Self-Service Contracts Meet Microsoft 365

Gone are the days when business teams wait for the legal department to draft, review, and approve each and every contract, but we see far more of that self-service contracting approach with business users managing their contracts independently and to a considerable extent with minimal legal intervention. 

Not only is this new approach process-driven but also enables teams within organizations to start handling their contract needs. 

This approach is so versatile and has integration with services like Microsoft 365 platforms, with which most of the organizations are well familiar. 

By utilizing Microsoft's suite of tools, companies can improve their self-service contracting capabilities, covering compliance, efficiency, and collaboration among all teams. 

What is self-service contracting all about? How does this relate to Microsoft 365, and what does it mean for my contract management?  

Let's walk you through all the essentials of self-service contracting and what this is going to do to transform your contract management process. 

What is Self-service Contracting 

It basically means that self-service contracting lets business teams create, customize, and manage contracts without requiring constant oversight by the legal department.   

That's not giving business teams the license to cut corners legally but empowering non-legal teams to act through pre-approved templates and workflows, thereby dramatically reducing turnaround time. 

In very simple words, self-service contracting would mean that teams of business could generate, tailor, and administer contracts without constant oversight from the legal; namely, it's not a cut-and-dried but gives nontechnical teams a license to act with pre-approved templates and workflows while pushing turnaround time much further down. 

Imagine it as a contract automation solution. No more sitting around waiting days (or weeks) for legal to draft or review a standard contract.  

You could have pre-built compliant contracts at the tip of your fingers.  

All it would take would be a few clicks from the sales or procurement team to generate the contracts, secure approvals, and send them off for signatures within hours. 

Why Self-Service Contracts Matter to Contract Professionals 

For contract managers and top executives, self-service contracting is not a buzzword but rather a strategic means of rebalancing how contracts within an organization are managed. 

This is not about cutting corners legally, but the empowerment of non-legal teams to work with approved templates and workflows, which will drastically cut turnaround time. 

It is like a contract automation solution.  

No more spending days and sometimes weeks waiting for legal to draft or review a standard contract when you have a ready-made, pre-built library at your fingertips. 

This means it would take only a few clicks to produce contracts, obtain the approvals, and to have those headed off for signatures, all within hours, to the sales or procurement team. 

Self-service contracts not only speed up the transactional aspect but will also allow professionals who work on contract to focus on high-value tasks like complex negotiations and risk management instead of being engaged in routine approvals. 

📝 Speeding up the contracting process 

Time is money, as the saying goes. But when speaking of contract management, that is especially true.  

Traditionally, contracts usually take 30-60 days to close. Imagine how a whole sales cycle can get delayed because of a hanging contract.  

With self-service contracts, there are no more bottlenecks. Turnaround times on contracts drop from weeks to days, and sometimes even hours.  

That speed doesn't just improve internal workflows. It impacts everything: closing sales more quickly, bringing vendors on board faster, and business just moving at a pace that matches your growth. 

🤝 Empowering teams 

One of the biggest challenges for most contract professionals is handling large volumes of contracts coming through all departments.  

Self-service contracting addresses this issue by pushing more of this work responsibility to the front lines, empowering teams outside of legal and procurement to generate, review, and execute contracts on their own. 

Standardized, pre-approved templates available for the client ensure that each agreement meets all necessary legal protections.  

That's a win-win for the contract management professionals. Teams can operate with a great deal of independence, and contract professionals can have more strategic time and energy. 

💳 Cut in costs and increased efficiency 

Legal reviews are expensive, but what is even more expensive is the manual drafting and subsequent management of contracts. 

Self-service contracts reduce the requirement for out-of-house services with a use of legal for general contracts that again reduces legal fees and will allow in-house legal teams to do more high-value tasks.  

Automation and digital workflows ensure that contracts go through the pipeline free from errors, administrative overhead, or delays. Time saved on standard contracts can be added to the time billed toward negotiations over big deals, improving operational efficiency, and driving overall business value. 

