Taking Your Contract Lifecycle Management To The Next Level

In a business, contracts are for assurance. However, some risks are involved, no matter how well the agreement framework is done. A set of complex actions involved, from initiation and negotiation to award and renewal, can go against the plan. This is an excellent reason to use Contract Lifecycle Management software to mitigate the risks as much as possible.

Contract Lifecycle Management is an organized strategy for managing contracts at all lifecycle stages, and it is essential for all your business operations. Having clear-cut terms of service, designating deadlines, defining effective dispute resolution, and human resource management are some crucial business aspects that rely on contracts. Therefore, the legal team needs to manage and automate contracts using the software.

The legal team must execute contracts on time since issuance, negotiation, implementation, and renewal are all critical tasks. Moreover, contracts are already expensive in nature. Hence, disbursing more resources than necessary dwindles the company's bottom line. This is why advocates must take help from software to add efficiency.

CLM has 5 essential stages:

Document Generation: The first draft of the contract is prepared

Negotiation: A time-intensive stage where all parties involved discuss back and forth until final terms are agreed upon

Routing: Sharing contracts internally and externally

Approval: The time to finalize an agreement by collecting signatures

Storage: Keeping the contract securely, preferably on the cloud

Now, with so many forward and back involved, legal operations software which enables you to manage your contracts is a blessing. It is a set of features that makes it easier to manage your agreements by bringing contrasting operational processes together to create a seamless end-to-end agreement management experience.

A centralized dashboard adds visibility and transparency to your contract management, reducing the time spent by different parties in coordination. In addition, it accelerates turnaround times, reduces risks of data mishandling, and the e-signature feature adds efficiency and security with ease to do it anytime, anywhere. In a nutshell. CLM is a secure, agile operational infrastructure which makes life easier for your legal team and the parties involved.

How does contract lifecycle management software help you?

Contract lifecycle management software is a valuable tool that can significantly benefit companies in various ways. One of its primary advantages is its ability to help with time management and resource allocation. By streamlining these processes, businesses can ensure that they are using their time and resources in the most efficient way possible, which can significantly impact their bottom line.

In addition to time and resource management, contract lifecycle management software can help create records and compliance documents. This is important in ensuring companies follow all relevant regulations and guidelines and can help avoid legal issues or penalties.

Another key benefit of this software is that it can help structure company operations practices. This can include everything from creating workflows and processes to managing contracts and other legal documents. By having a more structured approach, companies can better manage their operations and ensure they meet their goals and objectives.

Contract lifecycle management software can also help allocate time to high-value tasks. This is important in ensuring that companies focus on the tasks that will impact their business the most and can help improve overall productivity and efficiency.

Finally, this software can also enhance the allocation of resources, which can be critical for businesses looking to grow and expand. By using data and analytics to track performance and measure deliverables, companies can gain valuable insights into where their resources are being used and how they can be better allocated.

Automating each stage helps streamline complicated workflows and enables an adaptable and configurable document management system. Additionally, it creates an efficient, secure contract workflow between sales and legal teams. Once an agreement is finalized, the software enables all parties to access it, allows real-time updating, and sends it across within the deadlines. It adds precision and accuracy to your documentation process.

Bringing client data online can be a painful process without the right tools. A CLM integrates with other cloud-based management software and provides the connectivity you need to automate your operational infrastructure seamlessly. For example, auto-fill contracts with existing client information and generate contracts at a moment's notice, securing client relationships and saving valuable resources simultaneously.

In an era where cyber-attacks are prevalent, a CLM software ensures secure data storage on the cloud. In addition, it enables a legal team to safeguard sensitive or private information with advanced encryption. Keeping user data safe comes with an added advantage: the clients feel more confident in your legal team's capabilities and help a business build stronger relationships.

Do you need CLM?

The answer is a straight YES. Investing in a CLM software can help you save time and resources. For instance, it can help your sales team save up to 9% of the revenue that would have gone into performing tasks traditionally. In addition, the sales team, which used to manage their work using emails and spreadsheets, can now move to a platform to streamline every milestone from negotiating and signing to billing and renewal.

CLM can solve several problems faced by the legal team. Reviewing the agreements and getting them approved by all parties involved is a crucial step in a contract's journey. And at the same time, it is a time-intensive stage as well. Using a CLM platform, Legal can speed up the process and save time spent on following up through emails and phone calls.

At Traact, we not only help you with issuance, negotiation, implementation, and renewal but go beyond that. Once the contracts are awarded, our platform helps you operationalize them, too. Our work does not end once the agreements are implemented; we work towards making contracts an invaluable part of your business operations.

So, if you are looking forward to adding visibility, reducing operational costs, mitigating risks, and enhancing compliance, Contract Lifecycle Management is a savior.

To learn more about CLM, book a free demo today.

FAQs

What are the four stages of contract life cycle?

The contract life cycle includes four stages: initiation, negotiation, execution, and management. These stages involve identifying needs, negotiating terms, finalizing and signing the contract, and ongoing administration and compliance management. Proper management of contracts is crucial to getting the most value and minimizing risks throughout the contract's lifespan.

Where is CLM used?

Managing agreements made with customers, vendors, partners, or employees through every cycle stage is known as contract lifecycle management (CLM). This process involves digital management of creating, managing, sharing, and archiving business contracts. Implementing contract lifecycle management can give your business a competitive edge.

What is CLM vs CRM?

CLM and CRM are essential for businesses to build strong customer relationships, enhance customer satisfaction, and secure repeat revenue. However, CRM primarily concentrates on supervising and administering customer interactions, while CLM solely focuses on identifying areas for enhancement in various stages of the customer lifecycle.