Implementors are the forefront of client development with our contract management software, Contract Insight®. They work with clients daily to help configure, teach, and optimize each unique situation our clients present. That’s why I interviewed Richard DeMarco, CobbleStone’s Implementation Team Lead and Senior Implementor, about his experience working with CobbleStone users, important parts of the system, and what kind of benefits he’s seen clients receive from using our award-winning software, Contract Insight®. His knowledge from client experiences can help you understand the ease of implementation and what to expect when first starting to use Contract Insight.
Richard: A passing of knowledge, understanding the functionality of the system. Someone from outside the client’s organization who’s seen other client experiences can apply those situations and best practices to help optimize the system configurations.
Richard: Based on feedback from clients who have tried other systems, and have tried other manual methods of contract management, they said that CobbleStone is easy to use from day one. The ability to configure the system exactly how they want is something they consider a great benefit. Configuring other contract management systems may create costs for every additional configuration because of limitations in the software, or it may not even be possible to make the change at all. With our software, the configurations that can be made are just about endless. We have clients who want just a few changes made to their system on day one and others who choose to configure every aspect of their system.
Richard: The primary contacts after kick-off are system admin(s). Their role is to support the administration of the system. As we progress through implementation, we may work with some of the end-users and, once the system is rolled out, they typically become the primary contact and expert.
Richard: From day one, we’re the face and main contact of the company, helping you configure the system. The role of the implementor is to create a plan from beginning to end, including admin and end-user training. We can also help with planning out data management and answering any unique questions users may have about using the system.
Richard: Alerts and reports. They allow users to understand when things are due, know what their approaching workload is, see reports updated daily, and see when things are up for renewal, which clients find to be of great benefit. This is, of course, aside from the contract repository, which is a huge benefit to all who use our contract management system. Once clients lay the foundation of our contract lifecycle solution, they can take advantage of more advanced features like Contract Insight artificial intelligence, cycle-time analysis, risk mitigation, and more.
Richard: It depends on what was purchased. If they purchased the eSourcing module, that will be their primary focus because they’re focused on bids and procurement. But if they don’t have that, they’ll be focused on contract management, contract records, contract types, etc. Procurement specialists love the easy requisition management and automated workflow built into Contract Insight, which provides self-serve procurement initiation.
Richard: Yes, especially if you utilize or have those needs within your organization – it keeps everything under the same umbrella. It’s better to manage your purchase orders, invoices, contracts, etc all in the same system for transparency and convenience without having to constantly transfer back and forth between systems. A fully integrated Source-to-Contract solution provides end-to-end procurement visibility.
Richard: Esign tools help with housing everything in the same place. Any document uploaded to the system, or within the system, can easily be sent for eSignatures. If you’re generating documents from within the system it’s easy to just send the document without it ever leaving the system, but it also makes signing third-party paper easier to sign too. Users always know where the document is with easy to understand dashboards.
Richard: By being prepared. In most cases the implementor will provide the client with best practice recommendations and will explain what topics will be discussed during the session. In contrast, the implementor will try to understand how the client intends to use the system to figure out what will work best for their team. CobbleStone clients have an advantage because of our 20+ years of implementing contract management software.
Richard: Most clients choose training and it’s typically the first thing we schedule and complete after the kick-off. The relationship will extend from an account rep to an implementor at this time. The implementor will begin with a review session of the product as a whole, understanding the goals and next steps.
Richard: Depending on how you want to use the system, it can be as simple as a contract records management system, or as advanced as a full contract lifecycle management solution, managing contracts from cradle-to-grave. Clients should start out in steps to learn all areas of the system so they can take full advantage of it.
For more real-life examples of implementation success at CobbleStone, check out the Implementor’s Story Blog Series.