What to Look for in Contract Management Software: A Comprehensive Guide

Originally published here.

Managing contracts can be a complex and challenging task for any organization. Even simple queries like checking the contract expiry date or finding the latest contract version can hinder transactions. To overcome such challenges and improve workflow efficiency, businesses opt for advanced contract management software tools. Such software can speed up the contracting process, making it more efficient.

This post covers the basics of contract management software, including its features to consider when selecting a tool for your business.

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What is contract management?

The process of creating, reviewing, negotiating, signing, storing, and tracking contracts during the course of their existence is known as contract management. It outlines how companies handle contracts both before and after they are signed.

But how exactly does this contract management process work, and why is it important how you manage your contracts? Find out by reading on.

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Why does contract management matter?

Managing your contracts well is important for your business because it affects how much money your business makes and what resources you need to make that revenue.

If you don't manage your contracts well, your business could lose up to 9% of its yearly income. This happens because inefficient contract management can create more work for your business, which means you may need to hire more people. It can also waste time that you could spend on more important things, like protecting revenue for the company.

That's not all, though. Poor contract management procedures can increase contract risk, cause you to lose out on potential revenue from the contracts you don't complete, and increase the likelihood that you will breach the contracts you do complete. Businesses that lack an effective contract lifecycle for handling contracts after they are signed may get into trouble because of this.

When should you invest in contract management software?

Legal departments typically spend 65% of their time on contract work, and many anticipate an increase in demand for contracts in the future. Top general counsel uses contract lifecycle management tools to perform more effectively and have a greater impact.

If you're unsure whether you need contract management software, there are several questions to consider. If you answer "yes" to any of these questions, it may be time to consider investing in contract management software:

• Do you regularly create nearly identical or similar contracts?
• Do you anticipate a major rise in contract volume?
• Do you sign over ten contracts each month?
• ?Would it be difficult to locate the contract that's expiring soon if you needed to find it?
• Is your legal team slowed down by low-value contract administration and unable to provide value?
• ?Are contracting procedures tedious and ineffective?
• Have you missed a deadline for contract renewal?

Essential features of contract management software?

It's crucial to take into account the main features and capabilities offered by contract management software before making your choice.

1. User-friendly interface:

An intuitive user interface acts as a sort of "link" between the user and the system. The user will be able to express their requirements to the system through the interface, and the system will fulfill them. So, what happens if this human-machine understanding is not achieved? Simply, the user will leave the website.

Speedlegal is designed to be user-friendly and accessible, with a simple and intuitive interface that makes it easy for individuals and small businesses to navigate the platform. The main goal here is to provide a perfect user experience. So that after using the site, only positive emotions remain and the user can easily understand and navigate through the application in an efficient way.

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2. Affordable pricing:

If the pricing of a product is too high, then the customer loses interest in learning more. Yet, if he considers a service to be affordable, he will attempt to learn more about it. Thus, Price is a crucial issue that affects a user's choice.

Speedlegal offers flexible pricing plans that are designed to be affordable for individuals and businesses of all sizes. The platform has a free trial period, which allows users to test out its features before committing to a paid plan. Users can select from a variety of pricing plans beyond the trial time based on their needs and budget. Speedlegal's pricing is competitive with other contract management platforms on the market, making it a cost-effective solution for businesses that want to streamline their contract management processes.?

3. Contract creation:

Contract management software should provide users with customizable templates that let them create contracts independently while also allowing legal teams to maintain control over the contracts' terms. Legal teams can avoid spending the effort individually crafting each one in this way.

Speedlegal provides contract creation functionality as part of its contract management platform. Users can create new contracts from scratch or use pre-built templates to customize contracts to their specific needs.

4. AI-powered Contract review and Analysis:?

Let's take a moment to imagine the future: did you know that you can use AI technology to manage your contracts? While some people in the legal community may be dubious, there are actually some platforms that use AI-based contract management software, which can be a real game changer and provide great benefits!?

AI not only has the ability to analyze key terms and extract data from contracts, such as names, dates, and financial figures, freeing up time for you to focus on the work you truly enjoy but also identifies clauses and compares them with the market standard to identify any risk or unknown clauses that need your attention.

