CobbleStone Software recently exhibited at NCMA’s World Congress 2019 at Hynes Convention Center in Boston, MA. Despite a heat index of over 100° F, committed contract management professionals showed up to this eagerly anticipated contract management conference ready to learn and network.
I exhibited on behalf of CobbleStone with Michael Donnelly, one of our seasoned account managers. We spent an immersive three days learning about the challenges contract professionals are facing in 2019 and demonstrated how CobbleStone’s award-winning contract management software could help them provide more value to their organizations by positioning them to do their jobs more efficiently and effectively.
In this article, I address some of the most pressing contract management challenges that were expressed to CobbleStone at World Congress, and align these problems with the solutions created with contract management software.
4 Contract Management Challenges of World Congress Attendees
World Congress attendees had contract management challenges across the spectrum, but I’ve identified 4 recurring themes below:
#1 Manual Contract Management: For World Congress attendees, manual contract management could mean anything from a contract management process supported by paper documents and files, to spreadsheets, email, and shared drives, to legacy systems, to disconnected ERP and CRM. Organizations are losing contracts, missing deadlines, and increasing their risk when they take a manual approach to contract management. The solution is contract management software with software edition options and features that support your organization’s current contract process and that can evolve to support your organization’s future contract process.
#2 Contract Writing and Storage: At World Congress, contract management professionals expressed frustration around writing contracts, which included document drafting, data entry, formatting, storage, and version control. Manual contract management was typically the source of this challenge that usually resulted in human error, lack of secure collaboration, and process bottlenecks. The solution is contract management software that includes document templates, rules-based clauses, contract data field merging, document version tracking, and MS Word integration.
#3 Contract Automation: Manual contract management processes lack contract automation. World Congress attendees were struggling to effectively route tasks and meet deadlines for contract review, approvals, negotiations, and contract signing. The solution is contract management software with an intelligent workflow engine that helps with contract request tracking, approvals task management, and escalations, even when on-the-go. Contract workflows simplify contract management and reduce contract approval cycle time by eliminating bottlenecks and ensuring accountability.
#4 Getting Approval to Purchase Contract Management Software: World Congress attendees are in the trenches every day juggling contract management tasks and competing priorities. They have the experience to see contract management challenges and their impact on the entire organization. The benefits of contract management software are evident to contract management professionals, but the challenge is to convince management to approve the software investment based on their recommendation. The solution is to make a compelling case, and this free guide will help you do just that.
Achieve More With Contract Management Software
Contract management has evolved from contract writing software to full contract lifecycle management suites, like CobbleStone, that offer end-to-end contract management including post-award contract management. Notable features to expect include intelligent automated workflows and key date alerts for obligation and renewal management, audit trails for improved compliance, contract reporting and analytics to support contract data-driven decisions, and contract risk assessment with integrated artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Since 1995, CobbleStone Software has been providing industry-leading contract management software to automate and streamline the contract management process. CobbleStone’s Contract Insight® is a web-based, user-friendly contract management suite with advanced features that benefits contract, procurement, and risk professionals working in organizations throughout both the public and private sector.
CobbleStone Software can help organizations optimize contract processes from core contract management functionality to full contract lifecycle management including pre-award activity to create, manage, track, and monitor bids, RFXs, vendors, solicitations, procurement, and more, to post-award activity including obligation management, renewals, expirations, reporting, analytics, compliance, and risk management. Contract Insight is conveniently located on the United States GSA Schedule 70.
See the power behind CobbleStone’s contract management suite for yourself. Schedule a free demo today!
In addition to providing award-winning contract management software, CobbleStone Software is a thought-leader committed to providing educational and informative contract management resources to help contract management professionals learn and grow. Subscribe to our blog to get industry updates and contract management news delivered to your inbox!
