The COVID-19 pandemic has left educational institutions in a state of disarray. In such unprecedented times, education contract managers - especially when overseeing contract management teams remotely - cannot rely on antiquated education contract management procedures. Amidst such unforeseen circumstances caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, education contract managers can learn how to leverage the following key digital contract management processes within a scalable and centralized contract lifecycle management system to maximize their contracts’ value and optimize their workflow.
Executive Summary
Unoptimized education contract management methods can prevent growth and efficiency, taint institutional reputation, and decrease ROI. Outdated practices, including manual and disparate processes, can potentially expose educational institutions to unwanted risk variables that can negatively impact their budgets and general reputations. Procurement specialists, paralegals, legal counsel, executive assistants, and other education contract administration professionals cannot rely on obsolete contract management processes. Thankfully, educational institutions can leverage virtually COVID-proof and user-friendly contract management software to streamline their operations with unparalleled contract oversight.
Contract Clauses and Templates
Manual contract creation requires searching and pulling essential parts out of various disparate documents and writing the rest. This can often lead to incidentally excluding necessary terms and conditions that can delay contract reviewing and contract negotiation. Thankfully, pre-approved contract templates offered by a future-minded contract management software platform can streamline the contract writing process – replacing a manual drafting process with a speedy contract generation and approval strategy.
Additionally, contract managers can more confidently delegate new contract creation tasks within their team by knowing team-members can leverage current and approved contract clauses and templates from their organization’s pre-approved library. Contract managers using a contract management system can configure their system to extract desired terms and clauses based on the kind of contract needing to be created, virtually ensuring the incorporation of necessary terms. This swift yet secure process reduces contract workflow bottlenecks - yielding faster contract closeouts
Organizations can even leverage contract management software integrations for an even more centralized process! For example, CobbleStone Software offers PC Helper App integrations with MS Outlook and MS Word.
A Secure Contract Repository System
When dealing with vitally important contracts, education contract management professionals can face issues maintaining an organized contract and storage process. This problem can yield detrimental consequences where educational institutions may find it virtually impossible to:
- retain version control.
- adhere to key dates.
- maintain contract security.
- improve contract performance.
- stay aware of milestones.
Storing contracts may seem simple. However, a simple contract repository pales in comparison to an electronic contract lifecycle management suite. Without a centralized contract management system, education contract managers can miss opportunities to mitigate risk and risk exposure, improve contract performance, and maintain holistic oversight of their contracts.
Luckily, educational institutions can utilize a future-minded and unified contract lifecycle management suite to not only store contracts but maximize their value for optimal ROI. Contract storage can safeguard an educational institution’s contracts and improve accountability, centralize document control, and increase overall contract management productivity. A web-enabled contract management system allows contract managers to store and organize contracts, implement document version control, track approval statuses, collaborate with third parties, integrate with their email system, utilize electronic signatures, and more. Watch the video below to see how easy signing can be with CobbleStone.
Automated Contract Workflow
Education contract managers can be frustrated by manual workflow processes - especially when a team member delays the contract workflow by forgetting a renewal date, payment, or any other pertinent task. Teams using disparate communication methods - such as phone calls and emails - can
- increase contract lifecycle bottlenecks.
- overlook key dates.
- miss necessary steps.
- waste time.
- delay contract negotiations.
- and incur financial losses.
Fortunately, educational institutions can implement a process-oriented contract management workflow system that can securely streamline the contract management procedure and virtually eliminate many inefficiencies.
Education contract managers who leverage automated workflow within contract management software can expedite their team’s process by assigning the proper team member to their tasks with unlimited notifications, automated alerts, and task reminders. Intelligent contract management workflow automation can help teams handle their workflow process with audit trails, advanced contract analytics, searching, reporting, user-defined fields, and more. Contract management artificial intelligence with machine learning can automate data entry, assesses and maps risk factors, analyze statistical data, offer immediate recommendations based on real-time data, and more. Watch the video below to learn more about contract intelligence.
Contract management software can help educational institutions streamline their negotiation and signing processes with integrated track changes and electronic signatures. Automated alerts help education contract management teams to complete signature and approval tasks in a timely manner. Additionally, audit trail history tracked by proven contract lifecycle management software can virtually ensure all involved personnel work with the most current contract versions for optimal contract visibility. Intelligent contract workflow with secure and proven contract management automation functionalities can significantly streamline the education contract management process.
Have No Fear. Contract Insight® is Here!
Now, more than ever, contract management professionals employed with colleges, universities, and school systems need a digital and centralized contract lifecycle management software system to help their organizations thrive in the face of challenges posed by the pandemic of COVID-19.
Cobblestone Software provides proven and user-friendly education contract management software that features eSignatures, contract request tracking, analytics and reporting, FOIA request portal, and more. CobbleStone’s Contract Insight® is a flexible, low-friction, highly configurable, and user-friendly software solution that helps thousands of users in educational institutions in the private and public sectors.
To see CobbleStone’s industry-leading education contract management software in action, book a free demo with a Contract Insight expert today!
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