Issue

iCertis Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) solution is being rolled out for enterprise-wide contract management, focusing on other areas within Syensqo (Sales, Procurement and Legal), the HR team identified to explore if this tool can better manage their contract lifecycle processes on the HR contracts. With the recent change to bring iCertis as a CLM solution as part of the ERP rebuild program, streamlining contract creation-to-execution and seamlessly integrating with CRM and ERP systems for efficient operational execution (sales, procurement and legal contracts), HR could explore to benefit from this change

After an in-depth review of the iCertis capability for HR Contracts, it appears to be that it is a very advanced CLM designed for Complex, Multi-Party, Multi-Stage Contracting.

It is important to recognize that the primary objective is to identify a solution specifically suited for generating HR employment contracts. These contracts are generally less complex and less bespoke than commercial agreements. As such, the selected solution should prioritize usability, efficiency, and consistency over advanced customization capabilities typically required for commercial contracting.

By clearly understanding the complexity of Commercial HR contracts and what we include under standard employment contracts, we can make an informed decision on the most suitable approach.

Our key design question is Should Syensqo adopt Icertis for HR Contract Management—replacing OpenText—to streamline processes, improve Site HR communication, and address existing operational inefficiencies? In addition, to what extent can Icertis overcome the template-creation limitations currently present in Paradox?

Today we are bringing 3 options to define what could be our strategy going forward:

1. Keep current solution using OpenText
2. Hybrid approach, using iCertis together with OpenText
3. Make iCertis the global solution for HR Contracts

Recommendation

Option A), Keep current solution using OpenText. 

Although long-term best practice would be to shift into Icertis, our recommendation is that we stay with OpenText. Why to take this approach?

• Our HR contracts are often relatively standardized (template-based), so strong template management in OpenText is very valuable.

• OpenText has a long history of strong document governance makes it a reliable and secure choice.

• OpenText is especially good for standardized, predictable workflows whereas Icertis excels in complex multi-party negotiations, not simple HR flows.

• Our use cases are “simple” contracting (employment, confidentiality, contractor), OpenText might be more than sufficient.

• There is no evidence of a standard, out-of-the-box integration between Icertis and SAP SuccessFactors.
• GBS People Services has access to generate contracts, and it could be a future consideration to extend it to Employees through Employee Self service while icertis has limited Employee Self Service

Background & Context

The current end to end Lead to HR Contracts Management process includes different tools and stakeholders to support the process:

• Templates are previously created in PowerDocs by People Services.
• Once the Onboarding process is completed, SAP SuccessFactors triggers an email to People Services queue in helix;
• People Services start the process by reviewing new hire data and request additional data to Site HR, via googleforms.
• With this additional information completed, People Service generates the contract under PowerDocs, and send it back to Site HR via DocuSign
• Site HR reviews and, in agreement, signs the contract within DocuSign
• Contract is sent to the new hire, via DocuSign.
• Storage is done within OpenText.

There are some exceptions to this process, as per legal constraints in Italy (Offer Letter is used as the official Contract) and China (eSignature is not legal).

The current OpentText solution primarily serves the HR department, managing and storing HR documents (mostly contracts or offer letters). Each country uses OpenText for specific purposes (table below).

While the present system supports the required capabilities, it still poses a number of challenges, including:

• There is no enterprise-wise governance 
• Limitations and Inefficiencies on Contract Templates Creation within Paradox
• Insufficient automation in contract workflows prolongs communication and review cycles, decreasing productivity for HR teams.
• Lack of system driven insights prevents timely contract generation and enhances potential of missing data
• Limited HR Contracts historical tracking and reporting

A more comprehensive contract lifecycle management solution offering modern and advanced features, Gen AI capabilities and out of the box integrations could be interesting to leverage in a long run for our HR Document management processes.

