Contract Insights

There is a significant need for automation in contract management software processes.  When collaborating within the contract management community, we often find that most organizations do not currently leverage meaningful automation for better contract management.  Yet, most organizations have developed or plan to develop strategies to implement contract automation.  It is clear to see that the industry is evolving in favor of contract automation.  Don't get left behind. Get ahead with robust and user-friendly contract management software.  Here's how.

Contract writing is an essential phase in the contract lifecycle.  During the contract writing stage, contract parties put the terms of a contract into written copy.  Inefficient contract writing processes often rely on scattered clauses, poor compliance management and version tracking, insufficient line item management, and a lack of unified contracts and subcontracts.  These processes can lead to an organization that is hindered by error-prone contracts with missing clauses, missed key dates and milestones, and a decentralized process that impedes the contract lifecycle.

Many different types of organizations can enhance their respective source-to-contract needs with user-friendly and flexible contract management solutions.  To that end, we’ve examined five key organizational roles and explore their contract management challenges and how they can empower themselves with leading contract management software.

A Worldwide, Multibillion-Dollar Company Facing Increasing Contract Complexity

CobbleStone Software was approached by one of the leading airplane manufacturers, referred to as Company B (for confidentiality purposes), to help them better manage their contract compliance.  The worldwide, multi-billion-dollar company has been managing contracts for decades, but their size, number of contracts, and contract complexity called for a modern contract management software solution.

(This post was originally published April 24, 2017. Updated May 29, 2018)

Managing contract compliance can be tough.  It becomes even more difficult when important terms and clauses are buried deep within a contract.  Times that by the thousands of contracts a company will manage and you can find yourself more frustrated than ever.  Missing compliance can cost an organization much more than hefty fees and fines.  Reputations could tarnish and deals could go down the drain.  Your organization could be playing catch up for a while.  Being able to meet compliance becomes a top priority.  It becomes easier with the right contract management software in place.

Contract management software is a must for many different industries. Before the development of contract management software systems, everything was done manually. This obviously had its drawbacks. Contract managers would be forced to store every contract into filing cabinets. Now, if there were just a few contracts this may have not been a major deal. However, most organizations deal with thousands of various contracts, making manual record keeping extremely difficult.

Institutions of higher education use contracts for many purposes; whether ensuring the delivery of products and services, or fulfilling student, public, or organizational objectives, colleges and universities have a variety of instances where contracts must be utilized. Accordingly, with the overwhelming amount of contracts that these institutions use, it would be beneficial and more efficient for the institution to use contract management software. The benefits of using contract management software are abundant in higher education, but a few key benefits can be highlighted below.

The Physician Payments Sunshine Act was passed by the United States in 2010 in an effort to increase the transparency of the fiscal relationships of drug manufacturers, medical device producers, and biological and medical supplies companies with health care providers.  The institution of the Sunshine Act demanded pharmaceutical organizations with relationships to Medicare, Medicaid, and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to collect and track data relating to their agreements with entities such as physicians and teaching hospitals.