Recent developments in procurement process digital transformation have made it more possible than ever to streamline procurement contract management processes and blast off into the sky to robust procurement and contract management software processes. As such - if your organization is leveraging outdated procurement tools such as disparate spreadsheets, manual filing cabinets, a basic contract database, limited bid outreach, manually collecting bid responses via email, bottleneck-prone procurement contract management task management, disparate vendor management via emails, and others - you could suffer from failure to launch. Luckily, you can leverage a one-stop-shop solution for the processes mentioned above and more. To prepare for takeoff into positively transforming your strategy, here are five procurement contract management best practices to navigate 2022 and beyond with increased governance, procurement centralization, and ROI.
Procurement Contract Management Best Practices
Procurement contract management best practices can be used to streamline and automate your procurement contract management processes in the age of digital transformation. Procurement contract management best practices include:
- centralizing bid and solicitation requests and management.
- simplifying vendor management.
- seamlessly integrating purchase order management.
- advancing analytics with robust procurement contract management tracking.
- and centralizing contract lifecycle management.
#1: Hop on the Launchpad With Bid Requests
Procurement requests and workflow inefficiencies can stall your process - leaving you stuck "on the ground" and waiting to launch into something better.
Luckily, procurement contract management software can help with our first best practice: leveraging comprehensive procurement contract management request software.
Procurement contract management can start promisingly with an eProcurement software platform that supports various request options. Your requesting parties can satisfy a configured, standard requisition form to trigger a detailed form review process. This exercise can help determine if:
- a given request demands a bid process.
- an existent contract can be employed instead.
- or if a new purchase order should be produced.
Your organization can also leverage an intelligent request wizard utility. The wizard can help your users address a series of dynamic questions quickly and efficiently. After that, your procurement contract management system can supply the RFx type that will be utilized - based on organizational guidelines. Furthermore, the request wizard can help determine if your organization can instead employ an existing contract.
Your organization can accordingly draft a new request record via a seamless procedure. This request record can be revised, edited, and reviewed throughout the procurement contract management workflow. Next, your user(s) assigned to budget review can obtain an alert to complete the budget review. Lastly, supplemental bid requirements can be collected prior to bid formalization and bid publication.
#2: Start Your Engines With Vendor Q&As for Bid Management
Your operation to launch into the future of procurement contract management best practices is started to develop as you "start your engines" with vendor Q&As!
You can leverage leading procurement contract management software to easily advertise bids - whether publically or invite-only. You can support healthy competition between vendors via a seamless integration between procurement contract management software and bid listing services. Hence, your buying organization can extract more value from awards, and vendors can easily connect with you.
Next, forthcoming vendors can ask relevant questions about your bids. Straightforward question and answer tools can assist your organization in remaining connected with potential vendors.
You can configure Q&A due dates so that potential vendors are only authorized to submit questions in a time frame determined by your organization. Once your decided due date has expired, submissions are no longer received by your procurement contract management software platform. You can configure alerts and notifications for when questions arrive and when due dates are looming.
#3: Count Down With Vendor Scorecards & Response Ratings
Your "countdown" begins as you prepare for liftoff into the wonders of better procurement contract management.
Your organization can leverage vendor scorecards and response ratings to virtually ensure that you choose the prospective vendor that is most aligned to your organization's distinct needs. You can utilize bid rating weight configuration to prioritize the value of certain criteria over other criteria when evaluating bid Q&A replies and scoring bids. You can leverage easy-to-understand and visually engaging bid tabulation reports to integrate pricing and scoring line items for a comprehensive yet straightforward overview of bids.
#4: Engage Throttle With Enhanced Vendor Awards
Here comes the thrilling part of your "rocket journey": vendor awards! After you choose a vendor to be awarded, an email can be sent to that winning vendor via a procurement contract management record page. Pre-configured email templates can simplify the process for you even more. Furthermore, you can send emails to prospective vendors that were not awarded - notifying them that a different vendor has been chosen while thanking them for their contributions.
#5: Prepare for Liftoff With Seamless Contract Lifecycle Management
Time to "take to the skies" with seamless contract lifecycle management!
Your organization can seamlessly initiate the contract lifecycle relevant to a procurement contract record thanks to the robust, one-stop-shop nature of dual procurement and contract lifecycle management software. A new contract record can be created, or the existing procurement software record can be synced with an existing contract record. Regardless, the process can be drastically streamlined.
For future-minded contract record creation in the age of digital transformation, contract AI can help your team import contracts into your procurement contract management software. Robust data extraction can intelligently map and organize contract data. The inclusion of contract data, contract clauses, and key dates can be significantly streamlined – equipping your organization with control and visibility to compare, categorize, search, and report on contract data, contract risk variables, and risk exposure.
Watch the video below to learn more about contract artificial intelligence.
Blast Off Into the Future of Procurement Contract Management!
With robust, AI-based procurement contract management software, your organization can now experience the "outer atmosphere" of solid and future-minded procurement oversight to address a variety of procurement contract management challenges, such as:
- task administration, intelligent workflow automation, comprehensive vendor administration, vendor performance examination, and contract negotiations management.
- spend management - with contract analytics tools for contract amounts, budget data, budget approvals, vendor invoicing, fiscal year spend administration, purchase order management, and payment processing.
- vendor and supplier relationship management and comprehensive procurement analytics.
- addressing procurement KPIs such as those for vendor value and supplier obligations, contract benefit realization, contract workflow procedures, and data-driven contract management methods and contract management decisions.
Now that you know what procurement contract management software can do for you, it's time to leverage the best solution for your procurement contract management needs: CobbleStone Contract Insight®.
CobbleStone Contract Insight is innovative, critically acclaimed, scalable, web-enabled, and seamlessly integrated eProcurement, contract management, vendor management, and eSourcing software celebrated as a pioneering system for organizations in a vast array of industries within the public and private sectors.
Discover why thousands of procurement professionals and contract managers trust CobbleStone® with their needs. To learn more about CobbleStone's procurement and contract management software suite, book a free demo with a CobbleStone Contract Insight expert today!
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