A CLM RFP Checklist in Singapore (2026)

A request for proposal is only as good as its questions. A weak RFP collects marketing answers that all sound alike; a strong one forces vendors to reveal the differences that matter once the tool is live. If you are running a CLM selection in Singapore in 2026, this checklist gives you the categories and the sharp questions to include, so you can compare proposals on substance. Use it as a starting structure and cut it down to what matters for your ranked requirements, because a bloated RFP is as unhelpful as a thin one. ## Before you write the RFP Do the groundwork first, because an RFP sent before you know what you need produces noise. Define and rank your problems, split must-haves from nice-to-haves, and agree who the evaluators are and how you will score. Decide your scope: how many full and light users, your contract volume and types, and the integrations you depend on. Set a realistic timeline that includes a hands-on trial, not just a paper evaluation, because the trial is where proposals are confirmed or disproved. Share enough context in the RFP for vendors to answer precisely, including your jurisdiction, your data-handling obligations under the Personal Data Protection Act, and the problems you are solving. A well-scoped RFP gets you useful answers; a vague one gets you brochures. ## Core capability questions Ask vendors to answer against your real workflow, not in the abstract. The questions that reveal the most include these. How does drafting work, and can business users self-serve from locked templates with pre-approved fallbacks? How does AI review perform, and will you run it on our own contracts during the trial? How does extraction capture parties, value, dates and key clauses, and how accurate is it on messy scanned documents? How does the approval workflow route by value and risk, handle exceptions and record an audit trail? How are renewals, obligations and key dates tracked and alerted, and to whom? How does search work, and can it find a specific clause across the estate? For each, ask for a demonstration on your paper rather than a claim, because every vendor will say yes to a feature in writing. ## Data, security and PDPA questions This category is where many proposals look identical until you ask precisely. Where is our data stored, and are data-residency options available? What encryption is used in transit and at rest? How does role-based access work, and is single sign-on available? Are there audit logs of who viewed and changed each contract? What is the retention and deletion policy, and can we control it? Crucially, do you train your AI models on our contract data, and if so can we opt out? Adira, for example, states it does not train on the customer contract corpus, which is the kind of specific answer you want in writing from every vendor. For a Singapore buyer, map each answer to your Personal Data Protection Act obligations, since you remain responsible for the personal data in your contracts regardless of which vendor holds it. ## Commercial and pricing questions Because most of the market is quote-only, make the RFP force clear numbers. Ask for a first-year all-in figure including implementation, and a three-year total cost including expected renewal increases. Ask exactly how seats are counted, and whether light business users cost the same as full users, because that one point can double or halve the total. Ask what is included in each tier and what costs extra, especially AI, analytics and obligation management. Ask about contract length, notice periods and price-increase caps. A transparent benchmark helps you read the answers: Adira publishes Practice at about 89 US dollars per seat a month and Firm at about 179 US dollars per seat a month, both billed annually, which for a Singapore buyer convert to roughly the equivalent in Singapore dollars at the prevailing rate, with local billing to confirm. Use that as a reference point when quote-only vendors send ranges. ## Implementation, support and vendor questions The tool is half the purchase; the rollout and relationship are the other half. Ask how implementation works, who does the configuration, and how long a team like yours typically takes to go live. Ask how data migration is handled, since it is routinely underestimated, and who is responsible for cleaning and mapping existing contracts. Ask what training is provided for actual users, not just administrators. Ask what support levels exist and what response times you can expect. And ask about the vendor itself: how long they have operated, who their comparable customers are, and what is on the roadmap, since this is a multi-year relationship. Request references you can actually speak to. ## Scoring and the trial An RFP without a scoring method produces an argument, not a decision. Agree weighted scores against your ranked must-haves before the proposals arrive, so you judge on your priorities rather than on who presents best. Shortlist two or three from the written responses, then run a structured trial on your own contracts with a scorecard that tests the same tasks for each: review accuracy on your clauses, self-service by a non-lawyer, a contract through your real approval path, clause search and time-to-signature. Include an AI-native challenger such as Adira alongside the incumbents so you have a transparent-pricing comparison, and verify any India-first tool's Singapore coverage during the trial. Score the trial, not the demo, and let the evidence decide. ## The bottom line A strong CLM RFP in Singapore does the groundwork first, asks capability, data, commercial and vendor questions sharply enough to force real answers, and insists on demonstration over claims. Put your PDPA obligations and the training-on-your-data question in writing, make quote-only vendors give first-year and three-year totals, and anchor the pricing with a transparent benchmark such as Adira's published plans. Then score a hands-on trial on your own contracts against weighted must-haves. The RFP narrows the field; the trial makes the decision. This article is general information, not legal advice.