The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed contract management, procurement, and sourcing professionals into uncharted waters regarding their business operations. Organizations need to quickly find ways to cut contract-related costs and save money during times of crisis such as pandemics, economic recessions, company acquisitions/mergers, and downturns in business. CobbleStone Software’s Contract Insight can help. Here’s how.
Ad-Hoc Reports
CobbleStone Software users can quickly run reports with Contract Insight’s flexible ad-hoc reporting tool. This useful feature allows users to see a chosen list of contract records and counterparty information based on user-specified filters, with system and user-defined fields (e.g., active contracts with a contract amount over $10,000). Additionally, users can identify non-essential contractual categories to streamline the reporting process.
With CobbleStone, users can run a virtually unlimited number of ad-hoc reports. Reports can be saved and edited. Common ad-hoc report filters include:
- active contracts.
- expiring contracts.
- expired contracts.
- contract amounts.
- budget amounts.
- contracts by department.
- contracts in review.
- key dates.
During times of crisis, organizations should leverage ad-hoc reporting with Contract Insight to quickly identify contracts that meet important criteria and thresholds. Ad-hoc reporting can help users find specific contracts and avoid wasting time searching through those that do not meet defined conditions. In turn, organizations can identify unnecessary contract costs and address them to save money.
Contract Request Intake Process
CobbleStone enables organizations to implement a contract request intake process.
Contract Insight administrators can create a contract request form to be uploaded directly into the system. Users can then enter contract information, upload the request, and have that request submitted to their administrator quickly and straightforwardly. Moreover, a simple workflow-triggered alert can be configured so that accounting departments or controllers are notified if a request’s amount is over a certain dollar threshold.
Organizations leveraging Contract Insight should configure an intelligent contract request intake process when crises occur. Such a solution significantly hastens the intake process because it enables employees who typically submit contracts for legal review via disparate emails, to submit them via Contract Insight instead. In turn, organizations can easily track due dates, contract review status, and counterparty names in one centralized location as a team – saving time and money when it matters most.
Dashboards & Email Alerts
CobbleStone users can utilize dashboards to create reports of open contract requests.
Dashboards in Contract Insight appear by contract status, and different dashboards can be made available to different user groups. For example, an administrator can configure their system so that users from their organization’s accounting department see request alerts and reports pertinent to only the accounting department upon logging in. In contrast, a user from the human resources department only sees request alerts and reports associated with the human resources department.
Furthermore, organizations can configure alerts with links to relevant reports to be sent out to employees by automated email – even if they are not licensed users.
For instance, an organization may establish a recurring email alert that prompts its CFO to view an executive dashboard showing contracts by budget, and this alert is set to send every Monday morning. This process is just an example, as these reports can be scheduled to be sent at a recurring time of the users’ choice.
Organizations using CobbleStone Software should take advantage of dashboards and email alerts, as they are one of many important tools that keep contract management and legal teams on the same page, reduce bottlenecks, promote accountability, and improve bottom lines.
Manage Business Costs with Contract Insight
Now that you know how you can leverage CobbleStone Software’s source-to-contract suite to save money during uncertain times, it’s time to explore all that Contract Insight has to offer.
Contract Insight is a cloud-hosted (SaaS) or deployed (on-premise) source-to-contract solution. The acclaimed platform is trusted by thousands of professionals for their contract management, legal document management, procurement, and sourcing needs. Founded in 1995, CobbleStone was among the first and most experienced companies to offer a contract management software product. We continue to be a leader with full contract lifecycle management software.
Request a demo of CobbleStone’s Contract Insight Contract Management Software and data extraction services today!
