In a recent article, the International Association for Contract & Commercial Management estimated the average cost of a low-risk procurement contract, from drafting through negotiation and signature, at $6,900. This was an increase of 38% from the previous six years and these costs are only rising. For medium complexity contracts the cost can climb to over $21,300.
In short, it goes to the time of the legal professionals, procurement personnel, managers, operations employees, engineers, project managers, finance clerks, usually ending with a level of risk assessment or regulatory review. By providing these employees in various organizational roles with the proper tools we can begin to automate and streamline the contract management process to reduce the time of the contract lifecycle, promote efficiencies, and save money.
At REQUORDIT we can provide a multitude of tools to enhance these processes as detailed below.
Contracts often go through several different iterations during the drafting and negotiation process. It can be time-consuming just to verify if you are looking at the most current version if using email or pushing paper around. With REQUORDIT’s revision and version control capabilities this will not be an issue. Whether the modification is internally or externally executed we have strategies for maintaining the entire history of the document, even the ability to automatically compare and redline any two versions of the same contract making it extremely easy to identify what has changed. Once the contract is in its final executed state, it can become non-editable and be the only version displayed on retrieval, but the other revisions will always be viewable by users with the proper permissions.
Let’s say we get an external bid from a vendor that we have worked with before. We already maintain their vendor data (name, address, vendor id, etc.) in our ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and other data like the bid value and due date are in the body of the contract. By using REQUORDIT’s workflow in conjunction with full text (see #1) we can automatically associate the contract to the vendor at the point of capture and then automatically index the contract value, due date, and even apply a risk rating based on our internal standards and practices. But what if we need to send this vendor OUR form of contract? Since we already have the vendor data available in the ERP and can fill in the rest with a simple request form, we can easily generate the contract and fill in the blanks without the need to go in and manually fill in key values.
REQUORDIT’s reporting dashboards supply contract administrators the ability to quickly identify bottlenecks in the contract lifecycle and take decisive action. Not only can these be set up to monitor the volume of contracts in the system by status, but they can also track user productivity and workload, identify bids set to expire, flag the highest risk contracts, and more all in a visual and dynamically filterable interface. Easily connect reporting dashboards to provide a direct link to contract documents, contract management application screens, and even specific workflow queues. Build one dashboard and let our dynamic security filter the results based on the person viewing the report.
Collaboration and Signing
At REQUORDIT we understand that you may have invested in enterprise digital signature technologies such as Adobe Sign or DocuSign, which is why we are happy to say that we do integrate with those directly into our contract management lifecycles as needed! Additional collaborative power is available with ShareBase, our go-to enterprise file sharing solution that allows for automated external file sharing and can even automatically receive external revisions and notify your users so that the changes can be approved and made a revision or denied and deleted.
The current state of contract management looks hugely different depending on which organization is under the microscope, but one thing that is certain is that the contract management process, like most processes in most industries, will be directly affected by software automation. In a recent study by Markets and Markets, the Contract Management Software market was expected to grow from $1.5 Billion in 2019 to over $2.9 Billion in 2024, a projected rate that would effectively double the size of the market in only five years. The truth may be even more bullish, especially with the COVID effect, which has driven companies toward automation at an increased rate due to the reality of more remote employees and decentralized organizational structures.
But why do we need software to manage contracts at all and why are so many businesses implementing these solutions as such? The answer can be different from company to company, but to combat the rising cost due to the review and editing by a multitude of necessary parties (procurement, operations, engineering, project management, compliance, risk assessment, regulatory review, legal, finance, etc.). Additionally, we see these trends driving adoption by companies:
Since managing contracts is expensive (one recent IACCM estimate was $6,900 for a low-risk procurement contract) and competitive by nature, there is no better time than right now to begin exploring how contract management software can smooth inefficiencies and drive automation for your organization.
Currently it is the larger companies benefitting from this software and for good reason. Large companies deal with large volumes of contracts, so having a structured approach is essential. Additionally, decentralized companies with many regional offices are currently benefitting from the ability to identify discrepancies and redundancy without manual review. Now that we are in a cloud-first world, contract management software of today allows for real-time collaboration guaranteeing that each change is acknowledged. In short, enabling legal teams with contract management software allows them to work more efficiently and better-informed by providing transparency to manage risk and ensure compliance across the entire contract landscape by storing all contracts, clauses, and related documents in a centralized repository.
The marketplace is, and will continue to be, remarkably diverse in its offerings. With so much out there and more coming every day it can be hard to sift through the noise. If you want to discuss your current contract management direction and needs with our experts here at REQUORDIT reach out to sales@requordit.com today and schedule a meeting so we can help to maximize the potential of your organization.
Sales Engineer at REQUORDIT. Jack has spent the last 5 years at REQUORDIT starting in Support before migrating to Sales and assisting with Pre-Sales Business Development with particular focus on and passion for business process automation and OCR technology. Through countless demos, engagements, and proofs of concept he has successfully guided many companies through their software purchasing decision in the Pre-Sales space.
