Case Studies
Johnston County, N.C.
How a rapidly growing county replaced paper chaos with modern contract control, with expert help from Marshfield Consulting.
Overview
Johnston County, North Carolina, is undergoing rapid expansion, which has meant growing complexity in procurement and contract oversight. Facing mounting challenges, the county turned to Marshfield Consulting to reshape how agreements are created, reviewed, and maintained, moving from manual processes to a structured system using Docusign CLM.

The Challenges
Located in a high-growth region, Johnston County has seen a dramatic rise in infrastructure and service needs. Since 2007, Pam Radford has worked for Johnston County. She has served in the county’s Finance office as the Purchasing Agent and was instrumental in founding a centralized purchasing department in 2014. That change shifted contract responsibilities from individual departments to a more cohesive model, though much of the process still relied on folders, physical signatures, and spreadsheets.
Radford began organizing and logging contracts herself, scanning PDFs into a basic database. Over time, it became clear that the process could no longer support the volume, complexity, or regulatory demands the county now faced.
Prior to bringing in Marshfield, the contract process was slow, inconsistent, and lacked transparency. Every department handled its own contracts, often keeping the only copy, not sharing final signed contracts with Finance stakeholders, or even overlooked to obtain the final signature from vendors. This led to gaps during audits and created confusion around which contracts were active.
Other issues included:
- Unnecessary burden on the legal team to review physical documents
- Inability to track expiration dates reliably
- Manual edits that required printing and retyping
- Scattered supporting materials, making responses to information requests more difficult
- IT concerns over software tool subscriptions being purchased without central oversight
- General risk of documents being misplaced or lost
These problems became more pressing as the county continued to grow and took on larger, more complex service agreements.
Marshfield’s Solution
After an earlier vendor proved unable to support key requirements including legal collaboration, Marshfield Consulting was brought in at the recommendation of Docusign. Marshfield developed a solid, attainable plan aligned with the county’s clear priorities:
- Create visibility into all agreements
- Support compliance with state purchasing rules
- Speed up review and execution steps
- Cut down on legal delays
- Monitor renewals and expirations in real time
- Use standardized language and templates to simplify internal approvals
Marshfield’s tailored CLM setup matched Johnston County’s needs without forcing a rigid or overly technical system on users new to structured workflows.
The new setup included:
- Digital routing and approval with alerts
- The ability to edit and comment directly within the document
- A central place where all agreements could be found and searched
- Templates and pre-approved language for repeat use
- Automatic tracking of contract deadlines
Pam Radford described Marshfield as flexible and supportive, noting, “They’ve worked with us through everything we’ve asked for and never made us feel like our needs were too much.”
Getting started with a new system always takes some adjustment. Early on, users had to rethink how they handled contracts day-to-day. Marshfield supported this transition by customizing the process to fit what staff were already doing, but with better control and fewer headaches.
Benefits & Results
One major breakthrough came when the legal team began reviewing and redlining contracts directly in the system. They no longer had to rely on printed copies or wait until they were in the office to make changes. That step alone cut turnaround time significantly and helped departments move their projects forward faster.
While the county is still adding more agreements into the system, several gains are already evident:
- Legal edits now happen faster, and can be done remotely
- Contracts are signed and finalized in less time
- Every agreement is now stored with its corresponding supporting documents
- Requests for public information are easier to fulfill
- Departments appreciate how simple the system is to use
- Contract expirations are flagged before they become urgent
- Standard formatting has improved how documents appear, giving them a cleaner, more professional look
Radford also highlighted how this new process helps her office keep control over software subscriptions and other purchases, areas that previously operated without much coordination or oversight.
Conclusion
The next phase will include bringing in the county’s most complex agreements—those handled by the Public Utilities department. These often require notarized forms, engineering documents, and multiple internal approvals. The county plans to keep expanding its use of Docusign CLM and expects to add reporting and certificate of insurance tracking features over time.
Johnston County has moved far beyond physical folders and manual email chains. With expert implementation and support from Marshfield Consulting, they now manage their contracts with clarity, speed, and dependability. They’re building a foundation that can handle both today’s demands and tomorrow’s growth, while also being good stewards of taxpayer money.
More Case Studies

The Detroit Pistons
Case Studies How Marshfield helped the Detroit Pistons slam dunk on their contract management challenges Overview The Detroit Pistons, as a leading sports organization, manages

OnSolve
A leading critical event management software provider tapped Marshfield Consulting to consolidate contract management systems and build automations that enable Sales reps to choose appropriate terms and review options for numerous deal types — drastically improving contract completion times, trust in data accuracy, and visibility into contract status.

Provide
Case Studies How Provide Achieved a 50% Reduction in Loan Approval Letter Generation Time Overview A leading financial services provider in the healthcare sector tapped