☑️ Compliance without compromise 

Contract professionals have one of the most important responsibilities-to ensure that contracts comply with regulatory and legal requirements. This is not the case with self-service contracts where compliance is built into the system.  

Pre-approved templates and clauses ensure that every contract generated is consistent with company policies and legal standards.  

Automated approval workflows also ensure that the right people review and sign off on contracts before execution so that the risk of non-compliance is kept at a minimum. 

How Self-Service Contracting Works  

So how does self-service contracting really work? Most modern, cloud-based contract management platforms are also designed to be built into your existing tech stack like Microsoft 365. Here’s a step-by-step breakdown of how it works: 

🗂️ Template Libraries 

A strong repository of pre-approved templates acts as the core of self-service contracting. The legal team creates and clears these templates that represent common forms of contracts — NDAs, employment agreements, purchase orders, etc. Each of the templates is designed to be customizable so that business teams can introduce necessary changes within certain fields while also adhering to the legal standards.  

⚙️ Automated Approval Workflows 

Once a contract has been created, it follows an automated approval workflow. Take for example if a sales manager creates a service agreement, the same contract automatically goes to finance for budget approval and then to legal for a quick compliance check—all this without having someone necessarily have to chase down signatures.  

✍️ Integration of E-Signature 

After being approved, the contracts are submitted for signature through integrated tools such as e-signature by DocuSign or Adobe Sign. No more printing and scanning, emailing back and forth. The system automatically puts a copy in digital storage, and contracts are signed. 

Integration with Microsoft 365 

For a contract professional, integration of self-service contracting solutions into Microsoft 365 is much more than the upgrade of technology. It's a strategic move that transforms the whole lifecycle of a contract.  

Let's understand how this integration supercharges your contract management processes and brings never-before value to your organization.  

1. Unified Workspace with Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams is the center point for the entire cloud-based service suite of Microsoft 365. The shared workspace helps contract professionals, along with their teams and business units, to work and collaborate more smoothly. Using Teams, contract professionals can instantaneously have access to their templates, share drafts, gather comments, or join virtual meetings with others within the app itself. 

2. Real-Time Collaboration with Microsoft Word

Instead of sending around several iterations by email, users can now coauthor documents on the fly with stakeholders in Word. The live editing capability, almost right away, gives you that instant feedback, cuts turnaround time, and makes sure that everyone's on the same page. 

3. Automation of Approvals through Outlook Integration

With integration into Outlook, contract professionals save on the man-hours spent chasing paper signatures and approvals: making for faster, less-error-prone contract processing. With an automated workflow, contract professionals can select a contract and send it direct from the platform to approver, with notice and reminders. 

4. Advanced Security and Compliance with Microsoft Azure

Microsoft 365 uses the strong security architecture of Microsoft Azure to provide advanced encryption, multi-factor authentication as well as industry-standard compliance certifications. This means that, as a contract professional, all forms of information that are linked to contracts will be protected from unwanted access by third parties and cyber threats. 

5. Automate Repetitive Tasks with Power Automate

Another strong tool under the umbrella of Microsoft 365 is Power Automate, which helps the contract professional automate these routine tasks in easy steps with fewer efforts. 

6. Easy Management of Documents through SharePoint

SharePoint is the repository of safe and organized storage for all your contracts, templates, and supporting documents residing within Microsoft 365. Contract professionals can store, search, and retrieve documents so that they may readily have access to the latest version and critical information when required. 

🔖 Also read: Building a High-Performing Contract Management Team  

Dock 365 CLM system, which is natively built on Microsoft 365, seamlessly integrates all the tools of your business and means that all employees can easily access contract management through an intuitive, user-friendly interface. 

Self-service contracting, in the most general words, is a contract management approach that revolutionizes processes and puts controls in the hands of employees who are managing their respective agreements.  

With Dock 365 CLM, you'll be able to experience firsthand all the energy of self-service contracting, simplify your contract management, and bring about improved outcomes for your organization. Don't wait until you see an improvement in your contract management strategy; request a demo today to see how Dock 365 will be able to do this for your team! 

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