Contract Insights

2026 will see the continuation of recent trends pertaining to increased regulatory scrutiny and elevated risk from missed obligations. According to Gartner, legal and compliance department investment in governance, risk, and compliance tools will increase 50% by 2026¹ - and it's clear to see why! Modern CLM software - such as CobbleStone Contract Insight^® - helps automate obligation oversight, reduce risk, and get a firm grasp on compliance. Here's how.

Contract obligations are a foundational part of any contract. Without the performance of obligations, the terms and conditions of a contract are not met, resulting in a breach of contract. As such, each contract party's obligations should be easily accounted for without any oversights. Thankfully, future-minded and AI-powered contract management software can greatly support and simplify that process. To that end, here are three steps to detect contract obligations with contract intelligence.

Unfulfilled contract obligations can create a post-award contract management nightmare that can escalate to stressful legal action – such as issuing a cease and desist or suing your counterparty. 

So, how can you avoid this? 

By clearly defining the obligation of contracts between you and your counterparty and leveraging contract management software tools to receive timely alerts for each obligation of contracts, you can retain contract obligation accountability instead of meddling with unnecessary disputes.

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.