Making the Case for a Modern Contract Management Solution
By Justin Perkins and Karen Howe
Businesses run on contracts and without the right controls you are putting your organization at greater risk every day those channels are not in place. The time to act is now, before something damaging happens to your organization. So, how do you justify the need for a modern contract management solution? In this article, I share some points to help validate that need, including reasons you might not have realized could benefit your day-to-day operations.
The first question to ask when justifying contract management software is… How do you access and manage your contracts today? Are they stored in file cabinets? Are they scattered in folders on various personal computers or network drives? Do you rely on email or paper copies to circulate those contracts within your organization? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, you aren’t alone. Many businesses still depend on these outmoded, inefficient methods. If the people who need access can’t find the contract quickly or know for sure they’re looking at the right version, that’s a real problem and one easily solved by a modern contract management solution.
And what about the information contained in those contracts? Do you maintain and distribute spreadsheets full of contract data such as key dates, terms, companies, contacts, etc.? If so, how do you monitor critical dates, deadlines, obligations, or audit changes? Unstructured data in contract management is a dangerous thing because it leaves the business open to missing something critical. Manual processes are tedious and risky. We live in a world where one missed deadline could cost an organization more than an entire contract management system. In fact, we’ve had customers tell us that our software paid for itself by avoiding just one unintentional autorenewal. Sadly, some companies don’t realize this until it’s too late or they may not even be aware of missed opportunities or liabilities.
What if as a business you find yourself in the unfortunate position of having missed one of those critical dates or obligations because you didn’t have a good method to track it? Your organization may now have to recognize the legal, financial, or contractual repercussions for missing this item, not to mention the impact on your reputation – both at a company and a personal level. It’s all about trusting your contract data and the methods you have of maintaining it. It’s all about mitigating risk. None of us ever wants to go to our management team to explain why and how we failed to meet a critical item we had agreed to in a contract, especially if having the right tools to track and manage these items could have completely avoided it.
At Contract Logix we strive to help businesses control and improve their contract management practices every single day. Our CLM products help you centralize and automate the entire contract lifecycle and provide real time ability to monitor every single agreement, deadline, and obligation important to your organization. Key date alerts and business process automation keep critical individuals informed and in control. They will always know when and where to focus their attention, without the need to circulate spreadsheets or rummage through file folders looking for a contract.
Takeaway
There are many factors to consider when choosing a modern contract management solution for your business. However, doing nothing and maintaining the status quo when there are such amazing tools out there is not the answer. The opportunity to streamline processes, reduce risk, uncover opportunities, and feel safer about how you manage your business each day is critical to moving forward in the digital age. Don’t let outdated methods for managing contracts impact your business. Instead, start looking at how new tools can truly move you forward as a company.
Want to learn more? Let’s talk.