CNG Holdings, a 30+ year old consumer finance company headquartered in Cincinnati, oversees a vast network of lending brands and services across 30+ states. With stringent regulatory requirements at both the federal and state levels, contract oversight is mission-critical.
Andrea Andre, the Chief Legal and Compliance Officer, leads the legal, compliance, quality assurance, and customer advocacy functions at CNG. With 70+ vendors, a complex regulatory environment, and an expanding scope of responsibilities, Andrea and her team needed a solution that could streamline contract review, drive consistency, and return valuable time to her team.
Key challenges at CNG
Like many in-house legal teams, Andrea’s group was overwhelmed by the volume of agreements—ranging from 20 to 60 pages each—and the manual review process was consuming valuable strategic bandwidth.
One of Andrea’s direct reports was spending up to half his week reviewing contracts, which made it difficult to prioritize the strategic projects that drive revenue growth. On top of time constraints, Andrea identified inconsistent language in existing agreements—introducing legal risk and potential disadvantage to the organization.
As a result, the team realized it needed:
- A faster, more consistent way to review high-volume contracts
- A partner that could adapt to their specific needs—not sell them unnecessary tools
- Risk mitigation that aligned with their internal policies, procedures, and checklists
Onboarding Ivo in less than 5 minutes
After evaluating multiple vendors, Andrea discovered Ivo. Unlike other tools designed primarily for law firms, Ivo’s flexibility and ease of use stood out—especially its seamless plug-in for reviewing documents directly within Word or PDF.
“It was exactly as advertised. With other vendors, you end up with four tools you don’t need. With Ivo, it’s a click of a button.” - Andrea Andre, Chief Legal and Compliance Officer at CNG
The implementation process was frictionless. After a quick internal approval, Andrea’s IT team had Ivo up and running in under five minutes.
Transforming Legal Review at Scale
Initially leveraging Ivo’s out-of-the-box features, the legal team later built out their own internal playbooks and checklists, unlocking even greater value.
The results have been clear:
- 20–40 hours/week saved for team members previously tied up in manual reviews
- Quick-turn contract edits for complex agreements—what once took an hour can now take only 10 minutes
- Fewer missed risks, thanks to Ivo surfacing hidden clauses like exclusivity or auto-renewals buried in 30+ page contracts
From Checkbox Compliance to Strategic Counsel
By offloading the heavy lift of manual review, CNG’s legal team gained back time to contribute where it matters most—product launches, revenue-driving initiatives, and strategic deal structuring.
The tool also sharpened internal processes: as Ivo flagged risks, CNG was able to evolve its internal checklists and playbooks, creating stronger guardrails for future reviews.
Today, Ivo is used across all vendor and lease agreements, NDAs, and financial engagement contracts—ensuring every agreement adheres to CNG’s internal standards.
Advice for Legal Teams Exploring AI
For teams exploring AI-powered contract review, CNG offers this advice:
- Know your “why”: Time savings are great, but aligning Ivo to bigger strategic goals—like risk mitigation or unlocking team capacity—is where real impact happens.
- Tailor it to your team: Combine Ivo’s built-in capabilities with your internal checklists to get the most out of the tool.
- Keep it simple: Implementation was seamless—less than five minutes once approved. And unlike other platforms, Ivo delivered exactly what was promised.
