cloud-based contract management system

Nearly 80percent of business operations are governed by contracts. Contracts form an integral part of any business. If you're a young enterprise or a big corporation You're likely to encounter a myriad of contracts such as partnership agreements non-disclosure agreements, general employment contracts, equipment and property contracts and more. How well are you managing them? Do your operations rely on paper in spreadsheets, documents, or other systems? Are you thinking about changing to contract management systems? If yes, then this article is for your needs.

contract management

Before investing in a contract management solution, be sure to review these seven questions in order to avoid the pitfalls.

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Does the software come with AI capabilities?

contract life cycle management

With the sheer number of contractsto manage, maintaining uniformity in managing contracts and getting essential information to be accessed is an enormous problem. The companies may not have common method of organizing contract databases. Imagine that your business has an abundance of procurement contracts , each with different renewal dates and renegotiation terms. The team of reps could spend hours investigating, reviewing and documenting the data to make sure that no opportunities are left unnoticed. If you opt to use an automated contract system that is powered by AI, this task can be completed in minutes. Thanks to Doc.AI capabilities, data like contract titles, renewal dates and negotiation terms can be extracted. This makes it simpler for reviews, approvals , and sign-offs.

software contract management

And that's not all about it. In addition, advanced contract management systems equipped with AI capabilities can aid in the review of contracts, compare clauses, as well as classify contracts by the kind of clauses. AI-powered CMS could also assist in complying with changes in 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?

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The writing of contracts is among the most laborious tasks. It is difficult to imagine how complicated it could be to draft documents that have similar clauses including terms and condition, language, and nearly identical content hundreds of times. And this is why your CMS should support easy-to-use templates and clause libraries across various areas. Using these templates, pre-approved by your editorial and legal teams, you can quickly draft contracts that do not have any language flaws. In addition, a clause to standardize and centralize contracts allows you to have an all-round view of the contract, which allows you to track them using custom filters and cooperate with colleagues to read the documents, make edits and save them.

What's the chance of a return on investment? What's the cost my organization can save?

The savings numbers are one of the most powerful argument to determine whether you should put money into a contract management system or not. A study by Goldman Sachs concluded that an automated contract management system could make negotiations more efficient by 50 %, decrease payment mistakes by 75 to 90 percent, cut the cost that managing contracts is between 10 and 30 percent , and decrease the number of people required to manage contracts of 10 to 20 percent. In fact, contract management is indeed a cost-effective option, but only if it's chosen wisely.

Ideally, you must take into account things like time spent on audits and tracking renewal dates, reduction in contract disputes and the creation of new opportunities which will reduce sales cycle.

Can the solution be customized?

Each and every company on the market claims to provide the best solution to meet the demands of every company. What if that isn't the case? Instead of spending huge sums on customization, detail down the workflow, the critical processes enhancements that are required, think about options using more precise questions.

For instance, in a typical contract management workflow where the person who drafts the documents The system automatically routes the document to the person who approves. However, rather than relying on this simple capability, a customized feature could be an email notification with the link to the document sent to the approver. It should also be compatible or work with every device, including smartphones tablets and computers.

But, highly customizable software can cause a lot of hassle and be complicated to use. In addition, simplicity could be too much. Therefore, it's a great idea to think about the pros and cons of the person who will be using the software , contract management and then determine how you can customize it.

What are some exclusive features or points that can speed up manual processes?

As part of a contract administration system, agreements are kept in a secure, centrally located and searchable repository , with user-based access. This ensures optimal compliance and ample reporting. For instance, contracts could be easily tracked, and the review and signing process could be automated by electronic signatures. Another option is statistics and analysis. To find out data on the time it took concluding a contract, people can quickly look over limitations, find the number of iterations needed and make comprehensive reports. This will further help when adding clause libraries and gain insights into past performance and increasing the speed of contract negotiation.

Another key element to look out for is contract redlining, also known as editing. Redlining highlights the text in order to highlight changes, additions in addition to deletions. It also indicates approvals and rejections. This feature can be helpful particularly for situations where more than one person would like to work on the same document collaboratively. This feature gives more flexibility when reviewing andnegotiating contracts.

How simple is it to install and use?

A contract management application which has a simple interface with easy-to-use features will be well-loved by your customers. To get the most benefit, when deploying the software, it is recommended to connect it to existing systems which reduces the times spent moving from one platform to the next. For instance, the integration of CRM with the latest contract software could aid sales professionals to automate input customer information, generate contracts and send them out for approval, as well as having control over all the renewals, expirations and other dates.

The next step is to look for the onboarding process. Ideal if you have an on-the-spot solution that you are able to begin to live and operational within a few weeks' time. Remember that lengthy deployment cycles can not viable any longer.

7. How will your private information be safe?

And lastly, but certainly not last Data security is of crucial importance. Since contracts are highly confidential and sensitive data, they must be restricted from unauthorized access to earn the trust of the people you trust whether it's partners, vendors and customers. Furthermore, the rise of cybersecurity threats and cyber attacks expose companies to risks of potential legal, financial and brand liabilities. If you're planning keeping the trust of the key business relationships with your company ensure that the provider hasn't been hit by any serious data violations.