The age of legal operations digital transformation continues in 2023, with even more exciting digitization tools for business process automation available. The more contract administration tools available to legal teams and contract administrators – however – the easier it is to fall behind. With that said, let’s examine six tips for effective contract management in 2023 to get ahead with contract management software.
Effective Contract Management
Effective contract management should include:
- a secure contract repository.
- contract artificial intelligence with machine learning.
- automated and centralized contract collaboration and redlining.
- swift electronic signatures.
- visually engaging contract performance tracking.
Tip #1 – Manage Contracts in a Centralized Repository
Get started improving your contracting process by storing contracts within a secure contract repository. Your contract repository should make it easy to search, report, and establish rules around the security of contracts.
Bonus tip: If you want to virtually ensure a highly secure contract repository, consider a CLM software provider that is SOC 1, SOC 2, and Privacy Shield compliant!
Tip #2 – Use Contract Artificial Intelligence
Given the current craze about contract artificial intelligence in contract management, we at CobbleStone® think it is safe to say that you will fall behind in 2023 without contract artificial intelligence with machine learning.
Here are some ways contract intelligence can positively transform your contract management process.
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- Increase contract visibility with automated contract data review, visually engaging risk assessments, intelligent workflow automation, and on-screen contract management recommendations.
- Reduce risk by quickly identifying opportunities and mitigating risk based on historical contract data and organizational goals without needing to evaluate each contract tediously.
- Identify sensitive data such as PCI, PII, and others.
- Leverage statistical data analysis to determine positive, negative, or neutral facts about contracts to improve strategy.
- Extract and categorize key terms and conditions, legal phrases, conditions, and other legal text with natural language processing, fuzzy logic matching, and named-entity recognition.
Bonus tip: Trust a contract management solution that has learned from hundreds of thousands of real-life clauses for a better contract management experience out-of-the-box.
Tip #3 – Modernize Contract Collaboration & Contract Redlining
Your team can simplify contract collaboration management work with a contract management system that offers:
- Contract authoring with clause merging from a dynamic clause library for drafting the contract - as well as clause ownership.
- document collaboration and document version control that is organized, streamlined, and accounted for.
- intelligent workflow automation to track tasks, key dates, and milestones.
- online negotiation collaboration and approvals that are efficient and centralized, including mission-critical integrations for online contract redlining – such as those for MS Office 365 and Google Workspace – along with a native online document collaboration interface.
Tip #4 – Leverage Speedy Electronic Signatures for Contract Signing
Wet signatures and email-based signing processes need to be left in the past if your organization is looking to effectively manage contracts in the long term.
Gather signatures quickly with electronic signature software that can enable signees to sign in the office or on the go - with the proper electronic device, including mobile, with proper internet access. Send documents easily for signature to those with signing authority – such as senior managers – and other resources quickly via an automated process.
Additionally, signees can leverage the use of digital signature software that virtually ensures a signature's date of signing and that it was untampered with thereafter.
Tip #5 – Automate Contract Performance Tracking
Future-minded contract management requires actionable insights into how to improve contract processes – beyond the approval and signing of an agreed-upon contractual arrangement. As such, organizations looking to improve the process of managing contracts in 2023 should automate contract performance tracking and more.
Advanced contract tracking tools can provide comprehensive audit trails and performance insights. You can manage the contract lifecycle with task alerts, notifications, and CLIN (contract line-item number) functionality, including sub-contract flow-downs. You can also configure contract tracking workflows – including notifications via email - for comprehensive oversight.
Tip #6 – Make the Most of a Free Demo of Contract Management Software
The ultimate tip for better contract lifecycle management in the future of legal operations is to make the most of a free demo of award-winning contract management software. You need to be sure to choose a solution that allows you to maximize all of the future-minded contract management processes listed above.
To that end, learn why thousands of contract management teams worldwide trust CobbleStone Software's AI-powered contract management software – CobbleStone Contract Insight. Book your free demo of CobbleStone to experience all of the features listed above and most on an integrated contract lifecycle management, vendor management, eProcurement, and eSourcing platform!
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