Icertis is typically recommended for HR Contract Management and considered Leading Practice when

• You are already using SAP SuccessFactors,
• You have a high volume of HR/legal agreements
• You need global, multi-jurisdictional HR compliance
• You want cross-department visibility (e.g., HR ↔ Legal ↔ Finance)
• You plan to automate workflows (e.g., triggered by SuccessFactors events)

Assumptions

• The decision to review and analyze the validity of the iCertis tool for HR Contracts is based on the decision by Sales, Purchasing and Legal teams to use the same tool. The scope of this KDD is focused on the validity of iCertis as an integrated enterprise CLM solution aligned with Syensqo's overall HR needs
• SAP SuccessFactors will serve as core for HRIS (SF Employee Central).
• Recruitment and Onboarding/Offboarding processes will be conducted within SAP SuccessFactors.Some actions can be done within existing external platform
• HR Contract Trigger points from SuccessFactors require collaboration from Recruiting, Onboarding and Employee Central technical teams

Constraints

• No enterprise-wise governance for usage of OpenText and each country uses it for specific purposes.

Impacts

• Gaining buy-in from stakeholders who may be see the existing solution as adequate.
• Effective governance is essential for implementing standard contract templates across GBU's and the relevant ownership will be required to support this governance
• Detail design sessions required to fully map Syensqo’s HR Documents needs and the detailed integration between SuccessFactors, iCertis and OpenText.

Business Rules

Proposed business rules include:

• All HR Contracts must be triggered from SuccessFactors and issued from OpenText to ensure consistency and compliance
• Known exceptions for Italy or China, as well as any other exceptions must be reviewed from a Legal point of view.
• Process for HR Sites where volume of hires is small (rule must be defined), must be discussed
• Syensqo Site HR and People Services are responsible for maintaining and updating the library of contract clauses and templates.

Options considered

Option A: Keep existing HR Contract solution, using PowerDocs, OpenText and DocuSign

Objective: This solution means that SyWay will not be doing any changes to the current HR Contract Management solution. Few changes within SuccessFactors may still be accommodated and must be discussed within the Workshops.

Key Advantages:

• Maintains continuity by keeping existing processes in place
• No change management or operational impacts.
• Avoids costs and disruptions associated with system changes or integration efforts

Key Challenges:

• More complex landscape and less consistency between different countries.
• Data fragmentation between different systems can increase risk of inconsistent informacion and increases operational inefficiency.
• Limited ability to enforce legal standards, regulations and corporate policies and track contractual obligations and volume commitments.
• Unable to leverage advanced analytics and AI technology to address new challenges and capitalize on emerging opportunities
• No alignment with ERP Rebuild program objectives to standardize & simplify the process and infrastructure, potentially leading to strategic misalignment and missed opportunities for synergies

Option B: Keep existing HR Contract tools OpenText and DocuSign, implementing iCertis into HR Contract Management as well

Objective: This option promotes the implementation of the iCertis Contract Management HR capabilities, integrating it with SuccessFactors and OpenText to enhance cross-functional collaboration, information accuracy, greater compliance and enhanced operational efficiency. This is considered to be a short-term hybrid approach to minimize disruption and accelerate value, bringing potential scalability in long-term. OpenText is kept for HR Document archives while Icertis would be added for HR contracts generation

Key Advantages

• Leading Practice: Hybrid is a widely accepted transition model in large enterprises. HR contracts can stay archived in OpenText though generated and managed via Icertis.
• Solution Architecture: Mature approach. You keep robust archiving and intelligent CLM, especially if you integrate Icertis → OpenText post-signature. Keeps file retention policies intact
• Costs: Lower incremental cost: No need to fully re-engineer HR storage; avoid migrating all legacy contracts to Icertis.
• Implementation Effort: Less disruptive. Continue using OpenText for simple storage while gradually standing up Icertis for HR workflows.
• Security & Privacy: OpenText is SAP-integrated and well-proven for HR file security. If roles and access are cleanly defined across both systems, hybrid can be secure.

Key Challenges:

• Leading Practice: Hybrid is often transitional, not a long-term ideal. You may end up with dual sources of truth if governance isn't tight.
• Solution Architecture: Risk of fragmentation: Contracts "live" in Icertis but also stored in OpenText. Needs clean API-based sync or middleware.
• Costs: Maintaining two systems may incur ongoing support, integration, and compliance costs — even if capex is lower now.
• Implementation Effort: Requires effort for discussions to ensure cross country alignment (HR and IT) and to build and test integrations between Icertis, OpenText, and SuccessFactors
• Security & Privacy: More systems = more complexity in managing access rights, audits, and data handling policies. Risk of duplication or inconsistent controls.

