Contract Insights

Paralegals are key resources for lawyers, law offices, corporations, government agencies, and many other organizations.  As a paralegal, you may typically be tasked with storing the documents related to corporate matters, tracking key dates, reaching out to business owners for next steps, and more.  Managing those responsibilities is crucial to both your personal, and your organization’s, success.  Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) Software is a tool that can be used by paralegals to make your job easier, you more efficient, and you more effective.

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. 

Procurement processes are crucial to the overall success of an organization. Sourcing goods and services effectively can have a noticeable positive impact on a company’s bottom line. Contract management software can enhance an organization’s procedures by allowing for internal contract visibility, managing rules-based contract requests and requisitions, and ensuring the tracking of vendor performance ratings.

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is great if you don’t work in government and believe that, as a citizen, you should be entitled to knowledge of your government’s actions.  On the other hand, if you are a government contract administrator, complying with FOIA can be a time consuming process.  Especially if you are responsible for tracking the seemingly never ending supply of public records or determining if a contract record is, or is not, exempt to FOIA. 

The decision to “build or buy” contract management software in the healthcare industry is a huge step in the process towards greater organizational efficiency.  Decision makers for hospitals, medical centers, and health plans must make this choice for a wide variety of software types including but not limited to: contract management software, billing and invoicing software, customer relationship management software, human resources software, or identity management software. 

In the business world, every professional is aware of what “workflow” is. Contract approval workflow, from the outside looking in, is just a giant chart of approvals and signatures that makes us all wonder, “Is all of this really necessary?” Of course, workflows are essential to keeping the buoyancy in every organization around the world. Processes must be followed in order to keep consistent, optimal production levels.

Cyber-security has become a huge concern for businesses today.  More and more organizations are falling victim to cyber-attacks due to improper handling and storage of sensitive data as well as lower security precautions. Our modern dependence on the convenience and connectedness that technology allows has made organizations more vulnerable to security risks. These threats have become so widespread that President Obama issued an executive order earlier this year mandating stricter cyber-security regulations and imposing stricter sanctions on organizations that engage in cyber-attacks that threaten national security and infrastructure.

No matter what industry you operate in, no matter what the economic landscape is, and no matter where you do business, ROI is critical. Contract lifecycle management software helps organizations across the world see a real return on investment. It really is a beautiful thing- leveraging technology to help manage your organization at a lower cost.

How does a CLM product provide return on investment? The following acts as an incomplete list that shows the real ROI possibilities when choosing an industry leading contract management software solution: