cloud-based contract management system

A majority of business operations are managed by contracts. Contracts are an integral part of any company. Even if yours is a small business or a massive corporation There is a high likelihood that you'll be dealing with numerous contracts . For example, partnership agreements non-disclosure agreements general employment contracts, property and equipment contracts and more. How effectively are you managing these contracts? Do your operations rely on paper or spreadsheets, as well as other outdated systems? Have you considered moving to contract management systems? If yes, then this article is for YOU.

contract management

Before investing in a contract management software, be sure to study these seven questions in order to avoid any pitfalls.

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Does the software come with AI capabilities?

contract life cycle management

The sheer volume of contractsin the market, maintaining consistency, managing contracts and retrieving essential information poses an enormous problem. Companies may not have a common method of organizing contract databases. For instance, your company has an abundance of procuring contracts that have various renewal dates and terms for renegotiation. A group of people could spend hours tracing, reviewing and tracking the data to ensure the right opportunities are not missed. Instead, if you go for an AI-powered contract management system, the job can be accomplished in a matter of minutes. By using Doc.AI capabilities, the information like the title of the contract, the date of renewal or negotiation conditions can be extracted. This helps with review, approvals and signing offs.

software contract management

But that's not the only thing about it. Further, advanced contract management systems with AI capabilities can aid in the review of contract clauses, compare clauses and sort contracts according to the type of clauses. AI-enabled CMS will assist with maintaining compliance with evolving rules. NLP analyses every document and points out the dangers and opportunities.

solution provider contract management software

Are there templates that are standard for contract drafting and editing?

best contract management software

The writing of contracts is among the most difficult things to do. Imagine how difficult it could make it to prepare documents with similar clauses along with terms and conditions language, and nearly identical content a lot of times. This is why your CMS should include templates that are simple to use and clause libraries that cover several areas. Utilizing these templates, approved by your editorial and legal teams, you are able to quickly draft contracts that do not have any grammar or language issues. Plus, a provision to standardize and centralize contracts gives you 360-degree views on the contracts. You can track them using custom filters and collaborate with your peers to look over changes, modify and store.

What is the ROI potential? How much money can my business save?

The savings numbers are largest argumentative factors that can help you decide whether you should consider investing in a contract management system or not. A study conducted by Goldman Sachs concluded that an automated contract management system can make negotiations more efficient by fifty percent, reduce payments errors by between 75 and 90 percent, cut the cost that managing contracts is between 10 and 30 percent and reduce the number of employees required to manage contracts by between 10 and 20 percent. Also, it is true that managing contracts indeed can be a cost-effective option, if chosen correctly.

Ideally, you should think about factors such as the time spent in audits and monitoring renewal dates, reduction in contract disputes or the creation of new opportunities and reduction of sales cycle.

Is the solution adaptable?

Almost every provider in today's market boasts to offer an approach that is designed to the requirements of every company. However, is this really the case? Instead of spending a fortune software contract management on customization, thoroughly describe the workflowprocess, essential processes to be improved, and look into options by asking more precise questions.

A good example is: in a typical contract management workflow where the person who drafts the documents it is routed by the system the document to the person who approves. If you don't want to stop at this basic functionality, a different approach can be a notification via email that includes the document's link to the approver. The link should work or work with every device - smartphones, tablets as well as desktops.

But, highly customizable software can also mean cumbersome and complex to operate, and its simplicity might be insufficient. So, it's always a prudent idea to study what the options are and the expertise of the staff that will be using the software , and after that, decide on how to modify it.

What are some of the exclusive features or points that can help reduce manual tasks?

A contract management software system stores contracts saved in a central, secure and searchable repository that has user-based access. This allows the best compliance and large-scale reports. For instance, contracts can be traced easily and the review and signing is made easier by e-signatures. A further example would be the use of measurement and analytics. To find out data on how long it took an agreement to be negotiated, customers can easily look at gaps, analyze the number that iterations were made and then prepare detailed reports. This can also assist in adding to clause libraries, in getting insight into past performance, and cutting down on the time it takes to negotiate contracts.

Another important aspect to look out for is contract redlining or editing. Redlining is when the text is highlighted to signify changes, additions, deletions, approvals and rejections. This feature is very useful particularly when two or more individuals wish to work on the same document together. This feature gives more range of flexibility in reviewing and negotiating contracts.

How simple is it to deploy and use?

A contract management system which has a simple interface, easy-to-use features will be highly regarded by your users. To get the most benefit, in the process of deploying, it is best to connect it to current systems that cut down on the time spent on navigating from one platform to another. Example, integrating CRM with the new contract software might allow sales staff to automatically feed information about customers, create contracts , and then route them to approval, as well as keeping track of renewals, expirations and other dates.

The next step is to look for the onboarding process. Ideal if you have an out-of-the-box solution so that you can start to go live and be operational within a few weeks' time. Remember that long deployment periods are no longer sustainable.

7. What will the security of the data and the private information be secure?

Last but not the least data security is of essential importance. Because contracts contain highly confidential and sensitive data, they must be restricted from unauthorized access to earn the trust of those around you, be it partners, vendors or clients. Additionally, the growing cybersecurity threats and cyber attacks are putting companies at the possibility of legal brands, financial, and other liabilities. If you're looking to keep the trust of the most important business relationships you have ensure that the provider hasn't had any serious security attacks.

Get in touch with our experts by emailing [email protected] to find out the details about our Contract Management Solution.