Reform Contract Negotiation With Business Central Contract Management

Even with the benefits of contract management software, most businesses and parties still need additional support for contract negotiation. Depending upon the stakeholder and contract type, priorities may change for the negotiation process. While the legal department prioritizes risk-free and legally compliant agreements, the sales team will seek a quicker turnaround time. 

However, individual departments can combine their objectives and input into a single process through a centralized system to negotiate business agreements. One way to do that is by adopting Business Central contract management to carry out contract negotiation. Data collected through Microsoft Business and contract management software integration can go a long way in streamlining the contract negotiation process. 

What challenges do contract negotiations present? 

When it comes to business contracts, negotiation is a long, slow, and cumbersome process. The legal agreement outlines the conditions and rewards for all concerned parties. As a result, every stakeholder wants to sign a deal that will be advantageous on all fronts. It leads to drawn-out negotiation that is made worse by the manual methods used by most businesses.  

• Lack of version control 

When businesses employ traditional techniques like emails, fax, and paper contracts to negotiate contract terms, there are bound to be miscomprehensions. Organizations will not be able to keep track of all the suggestions and alterations made by the stakeholders. It results in multiple strings of communication and countless contract versions. That does not mean well for the contract negotiation process. Before settling on a shared objective, all parties involved must be on the same page. 

• Inability to cooperate  

Without a committed framework to preserve teamwork, collaboration becomes a challenging endeavor for everyone involved. Departments will behave as information silos if they are unable to share goals and relevant data. And the contract negotiation process will be prone to usual bottlenecks and human errors. In the end, a lack of collaboration and intelligent input means the company loses bargaining power in the negotiation process. 

• Contractual risks
  

The ability of a contractual agreement to make it through the negotiation process is wholly dependent on its relevance and compliance. That is why organizations require a proven and tested technique to identify and mitigate contractual risks. Inaccurate data, poorly worded agreements, and inadequate review processes can all prove harmful to the negotiation strategy. For scaling enterprises, establishing the compliance and validity of countless business contracts can be quite tiresome.  

• Juggling multiple platforms 

Multiple departments, stakeholders, and workflows make up the negotiation process. The absence of a centralized platform means the stakeholders will struggle to communicate and gather relevant feedback. They need a single system to track history, conversations, and changes. Organizations will end up switching between different platforms to drive intelligent negotiation. Now that you know the common hurdles, here’s how enterprises can achieve a seamless contract negotiation process by integrating Microsoft Business Central with contract management software. 

How does Business Central contract management help with contract negotiation? 

With contract redlining and version history capabilities, contract management software is proving to be an effective tool for businesses to optimize negotiation. However, the solution must adapt to the shifting demands and challenges encountered by scaling enterprises. For organizations with a high volume of sales and procurement agreements, there is always a need for data sharing and cooperation to facilitate efficient contract lifecycle management. Organizations can achieve all that and more by adopting Business Central integrated with contract management software. 

• Seamlessly collaborate 

We have already established that a lack of cooperation among the departments can regress contract negotiation. Business Central contract management empowers the procurement and sales teams to contribute to the negotiation process. Organizations can use Business Central to seek input from various teams during contract negotiations. They can aggregate comments from stakeholders and counterparties to enhance the business agreement.  

Moreover, through shared workflows and document status, every word and alteration gets tracked and stored. Thus, all the teams and stakeholders can get real-time information and stay on the same page while negotiating. And they can generate client and vendor-specific documents to accelerate the negotiation process.  

• Access to client and vendor portfolio 

Business Central contract management makes it possible for the legal team to access business data to optimize the contract management process. For instance, while creating sales agreements, the legal team can consider and weigh legal content against the customer database and history to ensure its relevance and profitability.  

Similarly, vendor details and history available through Business Central help organizations devise mutually beneficial business agreements. Easy and quick access to customer and vendor portfolios through the integrated system empowers the legal team to initiate data-driven contract negotiation. It helps them to identify parties that take up the most time and resources. Thus, they can plan accordingly to speed up the negotiation process.  

• Real-time payment history 

One major advantage of integrating Microsoft Business Central with the contract management system is an overview of the financial data. Through either platform, the legal department can easily access real-time data on payments, balances, costs, and orders. Current financial information is available for each vendor and client. They can utilize these readily available data to optimize the contract negotiation process. 

Thanks to real-time financial summaries, businesses can accurately determine the financial viability of each client and vendor. Moreover, they can identify the shortcomings in the financial operations and take necessary action to mitigate them during the negotiation stage. Whether it is sell-side or buy-side agreements, a rundown of the fiscal performance equips the legal to negotiate profitable terms.  

• Competent contracts 

Qualified documents are the finest route to a short and fruitful contract negotiation stage. Business Central contract management ensures that organizations only generate accurate and legally viable business agreements. For growing businesses, the legal always does not have the resources to oversee every stage of the contract lifecycle. Fortunately, the integrated system lessens the legal team’s burden when it comes to ensuring compliance and competence in business agreements. 

The sales and procurement departments can self-serve contracts using pre-approved templates and clause library accessible through the integrated system. They can also access executed contracts to identify usable clauses and terms. Moreover, Business Central contract management allows enterprises to import customer and vendor data to autofill contract requests. Therefore, no matter the source of contract generation, the result will always be beneficial.  

What are the benefits of using Business Central contract management for negotiation? 

There is no successful contract negotiation without real-time collaboration. Stakeholders and counterparties must be on the same page of discussion before agreeing to something. Business Central contract management helps organizations to incorporate customers and vendors into the contract lifecycle from a single platform. Apart from a shared system to facilitate smooth negotiations, the integrated system also offers the following benefits: 

• Faster negotiations 

Through the integrated system, the relevant parties can easily access contract templates, clause libraries, and digital repositories through the Business Central platform. It empowers the sales and procurement teams to learn and strategize from previously executed contracts. Thus, organizations can negotiate terms and conditions more effectively. Moreover, they can create accurate and compliant contracts in no time by the auto-populating vendor and customer data from the Business Central platform. Consequently, competent and client or supplier-focused business agreements make for speedy negotiations.  

• Better terms & clauses 

As we have already discussed, integrating Business Central with contract lifecycle management software provides the legal team with quick access to comprehensive financial summaries. From a single platform, they can overview clause terms, deadlines, order lists, and payment details. It helps them to evaluate the performance and feasibility of active vendor and sales contracts. They can easily determine agreements and clauses reaping profits as well as the ones incurring losses. Organizations can utilize this information to take necessary steps during negotiation to minimize losses and derive maximum value from business contracts. 

• Harmonious business relationships 

When organizations can provide collaborators with what they need without fuss or obstacles, it makes for a lasting business relationship. Business Central contract management provides relevant information from customer and vendor databases to ensure quick contract closures. They can learn more about a client or supplier’s preferences and stipulations by going through their history with the organization. It enables the legal department to devise a business agreement that best suits the individual party. 

Bottomline 

Contract negotiation is one of the most consequential stages of contract lifecycle management. It sets the tone for future business relationships and returns. Incompetent and lengthy negotiation processes can mean unnecessary risks and losses for the company. Collaborating on contract management is the only way businesses and every department involved can achieve desired results during negotiation.  

Integrating Microsoft Business Central with contract management software provides a centralized location for the sales, finance, and procurement teams to contribute to the contract negotiation process. They can enable organizations to devise competent and relevant business agreements. Moreover, the legal department can utilize customer, vendor, and financial data to optimize the negotiation stage. In short, enterprises can ensure all their needs are met by incorporating every team concerned in the process through Business Central contract management.  

 
To know about the best contract management practices, schedule a live demo for Dock 365 contract management software.