If your company deals with many partners, collaborators, or clients, you know how important it is to keep your contracts organized. A shuffled deck of contracts with different timeframes and requirements can be a source of real problems, leaving you with lost opportunities and dropped revenue.
Contract management software can help with this anxiety, keeping everything organized and timely from creation and execution to completion or renewal.
What Are the Main Ways Contract Management Software Benefits You Right Away?
You’re looking for operational efficiency, and you’ll find yourself mitigating risks. Here are three main ways that will happen with the right contract management software:
- Improved Compliance: Your software will keep the terms of your contract straight and maintain alignment with legal and regulatory requirements. It will also track your obligations and deadlines in real time and track each item as you go.
- Enhanced Efficiency: Automation is a great way to free your team of time-consuming or repetitive tasks. Markets could be looking up, so get ready to scale. Stay focused on strategic, high-value activities that grow your business.
- Risk Mitigation: Sometimes, you miss loopholes and risks in your contracts. The unblinking eye of the computer can help if you give it the right tools. Automated reviews to flag potential problem points will save time, reduce disputes, and keep you from missing opportunities.
What Other Key Features Should You Look For?
There are basics, and then the features separate a suitable suite of services from a barebones app. Depending on your business, there are a few more things that you might look for in your contract management software.
- Centralized Repository: Keep all your contracts in the same place so that you can access, search, and manage them more efficiently. This will save time and spare you a few headaches.
- Automated Alerts and Reminders: It’s the age of automation, and AI has become a common feature in contract management. A smart, well-trained virtual assistant–or basic automation–can ensure your business never misses critical opportunities like renegotiation windows.
- Collaboration Tools: Can contract management software help manage your workforce? If your business involves keeping contracts moving and timely, it had better! Keep your company workload manageable and give your employees a sense of freedom with the security of built-in tools for communication and tracking tasks.
Things to Consider Before You Implement
With so many possible features and benefits, successful implementation requires picking the software that suits your company and preparing your workforce for its use. This means understanding your specific needs, keeping your workforce informed, and training them on its use before it goes live. Implementing new systems can be challenging, but the right software can solve enough problems to make it worth it.
In one case, a SaaS company called JourneyApps grew faster than its home-grown contract management system could handle. Audits took months to complete, billing errors were frequent, and the company’s workforce struggled to find the documents they needed. As a result, the company missed critical opportunities and lost revenue.
JourneyApps implemented ContractSafe, a contract management software suite with a centralized contract repository, automation, and collaboration tools. This drastically improved their internal processes and helped them manage renewals and obligations.
Create Solutions Before Problems Appear
If you aren’t already scaling beyond the capabilities of your existing contract system, this is your opportunity to solve problems before they appear. What will your contract infrastructure look like in a year or two if you satisfy all your growth goals or even exceed them? Take control of that now. New software interactions are improving businesses. Make it work for you with the right contract management software.
*The San Francisco Weekly newsroom and editorial were not involved in the creation of this content.
