Your most frequent contract issues resolved: 5 solutions to use right away :(infographic)

It can be challenging to separate from the crowd in the competitive industry with the abundance of electronic contract management systems. The goal of contract lifecycle management is to ensure all parties to a contract fully and effectively fulfil their respective obligations. Problems arise when the process could be more efficient or bogs down at a crucial stage, which can harm productivity and negatively affect income. Here are the top five contract issues and how a contract management system can help with each of them:

Problem 1: The first issue is that your templates are continuously disappearing or changing.

Inconsistency and danger will flourish when an organisation disperses its templates over several places. Standard templates can become problematic when teams modify them and create their own versions. This can lead to confusion and slow business operations as teams search for the most up-to-date templates. Additionally, version control can become difficult when multiple versions of the same template exist.

Solution: An agile contract management system enables users to create contracts with pre-approved terms and conditions automatically. Creating contracts is sped up, made more straightforward, and uniform using standard templates. Your team can operate effectively and give your customers consistent branding thanks to a central repository for templates.

Problem 2: You encounter varying forms, terminologies, and languages.

Manual contracts can be time-consuming, risky, and slow down the contracting process due to the vast differences in forms, phrases, and languages. The requirement for the appropriate tools is even more critical for the success of your organisation because the likelihood of human error is far too high with an antiquated process like this. 

Solution: Pick a contract management system that can easily interact with tools your team uses to create documents, such as Microsoft Word. If standard clauses change, a clause library keeps copies for tracking adjustments against unique contracts. More comprehensive systems may also enable your team to create contracts using legal’s pre-approved terms and conditions automatically. Using a contract management solution designed for accuracy, you can quickly ensure that your entire team is aligned.

Problem 3: Maintaining track of each contract’s stages is impossible.

It’s simple to quickly lose track of a contract’s current stage and version when many versions of contracts are saved in different places and sent across email threads as attachments for redlining and approvals. Everyone can readily observe the progress of a contract from the draught stage through endorsement, support, and execution thanks to a centralised platform for managing contracts.

Solution: Salesforce integration-enabled contract management tools let your sales team follow every step of the deal from start to finish. It is simple to track precisely those “what, when, and by whom” issues if a contract is in doubt. You must change the tools you use every day to manage the entire contract lifecycle. Reduce contract cycle times and synchronise changes across all contracts, regardless of source, by securely commenting and redlining contracts in real time.

Problem 4: You need to remember about commitments and significant anniversaries.

Commitments, compliance requirements, potential discounts, and other targets can only be noticed if contracts are meticulously managed throughout the entire organisation during their entire existence. Your brand is substantially impacted by this, which may give your clients the impression that you need to be more organised and jeopardise those crucial connections. 

Solution: Contract management solutions generate personalised alerts about contract expirations, informing businesses of impending renewals and other milestones. Contracts are never unintentionally renewed, and duties are never disregarded. You can manage complex, enterprise-wide contract lifecycles with the proper tool, always taking advantage of a chance to grow your organisation.

Problem 5: Email drastically slows down your contracting procedure.

It is unsafe for your company to manually transmit contract draughts to reviewers since it is difficult to follow the development of the contracts, including where they are in the process, who they are with, and how long they have been there.

The solution: Using a contract management system that integrates with your processes and procedures, you can send contracts in Microsoft Word format directly from Salesforce for redlining. You can then compare versions and confirm changes in Salesforce to ensure accurate data and the entire contract history. The most recognisable brands in the world rely on Conga CLM to meet their needs throughout the business lifecycle. Through automated document generation, contract lifecycle management, and thorough reporting, our platform will assist you in streamlining processes and advancing your organisation.

Your key takeaways from the LBTC’s contract management course will be followed by an action planning exercise so you can use the new knowledge and skills as soon as you return to work.