Many businesses today have made the transition to online contract management software to save time, money, and to capitalize on incredible software features. You can safeguard your business and its reputation against unforeseen and oftentimes preventable issues that come along with manual contract management.
How many times have contracts gone missing on your team? And how often do you have to deal with the headache of unfavorable contracts being auto renewed? It’s clear that online contract management can alleviate the pains associated with manual contract management.
Content:-
Now, let’s discuss some of the problems solved by an online contract management software platform for your business’s contracts.
One of the main problems with manual contract management is the lack of accessibility to contracts. Not only do you have to take the time to locate a specific document from a variety of places, be it shared drives or filing cabinets, but you also have to be in an exact location to physically attain the contract. Online contract management makes it easy with a secure, cloud-based repository that allows you to take your contracts on-the-go. With Microsoft Teams, you can use the Microsoft Teams mobile app to take your contracts with you. By using a manual contract management system, you’ll likely lose track of your contracts and waste precious time when attempting to relocate them. With a manual approach, contracts are often stored in places like shared drives, filing cabinets, emails, and desktops, just to name a few.
A centralized repository keeps your documents secure and accessible at all times for all authorized users. For organizations conducting remote operations with employees working from different locations, an online repository gives employees access to agreements no matter where they are in the world. In the case that unforeseen circumstances inhibit business processes, storing all of your company data online can help you keep your business operations moving.
Contract managers and stakeholders involved in contract lifecycle management must maintain constant control of contracts. By increasing the visibility of your contracts, you can find any fine detail pertaining to your organization’s agreements within moments. In a manual approach to contract management, it can take an exorbitant amount of time to find details like contract expiration dates or specific clauses, whereas an online approach allows you to search and use filters for any of your contract-related questions.
Manual contract management is not ideal for gaining instant answers regarding contract and vendor performance, contract statuses, and other key information. However, an online solution provides you a single location that all of your employees and stakeholders use to attain all of their contract data. By having critical information within reach, you give your departments and employees the ability to make informed decisions as they work through every contract’s lifecycle. A contract management solution should include reporting capabilities so you can compile customized reports and send them to your team and executives on an automated, scheduled basis. This adds a layer of visibility and transparency to your contracting by keeping everyone informed of current contract trends and details.
Storing contracts online is far more secure and accessible than contracts stored in physical storage facilities or on shared drives and desktops. It can be tricky to attain the documents you need in the times you need them when storing documents manually, which can lead to delays during contract negotiations. In online contract management, you can access any detail almost immediately, which can help when managing your ongoing contracts and reduce turnaround times. In your contract repository, you can locate archived contracts that will greatly assist your team when developing new agreements.
Managing all of your contracts without the help of a software system that can automate tasks, standardize contract activities with workflows, and keep all of your information secure is simply a way to get behind the eight-ball in terms of competitiveness and productivity. With all the capabilities and modern features provided by an online contract management system, it’s only a wise decision to make the well-worth investment into such a solution.
Does your organization work with a high volume of contracts? If so, what areas within your current contract management process could use some improvement?
Keeping tabs on the small details can be taxing in a manual contract management approach, especially with many incoming, highly complex contracts. Maintaining compliance and meeting key deadlines, obligations, and deliverables is critical, and an online solution will help keep you and your team informed of all upcoming key dates with automated reminders and alerts. A manual contract management system doesn’t have this capability, meaning you could miss your important dates simply by not being reminded of them consistently. And as the demands placed on your organization increase, it can become even more challenging to successfully oversee all of your contracts and get all tasks completed in a manual system.
The reason why contract automation is such a star feature of an online platform is because of the time it frees up from the mundane, and low-level tasks. Think of things like deadline and obligation tracking, sharing contract status and performance updates, and pinpointing contract clauses – all of which can be optimized and simplified with contract automation. This seriously helps your team save time on the small things and gives them the ability to focus their efforts of more of the high-ticket contract management items and activities that really matter.
By using online contract management software, you can constantly monitor the performance of your agreements allowing you to ensure that only favorable agreements are renewed. In the event that a contract automatically renews, you want to be fully confident that the contract is one that will help your business rather than hurt it. By keeping your contracts top of mind, you can maintain awareness and stay proactive in your contracting so that you never miss any opportunities to terminate the contracts that will not serve your business.
When considering manual contracting management processes, it's a far riskier approach that can often lead to missed contract dates such as contract expiration dates and auto renewal dates. Missing such deadlines may cost your organization time and money, and missing these dates could have been prevented in the first place with automated alerts. An online contract management software solution will offer a filterable calendar where you can enable reminders to be sent to key stakeholders of all key dates and deadlines. Many businesses leverage an online solution simply because of how easy it is to stay on-top of crucial contract deadlines.
Have you found that missing key deadlines has hurt your business quite a bit? It may be time to look into an online platform. What is also incredible about an online system is how you can oversee every contract detail in a single spot, allowing everyone on your team to stay on the same page. This can ease cross-department and internal communications, allowing for clarity in expectations and what next steps to take on each of your contracts.
Your proactive and user-friendly contract dashboard breaks-down contract expiration dates in 30-, 60-, and 90-day intervals so that your team can prioritize their efforts effectively. Custom reporting and deadline alerts can help keep multiple teams involved and aware, which will ultimately help mitigate risks. By doing so, you’ll prevent against financial losses, soiled business relationships, and reputational damages.
In an organization that deals with a smaller quantity of contracts, a manual contract management system may get the job done, but it certainly isn’t ideal – nor is it scalable. To make the most of your contract management system, you need to implement the right tools that are proven to give contract results. When you attempt to manually oversee a large portfolio of contracts, you’ll find it challenging to stay on-top of every key item and the small details that make all the difference.
Online contract management can help your business gain contract control and maintain it – especially as your company grows. Many organizations transition to online contract management due to the rapid expansion and growth of their business, and online contract management fully supports this growth with all of its incredible features. You can gain the confidence in your contract management by leveraging an online solution that will support the rapid demand and influx of contracts in your company’s future.
Online contract management software is the best solution for any business that is experiencing growth, that works with a high volume of complex contracts, or that simply wants to gain control of their contracts. The Dock 365 Contract Management System is a Microsoft 365 and SharePoint based software solution that can help you improve your contracting processes. Transition easily to our solution by using your existing Microsoft investment, and we’ll help you get started with unlimited system training and user support. Begin to improve your productivity levels, manage risk, and overhaul your contract lifecycle management processes today with us here at Dock 365.
Learn more about our Dock 365 Contract Management System here.
Learn more about Contract Lifecyle Management (CLM) Software here.
For more information, we welcome you to schedule a free demo with us today.
Schedule a live demo of Dock 365's Contract Management Software instantly.
© 2024 Dock 365 Inc. All Rights Reserved.