CUSTOMER STORY – CONTRACT MANAGEMENT
Ottakringer Getränke AG
How an Austrian family-owned group with around 800 employees is moving from the Legal department’s traditional “full-service” model toward “legal self-Service”
At a Glance
Context
Born in Vienna, Ottakringer Getränke AG is a family-owned beverage group that exemplifies tradition and forward thinking. With subsidiaries like the Ottakringer Brewery, Vöslauer Mineral Water, and Del Fabro Kolarik, the group brings together excellence in beer production, sustainable mineral water bottling, and beverage distribution. But such diversity demands more than operational efficiency, it asks for legal agility.
In a company where operational excellence meet decades of craftsmanship, the Legal & Compliance department plays a critical role. Leading this evolution is the Legal Counsel, who champions Legal Tech and digitalization to build more agile, future-proof processes.
Our goal was to evolve from legal support to a strategic business enabler through contract management.
Lukas Gronold, General Counsel, Ottakringer Getränke AG
The Use Case
Brewing Innovation Through Legal Transformation
While Ottakringer already used contract management software, the growing complexity and pace of work pushed the Legal lead to rethink efficiency. The Legal lead didn’t see this growing volume of contracts to manage as a challenge but rather as a reality that they needed to tackle, and wasn’t going to stop soon.
The existing tools presented some limits, specially in terms of time consuming workflows (including physical signatures) and poor compliance processes.
Perhaps what is to note in the case of Ottakringer, is that this shift for efficiency didn’t come by a crisis but by an opportunity the legal teams saw. By questioning the status quo, the team saw the opportunity of changing CLMs to one that could deliver genuine efficiency gains. Another essential for the beverage company, was to find a scalable solution, one that could follow their pace.
Rethinking Legal Workflows for Efficiency and Empowerment
After some thorough search, DiliTrust was chosen as it ticked all the boxes. It met the team’s CLM requirements and offered extendable modules, such as Board Management, which Ottakringer also uses to this day. Among numerous benefits, the CLM allowed real-time collaboration regardless of the location, and a faster way to sign agreements through automated workflows. Not only could the legal team move faster, but other involved parties have visibility over their contracts. In addition, business units can now generate contracts from the CLM template library within minutes by answering a short questionnaire. This eliminates the need of going through legal for all requests, accelerating processes and overall business efficiency.
Ottakringer’s Legal Counsel emphasized, how they say the implementation as more than just technical deployment. “Bringing the CLM to life” involved data structuring, real use case development, and change management of course. The Legal Counsel was aware that only good training, communication and cross-functional efforts would lead to a mindset shift within the organization.
The implementation included integrating some existing tools in use, such as Adobe Sign and Word. As a result of all these efforts, DiliTrust was and is still widely adopted across teams, helping achieve the initial goal: moving from legal full-service to empowered legal self-service.
Building a Culture of Collaboration and Self-Service
After a careful selection process, Ottakringer chose DiliTrust for its ability to meet high standard CLM requirements and its scalable modular architecture. The rollout, while demanding, was strategically viewed as an opportunity to realign internal workflows and foster a culture of continuous improvement.
This implementation is more than a technical shift for Ottakringer. Indeed, it’s “about structuring data, building realistic use cases, and ensuring user engagement through ongoing change management.”
Today, the CLM and Board Management modules are used company-wide, integrated with Microsoft Word and Adobe Sign, with CRM integration under consideration. These tools have already transformed collaboration. Standardized tasks once handled solely by Legal can now be independently completed by the business under a “Legal Self-Service” model. As a result, legal experts have more time to focus on high-impact activities.
The feedback has been positive. “Very, cool. The tool has already saved us four hours of work,” reported one operational team member just weeks after
go-live.
Long-Term Impact is the Ultimate Goal
Ottakringer’s journey with DiliTrust is still unfolding, but the early results underscore a deeper transformation. The business went from isolated legal functions to integrated, strategic enablers of business value. As the Legal Counsel said:
“The objective of digitalization should be that it’s no longer questioned rationally.”
Ottakringer has plans to continue leading both in the beverage industry and in how legal departments are business drivers.
Before and After
