2021 Contract Management Software Technology Trends

As we step into 2021, CobbleStone Software’s Executive VP – Mark Nastasi – reexamines contract management software technology trends in the wake of the many challenges of 2020.  He provides expert insight into how organizations can move forward into more future-minded, automated, and user-friendly contract management in 2021 and beyond.  Read his considerations and suggestions below.

Foreword

As EVP of CobbleStone Software, I must reflect on 2020 and focus on the latest contract management software technology trends that we anticipate being adopted in 2021 as an award-winning contract lifecycle management software provider.

First off, I believe I speak for many when I say I am happy for 2020 to be meeting its end.  The world has seen many challenges this past year - including political turmoil in the US, worldwide economic recession, closed borders, the spotted lantern fly, the murder hornet, widespread technology security breaches, and - need I say - the COVID-19 pandemic.

As 2021 gets closer, however, we see a new glimmer of hope.  Robust, AI-based contract management software solutions offer normalcy and process consistency for contract administrators, legal professionals, attorneys, paralegals, and many other industries that rely upon streamlined contract management.  To that end, let us focus on contract management software, legal tech, and new technology trends for a vast array of industries managing contracts in 2021.

Remote Contract Collaboration Tools

With many organizations across the world embracing remote contract management, efficient contract collaboration is critical.  We must acknowledge that contract management professionals were forced to work remotely.  Some adopted well and some struggled.  Those who adopted well learned to embrace fast and easy contract collaboration with leading contract management software.

We have heard from our clients that the adoption of CobbleStone’s source-to-contract management software suite - Contract Insight® - has helped them immensely with remote work.  CobbleStone Software is, after all, a pioneer in the industry and launched the first web-enabled contract management software in the mid-90s as we saw the web as a catalyst to work and manage contracts virtually anywhere - and we have never looked back.  In that vein, CobbleStone offers leading tools for:

• storing and safeguarding contracts virtually within a secure contract repository.
• establishing intelligent contract workflow automation.
• embracing mobile contract management on Android and iOS
• integrating contract management, vendor management, eProcurement, and eSourcing processes.
• implementing rapid signing with integrated IntelliSign® electronic signature software.
• & much more.

We can see that many contract professionals will want to continue to work remotely and – as such – they need to adopt an industry leading, feature-rich CLM software platform to manage contracts with a meaningful, collaborative approach in 2021 and beyond.

Contract Intelligence

The challenges of manual contract management processes have illuminated the importance of contract intelligence (and, truly, artificial intelligence on a massive scale).  I cannot begin to count the number of new and existing clients that have increasingly embraced CobbleStone’s proprietary artificial intelligence engine - VISDOM AI®.  VISDOM is robust contract management AI that leverages:

• intelligent clause recognition and clause management.
• AI-based data extraction and data identification.
• intelligent drag and drop contract initiation.
• identification and protection of sensitive data.
• streamlined contract workflow.
• insightful risk management.
• and so much more.

If you have not seen CobbleStone’s VISDOM AI in action, schedule a free demo for your organization today so that you can stay ahead of industry-wide adoption of automated contract management processes.

Community-Based Contract Management Software Tools

Although I have already mentioned contract collaboration, I must dig deeper and discuss community-based contract management software tools.  With organizations across the world collaborating on tasks that were previously performed in-person, we must recognize that this trend will continue to evolve in accordance with constant advancements in contract management software technology.  To that end, web-enabled contract management software systems – such as CobbleStone’s Contract Insight – will prove more and more necessary.

For a successful approach to community-based contract management, organizations must look to relevant automated processes, such as:

• sharing clauses to system training data for AI-based clause recognition – which can help organizations and teams by promoting better machine learning.
• leveraging data lakes (or anonymized external data) that contract management teams can integrate into their contract management software system to help analyze structured data against their organization’s data (such as financial data, litigation data, counterparty intelligence, vendor credentials tracking, lead and customer profiling, and more).
• utilizing integrated chat for streamlined communications within teams and throughout departments.
• relying less upon folder-based file sharing and emails – which can be disorganized and overwhelming – and relying more on a centralized, secure contract repository.
• and much more.

Contract Automation

Contract automation can help contract management professionals to perform their duties more easily.  We at CobbleStone Software continue to develop the best tools for contract automation to streamline contract management, vendor management, eProcurement, and eSourcing processes.  Such industry-leading tools include:

• automated, rules-based contract writing that lets organizations say goodbye to misplaced templates and disorganized processes.
• merging of key contract data with placeholder fields to do away with tedious typing and the risk of duplicate data entry.
• automated, rules-based contract clause merging that helps organizations to move beyond lack of certainty as to which clause to use in a given situation.
• automated insertion of addendums and riders based on legal and business risk.
• intelligent electronic signatures with IntelliSign, because the days of ink-based wet signatures have been replaced by an automated, rules-based, and rapid signing process for expedited approvals.
• improved eDiscovery (electronic discovery) with tools to identify risk, rewards, and opportunities in legacy contracts such as compliance obligations, pricing increases and decreases, cross sell and upsell, the opportunity to stop paying for unused products, services, and cancelled contracts, and more.

Step Into 2021 With Future-Minded Contract Management

It is clear to see that automated contract management software adoption in 2021 will be paramount, and CobbleStone Software’s Contract Insight has your organization covered with all of the best tools for contract automation going forward.  Book a free demo of Contract Insight today.*

*Be sure to seek your attorney’s advice on any legal matter.