Every company works with contracts in some capacity. And no matter the contract volume or complexity, a contract management team is central to ensuring contract success. Every legal agreement must be carefully tracked throughout every stage of its lifecycle – from contract request all the way to expiry or renewal. Based on your company’s contract volume, the value of the contracts, and the associated level of risk potential, you might be interested in specific technology-based solutions to support you in your contract management strategies.
So, what could support a contract management team and other involved departments in creating a results-driven, productive approach to contract lifecycle management? We’ll discuss this in more depth below.
But the take-home point is this: contract management software is an absolute must. Here are 5 reasons why.
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- Reason #1: Increase Organization
- Reason #2: Drive Efficiency
- Reason #3: Centralization
- Reason #4: Boost Visibility
- Reason #5: On Demand Insights
Reason #1: Increase Organization
Keeping up with numerous contracts manually will only lead to headaches. Imagine all of the potential contracts you’ll lose track of and how long it’ll take to locate a single contract clause or detail during the times you need them most. Tracking, storing, sharing, and editing your contracts when they’re dispersed between filing cabinets, shared drives, and other manual storage methods can become a source of stress, bottlenecks, and difficulty. However, the best contract management software solutions available today are equipped with cloud security and a centralized, digital repository. Your cloud secure repository serves as a single source of truth that all of your employees refer to for contract storage and retrieval.
Whenever you need to find the exact answer to a question that requires specific contract details (think term length, opt-out window dates, etc.) you have a single place to refer to. In addition, contract management software typically includes custom filtering features so you can create filters that you’ll consistently use according to various contract types.
Reason #2: Drive Efficiency
Keeping tabs on key dates, deadlines, obligations, and all other contract activities in a timely manner is one of the most difficult aspects of contract lifecycle management. Several companies still leverage spreadsheets to manage key contract dates, deadlines, and other pertinent details. However, this manual approach is both risky and time-consuming – complicating contract lifecycle management unnecessarily. But contract management software can fix this.
For example, contract management software includes several advanced capabilities that expedite the contract lifecycle and associated processes. One of the most highlighted features of contract management software is electronic signature. Electronic signature integrations have the power to reduce turnaround times and increase the security of the contract signing process. Many of the most sought-after contract management software solutions include robust electronic signature integrations. Especially given the modern-day remote work environment, e-signature has increased in popularity at exponential rates in recent years. You’ll find that many contract management software solutions include third party electronic signature integrations that streamline the signing process. Here at Dock, we leverage DocuSign, Adobe Sign, and Sertifi e-signature integrations in our Contract Management System.
To increase organizational efficiency, start with your approach to contract lifecycle management. Contract management software empowers your contract management strategies with automated capabilities and advanced features that support productive collaboration, contract accuracy, and compliance. You’ll be able to offload lower-priority, administrative contract tasks to your software so that you and your colleagues can spend more time and energy on the higher-priority items.
Reason #3: Centralization
One of the main reasons that contract management software is so powerful for businesses is because it keeps all contract data under one umbrella. The centralization of contract data eliminates information silos and supports you in keeping relevant departments in the loop of key contract activities and responsibilities. This adds a layer of transparency and accountability to your contract management processes and activities across your organization.
Traditionally, contract managers and legal departments take the lead on contract management, where the two are typically responsible for holding onto contract data. However, with the introduction of contract management software, other authorized users within your organization can easily refer to contract details and documents via the digital cloud repository. This allows employees to work more independently and attain contract answers immediately.
Contract management software also offers permission-based user roles, allowing contract managers to assign access levels to various documents depending on a user’s department, role, level of seniority, etc. In this way, contract managers maintain tight control over contract lifecycle management while creating an environment that maximizes contract transparency and employee involvement.
Reason #4: Boost Visibility
With contract management software, you’ll gain increased insights on all of your contracts. Stay in-the-loop of the most current contract statuses, monitor and analyze contract performance, oversee contract data in real time, and easily create custom reports to share with your colleagues.
Take reporting for example. Using a manual reporting strategy, you’ll most likely spend a decent amount of time organizing, reviewing, and synthesizing contract data in manner that’s easy to understand for when you present it to your colleagues. Contract management software optimizes reporting, where users can develop custom reports based on key data points. You can also configure these reports to be generated and shared with others on an automated schedule, allowing you to consistently share critical contract data throughout your organization on a routine basis.
Reason #5: On Demand Insights
Lastly, contract management software empowers you with all of the most important contract information you need at the times you need most. This is made possible with a proactive, comprehensive contract data dashboard. A user-friendly contract management interface makes accessing exact data points and filtering through hundreds of thousands of documents and clauses remarkably simple.
When you work with a high volume of contracts, keeping up with all of your obligations and contracted responsibilities can become tricky, and it’s especially hard to do so in a manner that reduces contract risk. Contract lifecycle management includes numerous processes and stages that are absolutely essential to the accuracy and compliance of your contracts. If you’re particularly experienced with working with lots of high-value and high-risk contracts at once, then you certainly understand the stress involved to ensure that nothing slips through the cracks.
But not to worry, contract management software has so much to offer – including peace of mind. For example, automated reminders can be configured to alert relevant stakeholders and colleagues in various departments of upcoming contract expiry and auto renewal dates. This can support your organization in maintaining a proactive approach to contract-related responsibilities. The advanced capabilities provided by contract management software support business processes by adding a much-needed layer of security and protection to your contracting strategy. And again, knowing that all of your contract data is stored securely in a cloud-based centralized repository gives you the confidence that any contract is simply a click away and accessible 24/7, 365.
Dock Is Here To Help.
The Dock 365 Contract Management System is a proven and cost-efficient solution to all-things contract lifecycle management. Take your contract organization, tracking, and reporting to the next level and gain the control you’ve always wished to have over your contracts with a user-friendly software interface, complimentary support and training during implementation, and more with Dock 365.
Interested in our Dock 365 Contract Management System? Click here.
Want to learn more about Contract Lifecyle Management (CLM) Software? Click here.
Schedule a free demo with us today for an in-depth and interactive overview of our Contract Management System.
