Did you know that companies spend almost 5% of their revenue tracking agreements after signing a contract?
Organisations of all sizes find manual management of contracts and related documents to be time-consuming, disorganised, frustrating and expensive.
We could list a lot more disadvantages to manual records management, but there’s no doubt that organisation presents the biggest challenge. When contract records are managed manually, across a variety of spreadsheets and local file locations, organising the documents can be onerous, with bottlenecks, miscommunication and missed deadlines. You don’t have to suffer in silence!
Automate your system with contract management software
Contract management software can move you out of the dark ages of manual record management and provide an easy solution to managing documents. System users can store counterparty information, agreements and related documents, version tracking, signed documents and status updates all in one central location.
What are the key benefits?
How about better transparency, communication, security, compliance, and cost-savings for a start?
At Four, we offer Contract Insight, the best in contract management software. But don’t take our word for it – why not explore the four key organisational benefits it will give you:
1. A central repository – easily collaborate within the system by sharing contract records, comments, document changes, and more.
With Contract Insight, our contract management software, you get a central contract repository, which allows your users to store all necessary documents in one accessible location, available to all interested parties. You can easily identify the most recent document versions, giving your entire organisation better visibility so you don’t waste time looking for documents in other departments. And it logs any changes made to any document by any user, so you can be sure that you are always working on the most recent version.
2. Increased document security – control who can view, edit, and approve documents for high-level contract security.
Our contract management system provides users with controlled access over contracts and any associated documents, meaning only those approved to review or make changes to a contract can do so. You can customise this security configuration for every contract record in the system. Document control is essential, especially when dealing with contracts.
3. Improved compliance – track who did what, and when, all from within the system.
With Contract Insight you can track user activity, allowing all system administrators to view who did what and when. Users can gain insights to who is causing process holdups and where in the process each contract is, eliminating bottlenecks. Not only does the system benefit external parties and contracts, but it can also easily track employee compliance. Make internal training, new employee agreements, and other regulated policies easy to complete by tracking who has completed which training modules, who has signed which agreements, and who needs to be notified that they have not completed their task.
4. Streamlined Signatures – e-signatures streamline the agreement process, closing deals easier and faster.
Easily track internal and external signatures with your contract management software by integrating e-signature tools. System users can quickly send and retrieve signed agreements from anyone, even from those who don’t use the system. An email can be sent with the prepared document, signed, and sent back. The document is then automatically uploaded back into the system and attached to the appropriate contract record. Systems that support bulk signatures simplify mass contract amendments or policy changes even further.
Find out more about Contract Insight
Contract management software can help streamline organisational processes across departments and teams, making collaboration and negotiation easy. For more information on Contract Insight from Four, on how to better manage and secure your business, or if you’d like a free trial, please call me on 0800 6250 025.
John O’Brien is the CEO at Four Business Solutions, global business consultants and software integrators providing business processes improvements in Finance, Supply Chain & Operations, across a broad range of industries.