How Does CRM Contract Management Improve Contract Data Management

Every enterprise aspires to practice intuitive business processes and intelligent decisions. One often overlooked and rich source of insightful information is contractual documents. They set the parameters for a business relationship and its success. Hence, accumulating contract data through the CRM contract management system can optimize the entire business operation and increase efficiency.  

Organizations require advanced reporting and analytics functions to utilize resourceful data from their operations. Moreover, most enterprises do not have the tools or resources to mine through thousands of documents. And as most departments work independently, there is a lack of collaboration and sharing to exploit the aggregated data reserve. That is where the possibilities of a CRM contract management system come in. Integrating contract management software with Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics enables businesses to create a sole source of information to foster contract data management. 

What is contract data management? 

Contract data management is the process of tracking, aggregating, accessing, and reporting essential information outlined in legal agreements. As contracts dictate the relationship between parties, businesses use them to locate crucial data about vendors and clients. They can easily extract information about products, delivery data, pricing, services, and stipulations. 

For enterprises, managing contract data manually is a laborious effort. Fortunately, CRM contract management enables organizations to develop a lone source of truth for contract data management. They can merge and store sales and contract data in a centralized location. It makes it simple for the legal and sales teams to access real-time information to minimize risks, reduce errors, and streamline procedures. Some of the actionable data available through the CRM contract management system include: 

• Customer database 
• Delivery dates 
• Product or service pricing 
• Penalties and fees 
• Terms and clauses 
• Contract renewal and expiration dates 
• Additional documents like NDAs, insurance forms, etc.  
• Contractual amendments 

What are the benefits of contract data management? 

Most business contracts include a wealth of relevant data that can assist with both the contracting and sales processes. However, businesses frequently lack the resources necessary to give the legal and sales teams a single workspace to collaborate. Employing CRM contract management to carry out contract data management enables organizations to exploit actionable insights to close deals. 

Apart from the legal division, salespeople can leverage contractual and sales information to streamline the sales process. The sales team can determine customer preferences using sales agreement data. It enables organizations to tailor the sales process to suit clients' needs. Companies can utilize advanced tools to collaborate and share data across the organization. They can conceive more intelligent roadmaps with insightful information for improved outcomes and reduced risks.  

How does CRM contract management improve contract data management? 

We have already established that contract data management is critical to the growth of a business. But if that is the case, why aren't all businesses using contractual and sales data to streamline operations? One of the primary reasons firms do not leverage contract data management is a lack of resources and technology. It seems like a lot to ask the already overworked legal division to collect and analyze data. 

But all departments in a company can now participate in the contracting process thanks to CRM contract management. The sales and legal team can employ Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics integrated with contract management software to optimize contract data management and drive sales, here is how: 

• Customer intelligence 

CRM contract management means all the contract and customer-related information is available in a single location. Integrating Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics with contract management software enables the legal and sales team to access customer databases and contract repositories from either platform. 

The integrated system broadens the scope of contract data management. Contract lifecycle management only provides access to contract data and metadata. Whereas, with CRM contract management, users can exploit CRM data to optimize the sales and contracting process. They can create accurate and client-focused sales agreements within the CRM platform. This specific customer intelligence can help to reduce contract turnaround time and close deals faster.  

• Single source of truth 

More than often, contract-related information is scattered across various platforms. It makes it impossible for the organization to establish an effective contract data management system. Moreover, the sales and legal team will take forever to find relevant information during emergencies. 

Thankfully, CRM contract management offers businesses a defined system to store contract and client-related details. The Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics integrated system provides a singular location to access customer databases and digital contract repositories. Thus, users can effortlessly search and access any information within minutes from either CRM or CMS platform. Thus, with CRM contract management and OCR technology, contract data management is undeniably simplified.  

• Real-time access to vital data 

Monitoring the flow of data throughout the contract lifecycle is just one aspect of contract data management; another is making the data accessible. CRM contract management enhances the transparency of the contracting process. Integrating Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics with contract lifecycle management software means the sales team can stay on top of the contract lifecycle from within the CRM platform.  

To stay updated about the contracting process, the salesperson might use real-time document status notifications offered by CRM contract management. Thanks to document alerts and version history, all the relevant users will have access to current and accurate data, regardless of how many changes the contractual agreement undergoes. 

• Enables more detailed contract reporting  

Transparency is a vital component of contract data management. Limited access to contract reports can cause information overload on contract management software dashboards, with nothing to show for it. CRM contract management maximizes the benefits of contract reporting and analysis.  

It offers sophisticated reporting features that enable users to gather specified customer and contract-related data from a variety of sources and create detailed reports. The Salesforce or Microsoft Dynamics integrated system enables the legal and sales teams to work collaboratively to determine the value of contract reports. The salespeople can set up automated alerts for contract reviews, renewals, and expiry dates. Thus, utilizing CRM contract management for contract data management ensures that the organization never misses deadlines or milestones.  

• Reduce errors 

All available information must be correct and up to date for the contract data management procedure to be effective. With manual processes and multiple document versions, it is hard to maintain the accuracy of the contractual data. Adopting CRM contract management for the contracting process can exponentially improve the legal agreement's authenticity.  

Even for self-serve contracts, the integrated system provides the benefits of pre-approved templates and clause libraries within the CRM platform. Moreover, the users can auto-populate customer data to create accurate contracts in no time. Thus, organizations can eliminate human error and non-compliance from the contracting process. And with version history available, only current legal documents will get to contract data management.  

• Implement change 

Contract data management is not limited to collecting and analyzing contract data. Its primary aim is to provide businesses with actionable insights to improve processes, reduce risks, and discover new opportunities. CRM contract management ensures that the results of contract data management are accessible across the organization.  

Microsoft Dynamics or Salesforce integrated with contract management software provides the sales and legal team with a centralized platform to utilize contract-related information. For instance, contract data management provides reliable information on the duration and efficiency of the contract lifecycle. The sales team needs access to all this data since the contracting process has a significant impact on sales. The salespeople can obtain data pertaining to the sales process through CRM contract management and take necessary action.  

Takeaway  

When a business grows, it often fails to offer sales and legal teams the opportunity to collaborate for improved outcomes. But irrespective of their silo status, they have sales agreements in common. The sales team needs contracts produced by the legal division to close deals. Also, they can utilize contractual data to make data-driven sales.  

Organizations can utilize CRM contract management to enhance the contract data management process. They can exploit the integrated platform to collect and analyze contract-related information to minimize risks, optimize business operations, and close deals faster.