Get your house in order
Politically, we live in unprecedented times. Who could have anticipated a triumph for the leave campaigners? Who knew that the SNP would seek a second Independence Referendum (#IndyRef2)? Who could believe Donald Trump would become POTUS, leader of the world’s strongest, most powerful economy with no experience of diplomacy or military service, and a reputation that’s dubious to say the least? Closer to home, we were all blind-sided last Tuesday (April 18) when Theresa May called an election.
Blind-sided, surprised, gob-smacked, on the back foot. However you like to describe it, it’s not generally a nice feeling. And you’ll probably agree that, in business, there’s nothing worse than being blind-sided. These days, it’s just not enough to be prepared; you need to be prepared for all eventualities. We think you need to demonstrate three characteristics to deflect political turbulence, keep your customers secure, and keep abreast of digital change. Your business needs to be agile, safe and innovative.
Don’t just sign and forget
Agility. It’s a great word. It means not getting bogged down, being able to rise to the occasion because of your planning, your systems, and your contingencies being nimble enough to change direction quickly, despite the complexity of your business infrastructure. You probably don’t immediately associate contract management with agility. Contracts can be very time-consuming documents. In fact, probably most of us don’t bother with the small print in our domestic lives – whether it be mobile phone contracts, utility contracts, car insurance etc.
In business however you can’t afford to ignore the small print. In a world which is constantly changing, contracts are the foundation of your business, and handled correctly they will protect you and your customers. So don’t just sign and forget. Each of your contracts is an active, living document, subject to change and renewal, and if you keep them readily accessible, to update as and when the market changes, you’ll enhance your ability to control the direction of your business whatever’s going on in the outside world.
And we’re not alone in our forward-thinking. Thanks to organisations like Prosperity UK , and Open Europe, there’s considerable support in looking constructively at Britain beyond Brexit.
Contract management software can keep your business safe
We’re pretty much all concerned about the same things. We want to reduce costs, streamline our operations, but most importantly as cloud can open up our data, our assets and our infrastructure to unwanted attacks, we want to keep our business safe.
However, as we migrate our economy to the cloud, it’s not simply the potential for cyber crime that we should be worried about. Astonishingly over 60% of all supplier contracts automatically renew, without the buyer being aware. (Source: Gartner Group ) If you don’t know when your contracts expire, or your renewals happen automatically, chances are you are paying over the odds for your services. Or you could be left unprotected if a contract and subsequently a vital service lapses without your knowledge.
There are other dangers. Missing a contract deadline – renewal or otherwise – can trigger penalties. Then you might also miss out on bonuses because they are not automatically collected. And if you don’t know the complete picture with regard to your enterprise’s contracts you could fall foul of legal and regulatory requirements. All of this has an impact on your bottom line. Comprehensive contract management will save you a headache but it can also save you some serious money.
So to protect yourself and your customers, it makes perfect sense to manage all of your contracts over their entire lifecycle. We’re talking here about contract negotiation, contract development, contract storage, contract renewal, and contract enforcement. This can be a lot of work, and manual handling of these complex processes runs the risk of human error, no matter how much care is taken. Contract management software can take all the pain out of this process for you.
Embracing innovation
If you do use contract management software to help you maintain, streamline and update your contracts, you can congratulate yourself. You’re in the minority and you’re embracing the innovation that’s available to you as you navigate your way through this digital age.
Surprisingly, most modern companies do not actively manage their contracts. But we’re sure you’ll agree you owe it to yourself and your stakeholders to comply with all relevant legislation to protect and prosper your business. Adopting the use of contract management software is an easy way to get this part of your house in order.
We can help you get there. And not only that, with Insight, you can be as innovative as you wish – we can work with you to customise the software to accommodate your particular needs whether those be general business or specific to your industry.
We’re watching the political manoeuvrings in France just now. On Sunday May 7th, we’ll know the full picture of political change in France. Will the result extend the reach of the far right across Europe? Or will Le Pen be defeated? Whatever the outcome, one thing we do know is that the political landscape will continue to evolve. This is the time to carry out maintenance across all of your contractual arrangements, and ensure your contracts are tightly integrated, controlled and maintained to the highest standard. So that no matter what’s going on across the globe – for you, it’s business as usual