If you're trying to improve your contract management process, you’ve probably asked: What metrics actually matter? The answer comes down to three key performance indicators (KPIs): contract efficiency, contract efficacy, and contract risk. These KPIs help teams measure how well contracts are performing, how quickly they move through the lifecycle, and how much risk they carry.
Let’s break down what each KPI means, why it matters, and how you can track it effectively.
Contract tracking can be a significant challenge for legal teams, contract managers, sales teams, and other industry professionals. Manual contract management processes may suffice for organizations with low contract volume and contract complexity. However, when the number of contracts increases to hundreds, thousands, and beyond, contract failure rates increase exponentially. Read on to learn how to master contract tracking with leading contract management software.
Clause management can be challenging for contract, procurement, and legal professionals entering into a contract or managing one. Manual contract administration tools such as spreadsheets, emails, and disconnected software tools prove to be less than effective or efficient ways to generate optimal contract documents and clauses - and rarely lead to fast approvals. Contract clauses can support standards and reduce contract risk when used to their potential and can positively impact your contract management process. Learn how to master contract clauses in this blog.
Government contract management is divided into three stages: procurement or acquisition planning, sourcing, and post-award contract management.
The first two stages have had the most focused time and financial investment for improvement. This approach leaves post-award management as a secondary duty for contract officer representatives (CORs) and contract managers within legal teams. Consequently, they are left unsupported for compliance, risk management, and opportunity realization.
Arguably, contract processes after acquisition and sourcing are the most crucial stages for public-sector and private-sector contract managers. However, these stages notoriously lack proper visibility and resources. This article will address the challenges and present actionable post-award contract management best practices with the help of contract management software.
ntractCobbleStone Software supports contract management, procurement, and legal professionals by releasing content to help you improve how you manage contracts. Whether you are managing ten contracts each year for a small business, or 100K contracts or more each year for a Fortune 500 company, we’ve created resources to supplement your contract management training and education, so you can be successful in your role and get the most value out of your organization’s contracts.
The contract approval process can prove challenging for many contract management and contract administration professionals. Without the proper contract lifecycle management tools in place, bottlenecks and human error can lead to longer contract lifecycle times. Delayed contract approvals may fail to meet business rules, business processes, and business and regulatory compliance standards - potentially leading to missed opportunities for time-sensitive pricing options and special terms. The challenges and problems of inefficient contract administration are apparent, but what are the root causes of the issues with contract approvals?
This blog post was updated on April 1st, 2021
In our previous Contract Insights blog, “Contract Lifecycle Management Part 1: Mastering Contract Management Blog Series,” we discussed common contract lifecycle management tasks and processes that challenge organizations - and how these challenges can negatively impact contract lifecycles. In this conclusion to that blog, we detail the reasons organizations should implement contract lifecycle management - as well as the core functionality that should be leveraged for the most powerful contract management software experience.
This blog post was updated on March 30th, 2021
Contract lifecycle management requires a thorough strategy, careful planning, and the right technology. Without all three elements, managing contracts can not only be challenging for contract management, sourcing, procurement, vendor management, and legal professionals; it can prove difficult to maximize contract value. Contracts require tremendous pre-award and post-award investment. Without a suitable contract management system in place, you can find it difficult to maximize ROI. Too many organizations are missing end-to-end contract management that provides a clearly defined process, actionable insights, and accountability - ultimately negatively impacting productivity, profitability, risk exposure, and compliance. Read on to learn how you can master contract lifecycle management.
