Contract Reporting: “Crunching” the Numbers
By Graham Covert, Customer Success Manager and Karen Howe, Training Director
As soon as the large, cylindrical buoy is hauled over the side of the boat, a crew member fiddles with an apparatus near the bottom and data starts streaming via Bluetooth to the open laptop nearby. The data represents hundreds, if not thousands, of “pings” from tagged great white sharks cruising just off the Massachusetts coast. Ongoing research projects like this one hope the data can be used to better understand the health of the species and turn it into actionable plans to ensure the safety of beachgoers. It’s “Shark Week” on The Discovery Channel and though I’m drawn to the programs highlighting the drama of human vs. shark encounters, I’m also reminded of the wealth of data out there and the need to make sense of it all.
Leveraging Contract Data through Reporting
Your contracts also contain a wealth of data and increasingly the conversations we have with contract professionals focus on the importance of leveraging that data. Whether they are managing pharmaceutical rebates, tracking energy contract compliance, in healthcare ensuring physician agreements are up to date, they get it. They know that if they can extract value from the data in their contracts then they can optimize those legal agreements and provide a ROI to the business, and reporting is a valuable and essential tool in that effort.
Contract reporting can guide decision-making and allow business owners and senior managers the opportunity to investigate and solve issues that get identified. They help guide important decisions and build an audit trail of business activities including reports that document annual budgets, sales, and planning initiatives.
Contract reporting is primarily done through the process of compiling and reviewing the information within a specific functional area such as finance, sales, operations, inventory control or any area of the business where performance is monitored and measured. One of the exciting aspects of a system like Contract Logix is the ability to slice the data however you want. Every business is different and people just love being able to report on the data in a way that aligns with their specific needs. None of that is possible without the modern flexibility of a CLM solution like ours.
Out-of-the-Box Reports
Contract management software form Contract Logix already comes with a selection of useful contract reports that look at things like contract expirations and renewals, pending tasks, contracts grouped by type or organization or contracts you “own”. Any user can quickly run a report and export it in PDF or Excel format or email it with a couple of clicks. What’s nice about these “standard” reports is that they can also be modified based on the information the user wants to see.
Simple Report Creation Tools
Users looking to create their own reports can easily do so by saving the current grid display (the columns, grouping, sorting, filtering etc.) as a report in their personal “My Reports” tab. These reports can include any information your organization tracks related to contracts. And once created, a user can easily copy it to the “Shared Reports” tab where it can be accessed and run by his or her colleagues, thus eliminating duplication of effort.
Takeaway
Digital transformation is the wave of the future, not only for shark researchers, but for any businesses wishing to keep pace with the challenges of a changing world. Contract reporting plays a key role in documenting the progress of your business, guiding strategic decision making, helping business leaders to formulate budget and planning activities for the ensuing year and providing justifications for each decision. With contract management software from Contract Logix, reporting on critical data has never been easier.
Interested in learning more? Schedule a conversation with one of our CLM specialists.