Contract Insights

Colleges, universities, and other education institutions draft, negotiate, and approve a myriad of contracts with vendors, partners, suppliers, and employees every year. Actively managing contracting processes and maintaining formal relationships can be difficult and time-consuming. This holds especially true for the many universities that don’t have a system in place for the contract management process. In 2026, these challenges are even more pressing as higher education institutions face increased financial strain, heightened regulatory constraints, and greater pressure to modernize procurement and compliance workflows.

Vendor management in 2026 is more critical than ever. Increased third-party risk. Compliance changes. Far-reaching digital transformation. It's all cause for a shift in strategy. What's more, there are very real consequences to poor vendor oversight. Breaches and compliance failures could leave your organization's reputation and standing at risk. According to a 2024 study published by Prevalent, a whopping 61% of organizations reported a third-party breach or security incident in the past year¹. Thankfully, a robust strategy and vendor management software tools can help address modern vendor management challenges!

Key Takeaways

• Contract termination is the process of ending a contract before all obligations are met. This can happen for several reasons, including a breach of contract or by mutual agreement.

• A successful contract termination strategy involves three key steps: identifying underperforming contracts, writing a professional termination notice, and ensuring proper financial closeout.

• Using contract management software can significantly streamline this process by providing data analytics, termination templates, and financial tracking tools.

CobbleStone® has released its latest software update - CobbleStone Contract Insight^® Enterprise Version 22.3.0. This new release offers refreshing contract lifecycle management software tools for continuous legal operations success! Read on to familiarize yourself with next-generation contract management software features and innovations to centralize your contract administration processes!