A CLM RFP Checklist in the UK (2026)

A request for proposal (RFP) is only as good as the questions in it. A sharp CLM RFP forces every vendor to answer the same things on the same scope, so you compare fact against fact rather than demo against demo. This checklist gives UK buyers the sections and questions to include in 2026, with notes on what a good answer looks like. ## Before you write the RFP Do the groundwork first. Write a short problem statement, your contract volume and types, the lifecycle stages you must cover now, your integrations, your user count and your go-live date. Share this context in the RFP so vendors can scope honestly. A vague RFP gets vague, inflated answers; a specific one gets comparable ones. ## Section 1: Company and fit - Who are your typical customers by size and sector, and how many are UK based.

• Which contract types and volumes does the platform handle best.
• Describe a customer similar to us and the outcome they achieved.
• What are you genuinely not a good fit for. A confident vendor will concede where it does not fit. Treat "we do everything for everyone" as a warning sign. ## Section 2: Drafting and templates - How are templates built and maintained, and who can create them.
• Can business users self-serve a standard agreement within legal-approved guardrails.
• Does the tool generate contracts with AI, and how structured is the output.
• How are clause libraries and fallback positions managed. ## Section 3: Review, negotiation and AI - What does the AI extract and flag, and on which contract types.
• Can we run the AI on a sample of our own contracts during evaluation.
• How does redlining, clause comparison and version control work during negotiation.
• Is our contract data used to train your models, and can we opt out. Insist on testing the AI on your own documents. Vendor demo sets are curated. Your messy third-party paper is the real test. ## Section 4: Workflow, approvals and signature - How are approval routes configured, and can non-technical admins change them.
• Does the platform include e-signature or integrate with ours.
• How are conditional approvals and escalations handled. ## Section 5: Repository, search, renewals and reporting - Can we find any contract and any clause in seconds, with the current version clearly marked.
• How are key dates, renewals and obligations surfaced, and who gets alerted.
• What reporting is available on value, risk and cycle time out of the box. ## Section 6: Integrations and migration - Which CRM, storage and e-signature tools integrate natively.
• How is existing contract data migrated, and who does the work.
• What is the typical data quality after migration. ## Section 7: Security and UK compliance - Describe encryption in transit and at rest, role-based access and audit logging.
• Confirm UK GDPR handling, data residency options and retention controls, which the ICO expects you to be able to evidence.
• Do you offer SSO and SAML, and at which tier.
• List your security certifications with their dates, or state honestly if any are in progress. ## Section 8: Commercial terms This is where UK buyers lose time, because many leading platforms, such as Ironclad, Icertis and DocuSign CLM, are quote-only, so pricing is bespoke. Ask every vendor the same commercial questions: - Give a written quote for our exact user count and scope.
• Is pricing per seat, per contract or platform based, and what drives it up.
• What is included in the base price and what is an add-on.
• What are the implementation, migration and training fees.
• What is the contract term, renewal uplift and exit process. To anchor the comparison, include at least one vendor that publishes pricing. Adira is a useful example: Practice at about 89 US dollars per seat per month and Firm at about 179 US dollars per seat per month, both billed annually, with Enterprise custom and a 7-day trial. Billed in US dollars, these convert to roughly the equivalent in pounds, and local billing is worth confirming. Adira is an AI-native challenger built on Anthropic's Claude, not the UK category leader, and a UK team should verify UK jurisdiction depth in the trial. Having one transparent price in the mix makes the quote-only responses easier to judge. ## Section 9: Implementation and support - What is a realistic time to go live for a team like ours.
• What support and training is included, and what costs extra.
• Who owns configuration, us or you, and how much internal time should we plan for. ## Section 10: Scoring Score each response against weighted criteria that reflect your priorities, not the vendor's strengths. Weight your top problems highest. Require a proof of concept on your own contracts for the two or three best responses, and score adoption by how easily your team uses the tool without help. Keep the written quotes beside the scores so commercial terms stay in view. ## How to use this checklist Send the same questions to every vendor, give them your real context, and refuse to score anything that depends on a scripted demo. The best vendor is the one that answers plainly, concedes its limits, lets you test on your own data and gives you a clear price. Shortlist, trial, then decide on the evidence, because the tool your team will use every day beats the one that writes the best proposal. This article is general information, not legal advice.