Option C: Replace existing HR Contract solution by iCertis for Contract Lifecycle Management

This option promotes the implementation of the iCertis Contract Management HR capabilities for end-to-end HR contract lifecycle. It integrates it with SuccessFactors and DocuSign for eSignature, aiming to standardize all contract workflows in iCertis. OpenText is decommissioned in a phased-out approach. This is considered to be a medium to long-term approach.

Key Advantages:

• Leading Practice: Aligns with modern enterprise CLM best practices: one platform to manage all contracts across functions, including HR.
• Solution Architecture: Cleaner, centralized architecture. Easier to maintain workflows, version control, and contract intelligence under one system.
• Costs: Since Icertis is already being deployed, and proper licensing has been accommodated, no incremental cost is expected for now. You eliminate OpenText-related license, support, and integration costs for HR.
• Implementation Effort: Initial lift is heavier (especially for legacy contract migration), but long-term simplifies maintenance and user training.
• Security & Privacy: Single platform means tighter access controls, easier audit trails, and centralized policy enforcement (e.g., data retention, GDPR/CCPA compliance).

Key Challenges:

• Leading Practice: Some conservative orgs may prefer OpenText for HR docs due to familiarity, especially for employee file storage (non-contractual).
• Solution Architecture: You may need to replicate some archival/document management functions from OpenText into Icertis.
• Costs: May involve upfront migration costs, particularly to move historical HR contracts from OpenText into Icertis.
• Implementation Effort: Migrating templates, legacy contracts, and workflows is non-trivial, especially if HR processes are highly customized.

Security & Privacy: Icertis must be tightly configured to meet HR-specific privacy requirements (PII, role-based access, etc.) — but this is achievable.

Evaluation

	Option A: Keep current solution using OpenText	Option B: Hybrid approach, using Icertis together with OpenText	Option C:Make iCertis the global solution for HR Contracts
Solution Architecture Leading Practice	Legacy practice, not ideal. More complex landscape and less consistency between different countries. Data fragmentation between different systems can increase risk of inconsistent information and increases operational inefficiency	Practical short-to-mid-term approach. Keeps some complexity, although already making use of a CLM platform. There is still risk of some operational inefficency. Key employee data from SuccessFactors can be synchronized with Icertis, ensuring that contract data is always up-to-date	Practical short-to-mid-term approach. Keeps some complexity, although already making use of a CLM platform. There is still risk of some operational inefficency. Key employee data from SuccessFactors can be synchronized with Icertis, ensuring that contract data is always up-to-date
Scalability & Future-Proofing	Limited scalability and adaptability to future needs	With Icertis already in place, it brings much possible scalability towards option C. We could already benefit of generation of other HR documents such as Offer Letters or NDAs	Using Advanced Analytics and AI technology adds contract management potential and mitigate risks.
Implementation & Maintenance Efforts	No additional effort.  No migration needed	There will be efforts on architecture design and Icertis implementation and integration with SuccessFactors, OpenText and DocuSign. Still some systems to maintain. No migration needed as contracts are stored in OpenText	Heavier lift but simplified in future as there is only one enterprise-wide system to maintain. Contract migration to Icertis must be considered
User Adoption and Experience	No additional effort	Less change management required. Integration with SuccessFactors allow for automatic triggers from Onboarding, Offboarding or EC events	Significant changes management and training effort needed as users must adapt to new platform HR can track in-prog, pending, and executed contracts across ELC with dashboards — not just files in folders
Costs	No costs	No impact for ramp-up timing.  Potential impacts if additional licenses are required in the future (HR, or any other area). Licenses are by volume of licenses, independent of the area. Potential additional costs for maintenance.	No impact for ramp-up timing.  Potential impacts if additional licenses are required (HR, or any other area). Licenses are by volume of licenses, independent of the area. Potential additional costs for maintenance. Potential additional costs for document storage volume Cost saving as PowerDocs and OpenText would be decommissioned
Security, Legal & Compliance	Lack of robust audit trail and version control	Could already take advantage of Icertis capabilities, such as Role-based access control, but would not cover the entire process.  Solid, but more touchpoints to manage	Role-based access control Integrated regulatory compliance framework, with risk policies and real-time reporting. More centralized and auditable. Data consistency and automatic contract updates, reduces the potential for legal disputes or compliance issue

See also

Change log