Contracts between companies form the basis of business. Contract management is therefore very important. Nevertheless, it is still treated with little care. What is the solution?
Contract management challenge #1: Inadequate transparency in contract storage
Nowadays, contracts arrive at your company through a wide variety of channels, such as mail, email, and contract systems. But who can claim to always have an overview of which contract has been filed where—whether physically (e.g., drawer, file folder, file vault) or digitally (e.g., file server, collaboration platform)? In most cases, people end up frantically searching their email inboxes, looking through local folders on the file server, or even leafing through printed copies in file folders. The search process is time-consuming and frustrating—and often ends unsuccessfully.
Our crazy idea: how about introducing digital contract management? One of the advantages of such software is that you can store all your contracts in one central location—and at the same time, unstructured data is transformed into structured and therefore analyzable systems. You also have the option of searching for contracts and sorting them by business partner or year. You can also enter specific keywords in a free text search to find the contract you want. This gives you complete transparency when it comes to your contract management.
Contract management challenge #2: Slow contract approval processes
Signature folders that are driven around or sent by taxi and travel from desk to desk (we've seen it all 😉) make approval and release processes very complex and time-consuming. Without suitable contract management software, it can take quite a while to gather all the approvals needed to send a contract. And that leads to complete dissatisfaction on the part of your contractual partner.
Are you tired of such tedious processes in your company—especially in times when mobile working is part of everyday life? Yes? Great, then it's high time for digital contract management. Appropriate software speeds up contract processing times. This is because workflows automatically forward contracts to the right people in the background. Regular reminders of approvals to be made prevent the process from stalling. This means you always have an overview and approval processes run virtually by themselves.
Contract management challenge #3: Contract deadline missed once again
You are probably familiar with this issue from your personal life: Who hasn't missed the cancellation deadline for a cell phone contract, gym membership, or insurance policy at some point? The end result: You reluctantly pay the fees for another year (and probably forget to cancel again). If we let things slip through our fingers in our personal lives, it is even more annoying in a professional context.
With intelligent, digital contract management, you always have an overview of all current (and expired) contracts. Early notifications alert the parties involved, allowing them to take appropriate action within the contractually specified period.
Contract management challenge #4: Insecure and unprotected storage of contracts
Challenge 4 covers the major and arguably most important issue: (legal) security. The question is: How can I store my contracts digitally in a secure manner that protects them from unauthorized access?
Digital contract solutions enable you to archive contract documents in an audit-proof manner (i.e., with access protection, without changes or deletions). This is also required by law, and violations are punishable by heavy fines or even imprisonment.
Also interesting: Contract management software keeps a log of every single step (e.g., approvals granted), so that anyone who has access to the contract can also track the contract history. The emphasis here is on the subordinate clause "has access to the contract." In a digital solution, you as the administrator can define all permissions. For this purpose, permission groups can be stored in the system and, depending on which permission group your colleagues belong to, they are granted access to the contract or access is denied or the document is not displayed at all.
Contract management challenge #5: Problems with the ability to provide information
If contracts are stored in various locations (such as email inboxes, file servers, and file folders), you will have problems providing information quickly.
However, if you have opted for digital contract management, you will always be able to provide information anywhere and at any time, even on the spur of the moment. This is because all contracts are stored in a central location and can be found quickly. So you no longer have to struggle to find a contract in the office or even spend hours searching through dusty file cabinets just to provide information about a clause. In the future, you will be just a few clicks away from answering the question.
We shed light on the situation for you
As you can see, there are many good reasons to implement digital contract management in your company. In times of working from home and lockdowns, there is an urgent need for action!
With our exclusive starter package, you can get started with digital contract management in just four weeks. For more information, please click here. And if you have any other questions about smart document management systems (DMS) or digital records, we are of course happy to help.
Cihan Klingsporn
Senior Account & Marketing Manager
Business Process Automation
cihan.klingsporn@isr.de
+49(0)151 422 05 471
