Five Ways Contract Intelligence Accelerates M&A

In this article, we discuss:

• How M&A teams speed up contract review
• The power of a secure, searchable data room
• Cutting costs without cutting corners

Mergers and acquisitions bring big opportunities—but also big questions. From financial obligations to vendor commitments, every contract holds key details that shape the success of a deal. The faster teams can surface this information, the more confidently they can move forward.

With Workday Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) and Workday Contract Intelligence, organizations gain real-time visibility into contracts, uncover potential risks, and accelerate decision-making. Here’s how Workday helps deal teams streamline M&A with greater accuracy and efficiency.

    1. Speed Up Contract Review With Instant Insights

Every M&A deal requires a deep dive into contracts—vendor agreements, customer commitments, employment terms, and financial obligations. Traditionally, reviewing these documents takes weeks or even months. With Workday, organizations can cut that time dramatically.

Instead of manually searching for key terms, Workday instantly scans thousands of contracts, surfacing renewal clauses, liabilities, and compliance risks in seconds. With quick access to critical insights, deal teams can focus on strategy, negotiation, and execution instead of getting lost in paperwork.

    2. Create a Smarter, More Secure Data Room

M&A teams work across departments, firms, and time zones, making seamless collaboration essential. A modern CLM system centralizes contracts in one secure, searchable repository, ensuring that the latest, most accurate documents are always at hand.

With Workday’s advanced search and filtering, teams can quickly locate key contract terms, risks, and obligations—eliminating the need to dig through scattered files. Integration with shared drives, enterprise tools, and e-signature platforms makes accessing, organizing, and analyzing contracts faster and easier.

    3. Spot Risks Before They Become Roadblocks

Not all contracts are created equal. Hidden clauses like indemnification terms, uncapped liabilities, or automatic renewals can impact deal value and introduce unexpected risks.

Workday helps teams identify potential red flags instantly. Whether it’s renewal deadlines, financial obligations, or compliance terms, deal teams can surface these critical details early, negotiate better terms, and avoid costly surprises after closing.

    4. Validate Revenue and Financial Commitments

A company’s contracts hold the key to its revenue. To ensure a fair deal, buyers need a clear picture of recurring revenue, long-term obligations, and vendor commitments.

Workday extracts key financial details from contracts in seconds, helping deal teams verify multi-year agreements, payment schedules, and revenue streams with confidence. When finance and legal teams have instant access to the right information, they can make faster, more informed decisions.

    5. Reduce Costs Without Cutting Corners

M&A activity is picking up, with deals over $1 billion increasing by 17% in 2024. But dealmakers still face challenges like rising interest rates, high valuations, and shifting regulations. According to PwC’s 2025 Global M&A Report, these factors are making it more important than ever for legal and finance teams to review contracts quickly and cost-effectively before making a deal.

Contract review is one of the most time-consuming and expensive parts of M&A. Legal teams often spend hours searching for key terms across thousands of agreements. Workday makes this process faster and easier, helping teams cut down review time and costs. Instead of getting stuck copying and pasting clauses, dealmakers can focus on strategy—without going over budget.

Stronger Deals Start With Better Contract Insights

No matter the pace of an acquisition, Workday CLM and Workday Contract Intelligence provide the insights needed to move forward with confidence. By eliminating manual contract reviews, centralizing critical documents, and surfacing key risks in real time, organizations can close deals faster and with greater precision.

Learn more about the power of Workday CLM and Workday Contract Intelligence.