Disorganized document and contract storage, workflows relying upon phones and emails, and manual document writing solutions won’t suffice in 2020. Don’t slip back into the success-minimizing habits of 2019. Revive your contract management new year’s resolution for this year with a process that leverages a secure contract repository, automated workflows, and streamlined document assembly.
We’ve all been in the following situation:
The new year has started. You’ve laid out your workout schedule. You’ve chosen a diet. You steadfastly follow through with your plan for a week. Two weeks. Four weeks. Six weeks. You are going strong! You are motivated! You see the results!
But then...
The slump kicks in. You skip a day at the gym. You take a cheat day with your diet. Then you skip two workouts. Then you spend a whole weekend eating nothing but pizza and fast food. Before you know it, you’ve fallen back into bad habits. Now it seems as though all of your aspirations for the year have slipped out of reach, and you are back to square one.
The same scenario may apply to your organization’s handling of contract management. You came out of the gate in early 2020 with big plans to work toward contract management success, but big ideas may have fallen by the wayside for your contract management team. But now is not the time to give up. Now is the time for your organization to hop back on the treadmill and sprint toward sweet contract management success. Contract management software can help.
Revitalize Document Storage
Just as someone who is firm in cutting junk food out of their diet sets out to avoid sweets, those who aim for contract management success in 2020 must keep out harmful habits as well. One facet of proper contract management is efficient document storage. Thus, filing cabinets, unsystematic digital storage, and spreadsheets must be removed from the contract management diet.
The aforementioned methods of document storage limit access to documents, leave documents disconnected from supporting files, lack visibility and transparency, and fail to support the proactive tracking and management of contract statuses, approvals, key dates, milestones, and automated renewal clauses.
For your document storage resolution, you should opt for a secure document and contract repository system afforded by contract management software. A centralized storage system standardizes and secures the organization, protection, sharing, and location of contracts. Data protection features secure sensitive information and reduce risk. A secure repository can improve organization-wide accountability, centralize version control, and increase an organization’s productivity.
Stay consistent with your goal to make contracts work for your organization. Leverage an advanced document and contract repository for easier contract management, increased savings and revenue, mitigated risk, and successful realization of contract management KPIs.
Transform Workflows
A person trying to transform their fitness level in the gym must work hard, but this just one piece of the puzzle. One must also work smart to ensure that all muscle groups are worked evenly throughout the week, injuries are avoided, and the best results are seen from the gym. Similar rules apply to those focused on optimizing contract management practices in 2020. You can work as hard and vigorously as possible on contract workflow tasks but still fall short. The problem is manual workflow processes. Without task reminders, clear delineation of tasks, and key date alerts, hard-working contract management teams can fail to meet their goals. Achieving contract management goals starts with the process.
For your workflow resolution, you should implement trusted contract management software with workflow automation tools that can reduce instances of contract lifecycle delays by engaging the right people at the right time with task reminders, task escalation, key date alerts and notifications, and robust contract notifications. Intelligent workflow automation allows contract management teams to enjoy user-defined fields, reporting and analytics, audit trails, and more.
Advanced automated workflows help contract management professionals to oversee negotiation and approvals and track every stage of the contract lifecycle. With automated alerts, contract management teams can meet key dates and milestones – up to and including contract renewals. Additionally, audit trail history gives teams an up-to-date recording of changes that are made to a contract.
2020 is your organization’s year to overcome contract lifecycle bottlenecks and assure accountability with the aid of intelligent automated workflows.
Super-charge Contract Writing
Another facet of contract management in which your team needs to work smarter rather than simply harder is the handling of document assembly.
With manual document authoring, productivity suffers when multiple people are tasked with creating, editing, and reviewing the same contracts. Drafting documents, downloading templates, accruing relevant information, and entering data into a vast array of different fields can be a waste of time. Furthermore, untouched documents become antiquated when up-to-date versions are not readily available to all parties, which increases the risk of error.
Additionally, compliance is compromised when approved clauses, templates, and language are not standardized. In addition to the previously mentioned issues, contract management teams relying on manual document assembly increase the risk of workflow task delays, signature and approval bottlenecks, security issues, missed key dates and renewals, and an overall reduction in contract value.
It’s clear to see that you need to stick with your resolution to leave manual contract writing behind in 2019. Make 2020 the year you transform your organization’s document assembly with contract management software.
With leading source-to-contract software, organizations can centralize and organize their document assembly process. Document authoring software helps organizations to automate the drafting and gathering of contracts, risk documents, agreements, and more. Additionally, teams can rely on their software solution for the enforcement of compliance and the reduction of issues with collaboration, data entry, distribution, and document storage.
Teams can set pre-approved clauses and data fields, allowing for multiple document templates for teams to leverage for the swift generation and exporting of documents into standard file formats. Version tracking keeps the document drafting process consistent and organized. E-signature tools make signing quick, easy, and accessible in-office or on the go.
Contract management teams can reduce instances of compliance bottlenecks with compliance monitoring that features configurable user permissions and rules regarding document access, with approval routing and audit trail capabilities. As such, the right people are working on the right tasks at the right time, and contracts meet regulations.
Stay healthy and resolute in 2020, achieving your goal of improved document assembly with contract management software.
Just because you’ve slacked a bit, put down the weights, and eaten a few donuts does not mean that all is lost when it comes to your new year's resolution. Get back on track with CobbleStone Software.
CobbleStone's Contract Management Software, Contract Insight®, is acclaimed as a leader in contract management solutions.
The software’s wealth of user-friendly tools empowers organizations to handle contracts more efficiently, unite and secure contracts and documents, effectively oversee compliance, keep track of costs, receive alerts, easily sign with E-signatures, and reduce lost productivity and high costs due to out-of-date contract administration.
CobbleStone's contract management software is trusted by thousands of contract, legal, procurement, and sales professionals worldwide. Request a free demo of our award-winning contract management, eSourcing, & procurement platform today!
