Why You Should Want a Contract Management System Contracts are the essential cornerstone of business。 As such, it would seem that investment in a system that improves efficiency in creating, executing, and managing contracts while simultaneously enforcing proper controls for compliance would not be a difficult choice to make。 Yet a recent survey showed that many organizations still rely on manual processes for much of the contract lifecycle management process。So the question that needs to be answered is whether companies are simply unaware of the benefits of automation or have consciously decided that the traditional, manual processes are still better。 For those companies that have chosen to rely on phone calls, emails, handshakes, and spreadsheets,here are five important questions to research。 74485

Why would I want my contracts and contract data in a central repository?

How many times have you watched colleagues engage in the “random request then reply all” game of searching for details on a business transaction that occurred years earlier? Turning the entire staff into a collection of historical researchers certainly isn’t efficient and rarely proves effective。 A central repository that puts all of the important data like relevant parties, key dates, milestones, payment terms, obligations, compliance details, and penalties alongside the contract document itself would allow the right people to locate the right information at the right time。 Of course, this could have social implications, as it would reduce the email and phone traffic you receive。 It would also give you a single system that could allow you to analyze cross-contract data, review trends, and find hotspots for potential risk。 So you have to ask yourself whether peace of mind, risk management, visibility, and efficient use of staff time are more important than engaging the entire company on occasional ad hoc research initiatives。

Does distributed data entry really have an upside? 

In the modern age of “everyone gets to play” sports leagues, one would think that getting everyone involved in entering critical contract data would be a good thing。 But the morale boost of a few underperforming employees doesn’t outweigh the increased risk of potentially introducing errors by allowing many hands from different business units, geographic locations, and skillsets to touch your organization’s contracts。 A contract lifecycle management system allows you to distribute the data entry process across the entire workflow to those best positioned to enter the data at the right moment。 At the same time, the system can help reduce repetition and eliminate duplication of data entry efforts by staff。 If each data element is provided by the most logical person in the organization, then you will never have to cross-train your legal staff on financial concepts like uplifts, margins, and asset allocation in emerging markets。 You can still hand out trophies to everyone at the company picnic。 

Does voluminous legalese trump simplicity and efficiency? 

Templates with consistent language and pre-approved alternative language are important aspects of contract lifecycle management systems。 While these programs won’t give your junior legal staff as many opportunities to apply their extreme redlining skills to every contract, they will allow your company to create rules associated with legal pre-approval on top of standard templates and a library of clauses and alternate language。 With those benefits, some recurring, lowrisk, non-negotiable contracts may bypass your lawyers altogether。 You will satisfy those executives asking you to “do more with less,” and you will have to find another use for all of those red ballpoint pens on backorder。 Plus, you may finally get to use all of the content in those reference contracts you’ve been hoarding all these years。 

Is there a way to avoid sales people?