Contract Management 101: Who Uses Contract Management Software?

Most would agree that we live in a world full of conflict. As always, politics, religion, economic policy, and even armed disputes can pit one nation against another. Within our own country, we’re often so divided that it’s tough to find consensus on issues of the day.

Businesses can have inner conflict, as well. An organization may struggle to get various departments on the same page, causing operational and financial hiccups - particularly during the contract management process, in which a misplaced document or missed renewal date comes with heavy costs.

But have no fear. While ContractSafe can’t solve the world’s geopolitical problems, our contract management software can definitely bridge the gap between the various subdivisions of a business. Since ContractSafe can be easily customized,  every department in the company may have its own selfish reasons for loving our contract management system. But even better, the holistic results for the organization - such as increased revenues and decreased expenses - will have management smiling.

In this article, we’ll discuss some of the key people and departments within an organization who most use - and benefit from - good contract management software.

Overview of the Contract Management Process

Before addressing particular personnel or departments, it’s important to summarize some features that are crucial to the whole company.

Using cloud technology, ContractSafe then stores all of the digitized contracts in a centralized repository, so that anyone who has been granted permission can access a contract from any computer with an internet connection.

In other words, any department or person that needs to review a contract can now easily access and search it with Google-like speed and accuracy. No more time is wasted trying to track down a paper contract in a filing cabinet or in a stack of documents on someone’s desk.

With that in mind, let’s look at some benefits to specific departments or personnel.

Accounting/Finance

The accounting department is often the first to have questions about the amount of a payment, whether paid or received by the company. Similarly, accounting may have a question about the timing of a stream of payments. With ContractSafe, the contract can be accessed quickly and easily to verify amounts and timing of payments. The system can also be used for tracking and monitoring payments.

For example, in a construction contract, accounting can set an automated reminder email to be sent at the time scheduled for a phase to be completed or a draw to be paid. Management can check the status of the work and payment, if appropriate. This system provides transparency, helps ensure that there is no duplication, avoids overpayments, and protects against missing deadlines.

Legal counsel

Perhaps no one appreciates a good contract management system more than the legal department. After all, creating contracts is their stock and trade.

ContractSafe allows the legal department to track a contract’s status throughout post-execution phases. With OCR-enabled searches of all documents (including scans), attorneys and legal team members can instantly search by keyword to find particular contracts, contract parties, renewal clauses, problematic language, and countless other details, boosting efficiency, enabling more thorough monitoring, and making the legal team more nimble and better informed when drafting or negotiating future contracts.

Human Resources

The human resources department, which generally maintains private personal information on employees, is a crucial player when the company considers new hires or re-negotiates an employment contract with an existing employee.

ContractSafe makes employment contracts and agreements easily accessible to the right people. With customizable permissions, the company can protect privacy and limit what information can be accessed by employees who don’t have the need to know.  Simple checklists can ensure that all onboarding for each employee is completed.

Production

Depending on the nature of the business, production contracts can be very complicated. Sometimes the contract contains very detailed manufacturing specifications, as well as production schedules and other important manufacturing information. Because ContractSafe permits unlimited users (with custom permissions) on an account, appropriate production personnel can easily access and review the contract, as well as create and track any operating metrics they need to stay on top of.

Sales

Sales personnel benefit from contract management software in a couple of important ways. First, contracts can easily be grouped by customer, product, or in other ways that make it fast and simple for salespeople to review information relevant to an account. This is certainly a benefit during contract negotiation and for keeping an eye on renewals. Additionally, a good contract management process speeds up the entire cycle and gets agreements memorialized more quickly, which makes salespeople smile.  ContractSafe can even integrate with SalesForce, so when sales contracts are executed, they are automatically pushed over into ContractSafe.

According to the International Association for Contract and Commercial Management (IACCM), electronic signatures, which speed up the process even further, continue to increase in popularity. ContractSafe takes advantage of this trend, integrating easily with DocuSign.

Purchasing

ContractSafe provides the purchasing department with the ability to easily review all past contracts with a particular vendor, as well as to store key attachments like invoices or price lists for easy reference. For new vendors, the contract management system allows a review of contracts with similar vendors. These features provide an opportunity to decrease costs through renegotiation and to make sure invoices match contracts.

IT

You’re probably wondering if all these benefits will tax your IT department. Absolutely not! We handle all the updates and security from the cloud. Internal IT will not need to be modified.  And while we’re at it, we can track all the IT licenses, vendor contracts, and other key contracts, which usually have a higher than average rate of auto-renewal clauses. How’s that for simplicity?

By now, you’ve probably figured out that ContractSafe is the ultimate team player. You name a department, and we can show you how ContractSafe provides a benefit. In the end, you’ll have no internal conflict with the adoption of our contract management system. It’s so easy to implement and use, you’ll have buy-in from everyone. Start your free trial today!