Contracts are at the heart of every business deal–no surprise there. Contracts form the business model for your organization–for better or worse. Your Legal Department must have the tools needed to manage the organization’s contracts.
Legal Departments are becoming more integrated with the rest of the business organization and so are more involved in the life cycle of their contracts. The only way this works efficiently is by using technology to support the entire contracting process.
The Challenges of Traditional Contract Management for Legal Departments
In the 1900’s up until recently, Legal Department involvement usually was just to get the contracts drafted and signed. Contracts were stored in file cabinets, piles, briefcases, or desks. Sometimes in the circular file. Well, that was then, this is NOW. It is a different world.
Manual contract management is a struggle. We’ve all dealt with searching for lost documents, missing deadlines, and juggling multiple versions of the same agreement. It’s a time-consuming and frustrating process that distracts your team from focusing on the important legal work.
Traditional contract management relies on scattered emails, shared drives, and manual spreadsheets. This outdated approach leads to:
- Countless hours are spent searching for documents and tracking down information.
- Human errors are inevitable, leading to missed deadlines, overlooked obligations, and potential legal disputes.
If you recognize some of this as symptomatic of your organization, you are not alone. Luckily, you have found one of the best times to get into the 21st century of Contract Management! The technology platforms are here to help!
That’s why we’ve developed Contract Advantage software for Legal Departments. We give you the capability and tools to handle the different phases of the contract life cycle–with confidence, structure, security, and style!
We built Contract Advantage™ to make contract management easier. Our solution gives you the tools to streamline your processes, reduce risk, and support your legal team and the business units.
Contract Advantage™ Is Your Legal Department’s Partner
With Contract Advantage™, all of your contracts live in one place–protected and secure. The centralized repository houses every contract, amendment, and associated documents–and document version history, if desired. No more digging through folders or endless email threads. It’s all there, organized, and easy to find.
Your organization can implement components of your contract management tasks depending on your needs: contract requests, contract reviews, approvals, document assembly, automated digital signatures, Contract monitoring, Automated Email Alerts, Legal Services Tracking, invoices, payments, and budgets. And more–fixed assets, certifications and credentialing, intellectual property, KPI’s, financial transactions…you get the idea.
In all, this is what is referred to as contract lifecycle management. Contract Advantage offers the functionality you need to manage your contracting processes better than before.
Why Choose Contract Advantage™ for Your Legal Department?
Streamline Contract Creation and Review
You don’t have to start from scratch. In fact, Contract Advantage offers a structured Contract Request platform that staff can use to create a well-formed request. One of the great aspects of the Contract Request Portal concept is that your internal clients are engaged immediately in the process and a significant portion of the front-end workload is now distributed to the source of hte contract request. In the past, a contract request would come in by email, and if you were lucky, there was a form in Word™, Excel™ or PDF. The Contract Management or Law Department would then manually extract the information. Now, ALL of that information becomes part of the Contract Record in Contract Advantage! Think of the effort and time that you save!
Not all organizations are ready to distribute the front-end workload, so clients may decide to begin the automation at the drafting or approvals stage.
Contract Advantage provides a library of pre-approved contract templates to save time and ensure consistency. Select the template you need, fill in the blanks, or use a template linked to data fields in the contract record, and you’re on your way.
The Clause Library offers pre-approved contract clause wording as well as alternative contract language. This makes contract editing more structured and consistent. You can edit the contract directly in Contract Advantage using our built-in link to Microsoft Word. This way, you will be using the familiar Word capabilities, rather an editor that does not have the full set of features you require.
No more emailing drafts back and forth. Our platform lets your team collaborate in real-time, making edits and suggestions directly in the contract. You can work on a document together even if you are miles apart.
Tired of chasing down signatures and approvals? The Contract Advantage automated workflows take care of that for you. CA routes the contract to the right people, sends reminders, and keeps track of the progress. Your tasks are tracked in your dashboard and in email alerts.
Mitigate Risk and Ensure Compliance
What are your risks in the contracting process and in the ongoing contract management once it is signed? Usually, the risks relate to delivery and deadlines. There are many more, to be sure.
The risk of missing a deadline can have dire consequences, including penalties, or have the contract costs unexpectedly escalate. Many organizations, painfully, decide to automate their contract management because they were hit with penalties or increased costs. Well…Never miss a deadline again. Our software lets you track important dates and obligations, ensuring nothing slips through the cracks. Set automatic reminders for renewals, expirations, and other key milestones.
Contract Advantage maintains a detailed record of every contract, amendment, and approval. You can easily see who made changes and when. You can even see who even looked at a contract and when. The clear audit trail provides for compliance and accountability.
Regulations change, Names change, and your contracts need to keep up. Contract Advantage enables mass mailings that can automatically contact your stakeholders. New language, if needed, can be inserted into contracts and submitted for signatures. Clause language changes can be inserted into documents automatically for contracts that are not “live” yet. The system can update your agreements or add amendments or riders, with the latest legal requirements, so you can ensure legal and contract compliance.
Gain Actionable Insights With Contract Analytics
Our analytics tools reveal the story behind your contracts. See how your agreements perform, identify trends, and uncover potential risks. This information helps you negotiate better deals and improve your overall contract management strategy. The Lessons Learned module can help to communicate your experience to others.
Contract Advantage™ gives you a clear picture of your contract landscape. It will help you to understand your obligations, monitor performance, and identify opportunities for improvement. This information can help you make strategic choices that drive your business forward.
Try Contract Advantage™ To Help Your Legal Team
Your legal department deserves better than outdated contract management methods. Invest in our contract management software for the legal department. Click here to explore our product features and compare the different options for our Contract Advantage™. If you have additional questions, request more information here.
