Contract management software offers tangible benefits to contract and legal professionals, enabling the tracking and management of full contract lifecycle from initiation, or the request of a new contract, through drafting, review, approval, execution, and post-execution compliance tracking.
Here we explore in detail the top ten contract management software features that will help you gain control of your contracts and streamline your processes.
1. Personalised dashboard
A personalised dashboard can help you manage your contracts at a glance. Dashboards include tools, which provide users with easy access to key areas of the system, such as submission requests or contract status. You can also add reports that display important details about your contract like pending requests, number of contracts expiring in the next 30 days, high-risk contracts and so on.
2. Task notifications and emails
In-system notifications and emails can help you stay on track both inside and outside the system. When a task requires your attention, such as a request for signature, you’ll be notified in ample time and may have the option to complete the task in the office or on the go.
3. Searchable contract records
Contract records are essentially a listing of key contract details to help simplify contract management. By outlining important details of the document, users can easily find the contract information they’re looking for – such as key dates, renewal notes, counterparty information etc.
4. Easy system searching
With searchable contract records, you can easily find what you’re looking for fast by searching for keywords associated with each document or contract record. Users have the option of searching for keywords of a document or searching by contract type to narrow the results.
5. Saved searches
For those who search for the same thing day-to-day, a reporting feature will eliminate the need to conduct these searches by displaying your saved searches in list form for easy access.
6. Intelligent contract workflows
Contract workflows take contract management to the next level by automating and streamlining your process. Each step, from contract drafting to review and approval, gets tracked with real-time status updates and audit tracking. Those assigned a task, such as legal review or contract for signature, will be notified via email and/or in the system putting an end to any bottlenecks and generally streamlining communication.
7. Advanced contract authoring
You can author documents from your organisation’s selected templates using merging field data and clauses from a pre-approved language library in your contract management system. For example, you might pull data from the contract record such as:
- the effective date
- the counterparty and their address
- the contract amount.
8. Contract AI and ML
Contract AI can be your personal assistant for data entry and risk analysis. Instead of spending days manually entering every contract detail in your contract management system, contract AI canextract the key information for you and automatically populate the appropriate fields. You can also determine items such as high-risk contracts to help you create a better contract management strategy and be proactive with contract risk.
9. Contract eSignatures
An eSignature helps streamline and simplify the signing process for contract professionals. Users can easily send a document for signature directly from within the system, notifying the signee that a document has been sent for signature with corresponding capabilities to review and eSign anywhere, anytime.
10. User manual and tutorials
The right resources, such as a user manual, step-by-step guides, tutorials and training can help you and your team fully understand the ins and outs of the system. You’ll get a better ROI on your contract management software if you become a system expert.
Contract Insight from Four Business Solutions
Our award-winning Contract Insight® Enterprise Edition is a contract management system built for contract management success. Contract Insight is a flexible, configurable system that can meet your organisation’s specific needs. If you’d like a demo of Contract Insight or simply to find out more about what we do, please call John O’Brien at Four Business Solutions on 0800 6250 025.
About Four
Four helps small and multi-national organisations enrich the way they work. From supply chain to procurement and contract management, we have decades of experience helping companies forge ahead in the global market.
John O’Brien is the CEO at Four Business Solutions, global business consultants and software integrators providing business processes improvements in Finance, Supply Chain and Operations, across a broad range of industries.