SpeedLegal's AI engine not only provides you with the contract summary but also analyzes contracts to spot potential problems and recommend ways to make them better! SpeedLegal provides you with the data with its unique attributes like:

Red Flag Table? - With a bird's eye view of your documents, you can quickly spot any differences from the standard terms, and identify the risk profile of each clause along with any high-stakes provisions that may affect your business.?

Contract Nutrition Labels? - which lets you know about your rights and obligations at a glance so that by the end you know what you're signing your name to.

The AI engine can also detect clauses like confidentiality provisions, governing clauses, and key financials that may need attention. This might be especially helpful for companies that handle a lot of contracts.

5. Electronic signatures

Moreover, search for contract management software that includes native eSignature capabilities, which let users securely sign documents without printing, scanning, and sending them back. This enables individuals and organizations to use any device and place to add legally binding digital signatures to contracts.

Because Speedlegal integrates with the best signing tools available, it can keep creating features that customers love and that support its comprehensive contract management. This feature can speed up the contract signing procedure, saving everyone involved time and effort.

6. Notification and Alerts:

Tools for tracking contract milestones, such as renewal dates and payment due dates, should be provided by the software.

Also, selecting contract management software with automated renewal reminders is a wise decision. You can easily manage approaching deadlines and keep track of your contracts thanks to this function.

Enterprises without technology for managing contracts typically keep track of their contracts data physically in a management spreadsheet. This calls for the extraction and input of data from specific contracts, which might be a waste of the already limited time available to legal. Additionally, it puts your company at risk for things like:

• Non-compliance with contract conditions;
• Missed deadlines and contract duties;
• Improper management of auto-renewals;
• And failed audits as a result of inadequate records and audit trails.

Speedlegal automatically records all of these deadlines so you don't have to stress about the administrative work. You may also set up automated contract renewal deadline reminders so you never miss one again.

?7. Search, Reports, and Dashboards???

Many contract data elements, such as names, dates, numbers, and other values, can be found in the typical contract repository. Unfortunately, traditional contract managing methods using spreadsheets and shared folders prevent access to and presentation of such data in a way that generates useful business insights.

Your contract management software should gather and organize contract information so that you can quickly find it and use it in reports and dashboards.?

At Speedlegal users can search for specific contracts and clauses within contracts using keywords or filters. The platform also allows users to generate customized reports and visualizations based on contract data, such as key dates, renewal rates, and compliance status. In addition, Speedlegal's platform includes a dashboard that provides an overview of key contract metrics and alerts for upcoming deadlines or contract renewals. Users can customize the dashboard to suit their specific needs and preferences.

8. Secure Contract Storage and Organization System:

Companies that manage contracts manually and according to tradition, use a decentralized approach to storing contracts. For instance, a staff member's hard disc might include some contract documents, while a shared folder would hold others.

This strategy carries a number of inherent risks. Contracts might go misplaced, important papers might go unnoticed, or someone without the proper authorizations might access private documents. Not to mention the time needed to find contract documents that are not kept in one place.

You and your team can create a smart storage system for all contracts and documents using CLM software. With the aid of this software, you may put in place a digital solution for data security and privacy that satisfies the highest industry standards. They can all be recovered when needed using either a basic search tool or specially designed filters because they are all kept in the same, safe database.

SpeedLegal provides you with a centralized location for businesses to store and manage their contracts. Users can upload existing contracts, create new contracts from pre-built templates, and track key dates and milestones such as contract renewal dates.?

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Conclusion

We are already mid-way through 2023. Your company must live up to a number of expectations in order to draw in new customers and keep hold of current ones. Contract management software is merely a little bargain in light of the supply chain industry's ongoing technological advancements. Also, firms should upgrade their contract management system as soon as possible. Because after the world has already reaped the benefits of an advanced system, it will be too late to comprehend its subtleties.

Speedlegal is a robust contract management solution with the use of which Businesses can simplify their contract management procedures. The platform provides a wide range of features, such as contract review, centralized storage, tracking, and e-signature functionality, as well as search, reporting, and dashboard capabilities. Additionally, red flag analysis, which identifies potential risks or issues, and a nutrition label, which provides you with perspectives on the health of your contract.

The platform is made to be versatile and adaptable to the unique requirements of organizations of all sizes. Also, we pay attention to your needs and adjust our strategies accordingly!

Stop looking for the ideal CMS platform and give us a try instead; you won't be disappointed!

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