Six Features of the Best Contract Management Solutions

Contract management. If there are two words that can make you cringe, it has to be those two. But contract management is part of life, and it’s crucial that organizations have better visibility into where a contract is, how long it’s been there, and when it’s expected to be completed. That’s especially true now that financial reporting is required to improve contract compliance and enhance operational efficiency. Businesses that implement a transparent contract management process compress their time to revenue; mitigate risks by having fewer contractual exceptions, and increase customer satisfaction.

What’s needed is a simple and reliable process for getting new contracts into the system, approving those contracts and then managing and storing them. Business, legal, and even financial contract approvers have access to one central location to collaborate and approve contracts as they move through the contract lifecycle process. We’ve selected six features that we feel must be incorporated in the best solutions.

1. Added Visibility – Centralizing your contracts allows visibility throughout their lifecycle. You can see a document’s history, including all previous versions and can create reports based on any data field in a personalized dashboard.
2. Simplified Management – Easily collaborate with reviewers and departments directly. Email updates can also be sent to contracts through an assigned unique email address. Email notifications can be configured for multiple events, including new contract requests, comments, tasks, updates and documents
3. E-sign Capabilities – Users can electronically sign contracts upon execution and manage them in one easy-to-use tool.
4. Real-Time Contract Routing – Authorized users can make changes to the workflow and add approvers on the fly by simply clicking a button.
5. Custom Intake Forms – Custom intake and data forms allow multiple contract types with the capability to support context sensitive data capture. Some contract types supported include NDAs, MSAs, SOWs, etc. Fields can be easily configured by contract type and reminders can be based on business rules.
6. Flexible Workflow – Workflow can be configured relative to contract type or matched to your unique business needs.

It’s quite possible to purchase a contract administration solution, and also a separate contract review and approval solution. Better still, if you choose to use a contract lifecycle management solution, you’ll have the best of both worlds: a convenient combination of contract administration and contract review and approval all in one package. It’s time to get on board with the finest in contract management solutions, and allow your business to reach the level of success it deserves.