The world’s recent reliance on remote work, e-commerce, and telehealth has caused an ostensibly permanent shift in the way we all rely on tech. A study by Pew Research Center and Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center found that the ‘new normal’ by 2025 will be driven by tech. One of the biggest emerging trends to come out of the worldwide reliance on digital transformation is contract management.
For today’s businesses, the right contract management software is an indispensable tool for ensuring the intent of every contract in an organization is fully realized. Contract management software can maximize a contract’s performance, ensuring the enforcement of commercial terms, accelerating cash flow and time-to-revenue, and reducing the risk of noncompliance.
For many companies, establishing a complete and searchable repository of a company’s contracts will be the primary benefit of contract management software, but it can also do much more.
AI-driven analytics provide the data on which to make business decisions in real-time. This results in optimum performance throughout the life of a contract, from its initial negotiation and approval through execution and performance, to its completion and renewal.
Contract management software wires automation into the contract creation process. With a library of approved templates and clauses in place, contracts can be automatically assembled based on certain criteria such as region, products, services, or price terms. With advanced contract management software, users can auto-build contracts based on defined business rules and bulk data upload. Self-service contract creation enables faster time-to-revenue and significantly reduces legal operating expenses.
The benefits of contract management software are that it lowers IT operation and maintenance costs, it maximizes the security of data with off-site backups, and frees up office space.
SaaS is rapidly evolving and companies that take advantage of contract management software delivered through the cloud are able to streamline operations, increase productivity, and gain sizable advantages to stay ahead in the marketplace.
Some leading companies in the contract management sector include PandaDoc, Freshservice, Gatekeeper, Coupa, IBM Emptoris, and SAP Ariba. The strongest contract management software products on the market today deliver value long after a contract is executed.
