Contract Insights

Managing, storing, and organizing files and attachments pertaining to contract management processes without the right the right tools can be challenging.  Limitations that may come with exporting, downloading, and storing contract files and attachments manually can lead to disastrous consequences - including (but not limited to) delays with gathering contract request materials, the use of obsolete versions during contract authoring, lapses in contract negotiation collaboration, approval and eSignature delays, missed key dates and milestones, squandered opportunities, and other contract lifecycle bottlenecks.

The health of the contract lifecycle relies upon efficient contract task management.  Manual methods for completing contract tasks relating to pre-award and post-award contract lifecycle management can be error-prone, inefficient, and tedious - potentially decreasing your organization's ROI.  Read this blog to learn how your organization can embrace streamlined and future-minded contract task management with AI-powered contract management software.

As a paralegal, working in a fast-paced environment with tight deadlines without the proper contract management software system can leave you stressed, disorganized, and overworked.  Manually assisting lawyers with contracts – including tasks such as coordinating communications with stakeholders, gathering wet signatures, managing disparate compliance materials, and manually tracking key dates and milestones – can present time-consuming and error-prone challenges.  Fortunately, CobbleStone Software can help unify people, process, and technology – streamlining contract lifecycle management.  Read on to learn how CobbleStone’s legal contract management software – Contract Insight® – can help paralegals achieve contract management success.

Contract writing - also known as contract authoring - is a critical stage of the contract lifecycle.  The contract writing process involves contract parties putting into written copy the terms of a contract.  One extremely important facet of contract writing is  contract clause management.  Insufficient contract authoring procedures as they pertain to contract clause management often rely upon disorganized tracking of versions, a lack of unified contracts and subcontracts, and - unfortunately - scattered clauses.  Such processes can leave your organization with contracts that are missing clauses, an overlooked mass of key dates and milestones, and unified contract lifecycle management.

As a lawyer, you manage a variety of contracts that involve ranging stakeholders and processes.  Yes, you may have help from paralegals and legal assistants to coordinate the contract groundwork.  However, when it gets down to the nitty-gritty of negotiations, approvals, signatures, and post-award contract management processes, you need a trusted and streamlined system in place to grant you optimal control over your contact management process.  Read on to learn how you and your legal team can significantly improve legal contract management software procedures.

2021 is rapidly approaching and, with it, innovations and enhancements to contract management automation.  To that end, here is a list of user-friendly, future-minded, and industry-advancing contract management software features, processes, and best practices that organizations can empower themselves with to successfully and confidently navigate the evolving landscape of contract management through 2021 and beyond.

Managing various types of entertainment and media contracts from varying locations, often internationally, with multiple departments and roles can be an arduous process - especially when relying on disparate methods such as postal mail, wet-signatures, filing cabinets, emails, shared network drives, and lengthy paper-based negotiations.  Dealing with and tracking a high volume of contracts – from intellectual property contracts to option agreements, among many others - can be tremendously challenging without the right contract management system in place.

As was detailed in our recent blog on CobbleStone’s PC Helper App for MS Outlook, contract generation is a multi-faceted process.  A unified procedure for contract collaboration, contract writing, and contract negotiation can be hard to come by.  The “track changes” feature that comes with MS Word out of the box can help make the contract negotiation process easier with redlining.  However, version control issues can arise when contract stakeholders work on different computers in disparate locations.  In turn, documents that are saved locally can easily get lost – potentially resulting in more work for involved contract stakeholders.

To avoid issues such as lost document versions and contract lifecycle bottlenecks, CobbleStone Software’s latest release of its celebrated contract management software – Contract Insight® 17.7.0 – offers a PC Helper App that seamlessly integrates with MS Word. Here’s how to use that functionality.