There is no good reason to stick with contract management practices that increase costs and expose your company to unnecessary risk. So why is your organization still using manual processes? Digital contract management is a whole lot better — and an increasing number of companies and their contract managers agree.
According to a recent member survey conducted by World Commerce and Contracting, a trade organization with 70,000 members worldwide:
- 81% have plans to implement contract automation
- 84% experience pressure for contract simplification
- 48% experience have challenges tied to price changes and delivery terms.
Now is the time to break away from the limitations of manual processes! It’s the key to optimizing financial and operational performance and growth. With digital contract management, you have complete visibility into the contract management lifecycle to monitor progress at every stage.
Automated contract management ensures your team meets compliance standards with its custom user access rights, electronic signature validation and automated retention schedules. In addition, it saves you money because automating approvals and renewal notifications makes certain that you will not pay for an auto renewal of services you no longer use, continue to pay for cancelled contracts or let an essential contract lapse.
How digitization is a cornerstone of an effective contract management strategy
To get from idea to agreement more quickly you can:
- Streamline the mechanics of the contracting process
- Use contract templates to accelerate and standardize contract creation
- Employ a consistent contract structure
- Automate notifications about project milestones and renewal deadlines
- Use valid electronic signatures
- Ensure that authorized remote employees can process contracts anywhere, anytime
2. To create a clear an auditable record you can:
- Easily track who agreed to what and when they did so
- Maintain all versions and have a record of changes and who made them
- Ensure that signed contracts are secure and can’t be altered
- Store all contracts, drafts, pictures, and protocols in a secure electronic form with redundant backup
- Protect confidential contractual information
3. To identify trends and develop insight you can:
Ensure that contracts are developed and executed with a consistent process and securely stored in a centralized database for immediate access
Identify business risks – and opportunities – in your outstanding contracts and use this intelligence to drive business decisions
The risk/reward payoff of automating and securing the contracts administration process is huge. Take the leap! Stop relying on Excel spreadsheets or notes jotted on someone’s calendar. By automating every step, you avoid delays, eliminate the cost of paying for services and goods you no longer use and improve team collaboration.
Editors note: This blog post has been updated and new content has been added.
Main image by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