In the Ready Mix and Aggregate space one of the most time consuming processes is managing the data entry of material receipts (sometimes called proofs of delivery or ‘tickets’) and then reconciling them against a material/haul invoice to ensure that all material has been received prior to providing payment.
The Integration for Salesforce is one of Hyland’s most popular features for many reasons, among them being the rising popularity of Salesforce as a CRM. Learn 3 ways OnBase can transform your Salesforce experience and upgrade the way your team uses it, through the easily configured purpose-built integration.
In a recent article, the International Association for Contract & Commercial Management estimated the average cost of a low-risk procurement contract, from drafting through negotiation and signature, at $6,900. This was an increase of 38% from the previous six years and these costs are only rising. For medium complexity contracts the cost can climb to over $21,300.
In short, it goes to the time of the legal professionals, procurement personnel, managers, operations employees, engineers, project managers, finance clerks, usually ending with a level of risk assessment or regulatory review. By providing these employees in various organizational roles with the proper tools we can begin to automate and streamline the contract management process to reduce the time of the contract lifecycle, promote efficiencies, and save money.
At REQUORDIT we can provide a multitude of tools to enhance these processes as detailed below.
Contracts often go through several different iterations during the drafting and negotiation process. It can be time-consuming just to verify if you are looking at the most current version if using email or pushing paper around. With REQUORDIT’s revision and version control capabilities this will not be an issue. Whether the modification is internally or externally executed we have strategies for maintaining the entire history of the document, even the ability to automatically compare and redline any two versions of the same contract making it extremely easy to identify what has changed. Once the contract is in its final executed state, it can become non-editable and be the only version displayed on retrieval, but the other revisions will always be viewable by users with the proper permissions.
Let’s say we get an external bid from a vendor that we have worked with before. We already maintain their vendor data (name, address, vendor id, etc.) in our ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and other data like the bid value and due date are in the body of the contract. By using REQUORDIT’s workflow in conjunction with full text (see #1) we can automatically associate the contract to the vendor at the point of capture and then automatically index the contract value, due date, and even apply a risk rating based on our internal standards and practices. But what if we need to send this vendor OUR form of contract? Since we already have the vendor data available in the ERP and can fill in the rest with a simple request form, we can easily generate the contract and fill in the blanks without the need to go in and manually fill in key values.
REQUORDIT’s reporting dashboards supply contract administrators the ability to quickly identify bottlenecks in the contract lifecycle and take decisive action. Not only can these be set up to monitor the volume of contracts in the system by status, but they can also track user productivity and workload, identify bids set to expire, flag the highest risk contracts, and more all in a visual and dynamically filterable interface. Easily connect reporting dashboards to provide a direct link to contract documents, contract management application screens, and even specific workflow queues. Build one dashboard and let our dynamic security filter the results based on the person viewing the report.
At REQUORDIT we understand that you may have invested in enterprise digital signature technologies such as Adobe Sign or DocuSign, which is why we are happy to say that we do integrate with those directly into our contract management lifecycles as needed! Additional collaborative power is available with ShareBase, our go-to enterprise file sharing solution that allows for automated external file sharing and can even automatically receive external revisions and notify your users so that the changes can be approved and made a revision or denied and deleted.
The current state of contract management looks hugely different depending on which organization is under the microscope, but one thing that is certain is that the contract management process, like most processes in most industries, will be directly affected by software automation. In a recent study by Markets and Markets, the Contract Management Software market was expected to grow from $1.5 Billion in 2019 to over $2.9 Billion in 2024, a projected rate that would effectively double the size of the market in only five years. The truth may be even more bullish, especially with the COVID effect, which has driven companies toward automation at an increased rate due to the reality of more remote employees and decentralized organizational structures.
But why do we need software to manage contracts at all and why are so many businesses implementing these solutions as such? The answer can be different from company to company, but to combat the rising cost due to the review and editing by a multitude of necessary parties (procurement, operations, engineering, project management, compliance, risk assessment, regulatory review, legal, finance, etc.). Additionally, we see these trends driving adoption by companies:
Since managing contracts is expensive (one recent IACCM estimate was $6,900 for a low-risk procurement contract) and competitive by nature, there is no better time than right now to begin exploring how contract management software can smooth inefficiencies and drive automation for your organization.
Currently it is the larger companies benefitting from this software and for good reason. Large companies deal with large volumes of contracts, so having a structured approach is essential. Additionally, decentralized companies with many regional offices are currently benefitting from the ability to identify discrepancies and redundancy without manual review. Now that we are in a cloud-first world, contract management software of today allows for real-time collaboration guaranteeing that each change is acknowledged. In short, enabling legal teams with contract management software allows them to work more efficiently and better-informed by providing transparency to manage risk and ensure compliance across the entire contract landscape by storing all contracts, clauses, and related documents in a centralized repository.
The marketplace is, and will continue to be, remarkably diverse in its offerings. With so much out there and more coming every day it can be hard to sift through the noise. If you want to discuss your current contract management direction and needs with our experts here at REQUORDIT reach out to sales@requordit.com today and schedule a meeting so we can help to maximize the potential of your organization.
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