot so negotiations and approvals are automated quickly.
• Integrate early with billing/ERP for automated invoice validation against contract terms — that’s how you capture real value.
• Measure KPIs: cycle time reduction, SLA breaches detected/avoided, on‑contract spend %, and value recovered from rebate/penalty enforcement.
• Change management: get Legal, Procurement, Finance, Operations and Network teams aligned; set governance for redlines/approved deviations.

Short recommendation (next steps you can take this week)

1. Identify 2–3 contract types to pilot (e.g., tower leases + 1 major supplier).
2. Use the RFP checklist above to reach out to 3 shortlisted vendors (Icertis, SirionLabs, and one CLM with procurement strength like Coupa or DocuSign CLM). Ask for telecom references and a short demo focused on SLA/obligation monitoring and an OSS/BSS integration example. (icertis.com)
3. Request a fixed-scope pilot proposal (60–120 days) that includes data migration of a sample set of contracts, one integration, and measured KPIs.

If you want, I can:

• Draft a telecom-focused RFP template based on the checklist above.
• Produce a 1-page pilot scope you can send to vendors (includes sample deliverables and KPIs).

Which of those would you like me to prepare?