What is the contract management process?

Contract management is the process of organizing the lifecycle of a contract, from its creation to storage, retrieval, and auditing. Having a well-functioning contract management system in place to keep organized is crucial.

This simple contract management definition is helpful in theory, but what is the best IT solution for contract management?

No matter how your company’s contract management process looks, managing and organizing all parts of the contract lifecycle will prove to be highly beneficial. An enterprise contract management solution allows employees to easily create, save, update, and find contracts when needed.

However, the contract management process can become quite complicated. A contract may reference a separate contract, and therefore any updates made to the first contract may affect the second one which may then reference a third one, and so on. Making contract updates can be tedious if employees cannot easily find the relevant contracts.

Contract Management Software

Contract management software is a pivotal part of any contract management plan. By implementing contract automation tools, your company can significantly reduce the time spent by contract administrators organizing contracts and the possibility of human errors. Here are some features to look for in contract management software:

Cloud-based

Contract management cloud solutions are particularly useful because cloud technology allows for instant contract updates and accessibility across entire global organizations.

Metadata fields and tags

The best contract management software will allow users to apply metadata fields and tags to each contract, letting employeesfilter searches based on these tags and metadata fields. For example, a metadata field which requires users to enter the contract expiration date allows users to filter searches by contract expiration date.

Alert settings

Effective contract management software also provides the option to set alerts according to specific criteria. It allows contract administrators or contract owners to receive reminders when contracts are about to expire or need to be updated.

Contract referencing

Another important feature to consider when looking into contract management software is the capability to link contracts that reference each other easily, so if there are changes made to one contract, the appropriate adaptations can be made to the referenced contract.

Templafy as a contract management tool

Legal compliance throughout all documents, presentations and emails

Contract management solutions make it easier for companies to produce and manage contracts that are compliant with the latest regulatory and company standards. Enterprise contract management is particularly important due to the large quantities of contracts produced, saved and shared throughout global enterprises that need to be consistent and accurate.

Access always-up-to-date contract templates

Templafy is at the creation part of your contract lifecycle management system. With Templafy, employees have one centralized place to access up-to-date, compliant contract templates. Contract templates are available inside Office applications, where employees are already working, with the latest boilerplate text, correctly referenced legislation, and current company information. The standardization of contract templates coupled with accessibility significantly reduces the likelihood of inconsistencies or legal incompliance.

Centralized administration platform

Templafy’s cloud-based software helps streamline the contract process and contract lifecycle management by providing employees with access to up-to-date contract templates. Any regulatory or legislative changes that need to be reflected in forthcoming contracts can be updated in one template and then instantly rolled out to every employee.

Our centralized administration platform allows administrators to filter access to contract templates based on department, office, region etc., so employees only see contract templates relevant to their position.

Administrators can create text elements that correctly reference certain regulations, legislation or company policies, which users can insert into a contract with one click.

Easily build and organize contracts

Employees have the option to build complex contracts via simple questionnaires, greatly reducing the time needed to create any contract.

Requirements can be made that certain metadata fields are filled out by users when creating a new contract, such as when the contract expires, who signed the contract etc. This makes organizing contracts by any criteria important to your company very simple.

Contracts can be automatically saved to DMS and CRM systems with contract management features, such as iManage and SalesForce (link to these integration pages when ready). These integrations allow users to store and search for contracts based on the metadata fields that have been set.

Watch how we improve compliance in all document across the organization: