Contracts are an essential part of the business process, but they can be difficult to manage. They need to be updated regularly and they need to reflect the current situation of your business to avoid any misunderstandings with customers or suppliers. The way you manage these contracts can also have a huge impact on how much time it takes for them to be finalized and signed off by all parties involved, which in turn affects how quickly your company performs at its best! It is essential to make your contracts future-proof to ensure that they pass the test of time. In this blog post, we will be sharing a few things you should be giving priority to achieving this advantage.
Reduce time taken for regular contract processes
The first thing to do is reduce the time taken for regular contract processes. This can be done by streamlining the legal team's involvement in them and reducing their workload. We will talk about this later down the line in detail. The best way to reduce the time taken for regular contract-related processes is to set up workflows. Approval workflows and contract request workflows are a major highlight of Dock 365’s Contract Management Software.
With the help of these workflows, you can significantly reduce a lot of time usually spend on getting a contract request approved. If there are multiple contract managers from which you need to get final approval before signing a contract, a well-organized contract approval workflow can do wonders.
Anticipating changing terms with templates
Templates can be used to make sure you are covering all the bases. The templates below include provisions that have been tested and proven effective in our contracts, so they’re the best place to start if you need help creating a contract that meets your team’s needs.
- Contract Terms of Service Template
- Contract Privacy Policy Template
- Signing Agreement and Disclosure Documents
Another major highlight is having the templates feature in your CLM platform is that you can always ensure that your contract is up to date by making changes to the templates. You don’t have to check each contract every time to check whether it is up to date or compliant with the latest norms. As the terms and conditions of the clauses related to contracts might change along with time, having the easiness of maintaining templates for different types of contracts is a must-have capability for modern businesses.
Reduce the involvement of the legal team in contract processes
One of the easiest ways to future-proof your contracts is to reduce the involvement of the legal team in contract processes and allow them to work on other long-term priority activities.
Reduce the time taken for regular contract processes. From receiving a proposal, reviewing it, and signing, there is likely to be a lot of time involved in managing a deal. If you can streamline these tasks so that they are automated with fewer people involved, then you'll save money on costs associated with having human resources on hand 24/7. Most importantly, you can also reduce the risk caused by human errors.
Reduce the cost of contract management. The cost of hiring an external advisor will vary depending on how much work needs to be processed. By having a contract management software solution, you can avoid hiring dedicated people for handling contracts. Dock 365’s CLM solution enables your employees to self-service contracts. You may even train users from other departments to use the platform effectively to manage, request, and review contracts for better performance.
A scalable and flexible contract management software
You want a contract management software that will allow you to:
- Add new contract types and clauses.
- Add new template documents.
- Add users and managers for your contracts.
- Create new workflows.
- Ability to track obligations and assign tasks.
- Assign permissions and access as required.
- Centralized document management system.
- Easy basic customizations.
- Custom dashboards and reports.
- Vendor management facilities.
- A contract management system that is releasing new versions on a timely basis.
Look for potential CMS integrations
Another way to ensure your contract is future-proof is to look for CMS integrations. For example, if you're using a service that allows you to add new features and content on the fly, it may be worth looking into their integrations with other platforms like Microsoft Teams, Dynamics 365, DocuSign electronic signature integration, and more.
If your company is going through any changes regarding core business processes, they must be communicated well enough. This can help avoid any potential problems down the road as well as reduce costs and headaches by avoiding last-minute surprises when making changes later down the line.
Conclusion
Now that you’re armed with the knowledge of how to make your contract future-proof, it’s time to start looking at what tools are available for this purpose. We recommend starting with CMS integrations and templates, which can help to streamline processes and reduce the time needed for regular contract reviews and renewals.
You can book a live demo of Dock 365’s Contract Management Software below and get a quick idea about how the CLM platform works and how it benefits your business.
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