Pramata is a radically simple end-to-end contract management platform. Pulse 2.0 interviewed Pramata chief technology officer (CTO) Pedram Abrari to learn more.
Pedram Abrari’s Background
Abrari is a technology leader and Silicon Valley veteran with over 20 years of experience in cloud computing, B2B platforms, and AI. Abrari said:
“I have been the CTO and VP of Engineering of numerous high-tech startups. I was also the co-founder and CTO of Corticon Technologies, an Enterprise Decision Management company that was acquired by Progress Software. I also had a stint in B2C when I joined forces with rock legend Neil Young to help revolutionize the digital music industry. I launched PonoMusic’s Kickstarter campaign, which, at the time, was the third most successful crowdfunding campaign in history, raising over $6 million from 18K backers. I started my career in aerospace, developing support systems for NASA’s Space Shuttle program. I have a B.S. in Computer Science from UCLA and an M.S. in Computer Science from USC.”
“I’m in charge of engineering and technology at Pramata and have a significant role in determining the product roadmap. I am also an evangelist for the company and an industry leader in applying Generative AI to contract management.”
Favorite Memory
What has been Abrari’s favorite memory working for Pramata so far?
Abrari shared:
“It’s not exactly a single memory but the joy of working in a high-caliber technology company with a fantastic corporate culture. It’s the confidence we have that there is no technical or business challenge we cannot overcome as a team.”
Challenges Faced
What are some of the challenges Abrari faced in building the company?
Abrari acknowledged:
“In the last couple of years, we have broadened our go-to-market strategy not only to help large enterprises but provide an end-to-end contract management solution for companies of all sizes. This has impacted every aspect of our business, including our product development. We re-architected Pramata’s platform to make it significantly leaner and more agile to meet the needs of smaller and mid-size businesses. Essentially, we had to convert a highly effective but complex Mack truck into a sleek, efficient formula one race car, and we managed to pull it off quite successfully.”
Core Products
What are Pramata’s core products and features?
Abrari explained:
“Pramata provides an end-to-end Contract Management Platform that offers complete visibility into contract data. It organizes contracts into a centralized, searchable repository and empowers users with self-service access to contract information. The platform’s central request features and simple workflows enhance collaboration and accelerate deal-making capabilities across various teams, including legal, sales, and finance. Moreover, Pramata ensures the delivery of accurate, up-to-date contracts, fostering trust and enabling informed decision-making so that in-house counsel teams can play an integral role in the business’s primary goals.”
Evolution Of Pramata’s Technology
How has Pramata’s technology evolved since launching?
Abrari noted:
“Pramata’s technology has gone through several evolutions over the years. When I joined Pramata over six years ago, we modernized the technology into a true cloud platform. We then established a first-of-its-kind standard contract object model used to organize contracts across a plethora of different businesses and domains. We then streamlined the product to shed technical debt that had accumulated over nearly a decade. Our goal was to build an intuitive, effective product that can evolve in a highly agile fashion, meeting our clients’ needs throughout the contract management lifecycle. We have leveraged this lean platform to expand our product from post-signature to pre-signature. We are now in the process of transforming Pramata into the GenAI Contract Management company.”
Significant Milestones
What have been some of Pramata’s most significant milestones?
As the CTO, Abrari decided to highlight technology and product milestones:
— Move Pramata to the cloud
— Deliver an industry-first Contract Standard Object Model
— Deliver the lean platform
— Deliver the pre-signature product
— Reinvent Pramata as a GenAI Contract Management company
Customer Success Stories
Upon asking about customer success stories, Abrari commented:
“Recently, we did a case study with the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), an organization that owns and operates financial and commodity marketplaces and exchanges. ICE implemented Pramata’s platform to centralize their contract management programs, improve digital access to contract data, and gain complete visibility into contract terms.”
“Not only did ICE find the implementation experience exceptional—with Pramata’s team and technology doing most of the heavy lifting—the organization was able to surpass its contract management goals. Pramata enabled ICE to automatically identify customer renewal teams so that they could proactively begin renewal discussions and accelerate revenue cycles. With complete visibility into contract data, ICE was also able to leverage historic contract terms to maximize outcomes during negotiations, as well as track vendor and supplier contracts across the entire organization to avoid unintentional renewals and duplicate services.”
“Another great example of Pramata’s capabilities is how the platform has been leveraged by FoodSmart General Counsel Michael Pappas. The company needed a solution to help wrangle numerous complex contracts spread across various business functions and departments. Since being implemented, FoodSmart has approximately 30 employees using it across the business to identify contract details and terms, locate templates, and activate contract data. According to Pappas, he now has much higher confidence in the company’s ability to manage contract processes and requests.”
Differentiation From The Competition
What differentiates Pramata from its competition? Abrari affirmed:
“We make contract management radically simple for less than the cost of a full-time employee, empowering contract management teams to be a primary driver of the business. Many of today’s CLM solutions suffer from feature-bloat, filled with too many bells & whistles that legal teams will never use, hindering adoption and making the solution too expensive and too complicated to use.”
“We like to say we give you ‘Everything you need and nothing you don’t.’ With years of experience under our belt, we have perfected our product to solve the most important contract management challenges. Pramata is a managed service which means we do the heavy lifting for our customers, although we also allow them to get hands-on if they choose to. Most importantly, our AI technology is backed by a team of lawyers, data scientists, and contract experts, ensuring delivery of accurate and effective contract data.”
“We’ve spent nearly two decades building and refining Pramata’s platform to deliver a robust contract standard object model (SOM). Our accelerated onboarding process, combined with our intuitive user interface, affordability, and AI capabilities, gives us a huge competitive advantage over our competition. Our commitment to delivering clean and accurate contract data has proven to be a significant differentiator in the Generative AI race. We are able to deliver GenAI functionality to solve highly sophisticated business challenges in ways that our competitors can’t even dream about.”
