Contract Lifecycle: From Initiation to Obligation

Contract lifecycle management possesses various computer programs, instructions, and data to streamline digital contract management and make the contract lifecycle more efficient replace the manual control of contracts.

Anirudh Vashishth

What is contract lifecycle management?

Contract lifecycle management enables lawyers and businesses to streamline contract management, including drafting, negotiation, approval, renewal, and performance monitoring. Smart contracts replace the manual control of contracts diminishing the chances of humane mistakes, saving cost and time, and managing large volumes swiftly.

Digital contracting software possesses various computer programs, instructions, and data to streamline digital contract management and make the contract lifecycle more efficient.

Contract management software also facilitates business groups to use templates to compose legal documents to organize recurring contracts at scale from one storage.

What are the different stages of the contract management cycle?

The digital contract management platform manages the digital contract in a step by step process:

Template Authorizing

The simplified template library of an organization aids in improving contract risk management and increases the speed of the contract turnaround with the option of a template selection feature and the comprehensive template of the digital contract management software.

Smart template authorizes the designated users to extract library clauses into the document, enter customized text, label metadata in the paper, and other data such as annexures and exhibits. The contract analytics provide that introduction of new templates should be approved before it is available for contract creation.

Contract Creation

The contract management solution enables the dynamic innovation of contracts using templates and pre-installed clauses. Contract management software is developed automatically following the rules-based authorizing capacities that greatly enhance the scalability and skill of clm software while also executing proper technique controls.

Developed digital contract management system encourages digital contract creation using already existing systems like CRM, sourcing, and procurement. The digital smart contract takes input and auto-create contracts using the pre-installed templates.

By authorizing business users to create digital contracts using the self-service mode, the organizations can execute faster time to revenue, enhance cycle times, and significantly decrease legal operating costs.

Contract Review

Contracts are meant to assist a company in achieving its commercial purposes, not restrain them. Through smart, automatic contract review, companies can achieve the full potential of negotiated contracts through better enforcement of commercial terms. Contract lifecycle management software analyzes the commercial terms of goods and services, costs, values, discounts, and inducements in a structured format, combines that data with trade systems, and enables enforcement terms. Workflows provide a review method to evaluate compliance before publishing to economic systems for settlement.

Contract Approval

Digital contract management initiates a contract using rule-based workflow definites. The best in the market contract lifecycle management software automatically manages the workflows and starts the approval procedure with the help of sequential and parallel permissions. Workflows are adjusted dynamically on updates regarding negotiation to provide governance. Business users can efficiently handle the automatic rules, descriptions, and updates, and they can also interfere manually to control a workflow with self-driven steps.

Contract Execution

The execution of the contract is digitalized and mobile. The contract management cycle features unique integrations of e-signature platforms. The guaranteed integrations allow orchestration of the e-signature procedure based on user-friendly workflows while seamlessly editing the record and data back to the significant storage after execution. The option of physical signature workflows is available. The QR codes validate incoming signed documents.

Contract Performance

After the execution of the contract, the administration has long been beyond the purview of digital solutions.

However, contract lifecycle management software users can earn valuable execution insights on all dimensions of contracts from legal, economic, sales, and procurement. The contract management system contains a complete-featured analytical module that allows insights on data such as cycle duration, variations, protection, risks, expiry, renewal statistics, and procurement and sales metrics on contract revenue and cost.

Users can also perform better observation for contract collaboration by recognizing, grabbing, designating, and tracking the completion of assignments to business proprietors—even with commitments concerning the third-party paper and complex responsibilities, such as those with several owners or business units. Users can effortlessly make promises in the web interface or Microsoft Word, and responsibilities can also be auto-generated and assigned to owners using regulations.

Finally, users can recognize and address risk after the execution of the contract. The digital smart contracts model helps follow risks across various types, such as economic, contractual, implementation, and third party.

Contract Expiry

The contract management platform furnishes aggressive alerts and information for significant achievements, including the contract's expiration or renewal. A dashboard for the management of the contract provides insights into what the business impact of the expiry date or renewal date will be, so contract owners are not captured off guard.

What are the benefits of using the CLM tool?

The benefits of using smart contract platforms are as follows:

CLM Requirements

Benefits

Workflow Configuration

  • You can design and implement contract processes easily, by setting up a centralized location for all contracts requests originating within the organization or by an external party.

  • You can control the flow and collect the signatures serially or parallelly as per the situation to execute the contract faster. 

  • The contracts evolve with time and the best business practices ensure the compliance of the contract governance policies without any requirement of manual review.

Collaboration and Negotiation

  • Advanced collaboration and negotiation help to manage contract redlining and revision in one place. 

  • The contract management platform CLM software enables editing, commenting and tracking of the changes seamlessly to the users providing a DOCX like experience through a shared platform.

  • After finishing the editing, the latest version of the contract is easily discoverable by the counterparties to work on.

  • A library of acceptable clauses and previously executed clauses is maintained. 

Smart contract repository

  • Capture the key data points from across your contract to answer the business questions instantly, leverage contract data to reduce risk, standardize the business process and track key obligations.

  •  The contract involves multiple revisions, with the contract management platform CLm tool you can store everything in one place.

Dashboard and Reporting

  • Contract management platform CLM software dashboard lets you preconfigure key metrics and helps define priority for your workflow.

  • The crystal clear vision into your contracting process, so you don’t waste time figuring out why and where a contract is stuck.

Integration

  • Contract management platform links you with the leading technologies, services and other solution vendors to access the full value of contracts across teams and tools.

  • The contract management platform is regularly looking at ways to improve your experience by constantly adapting new integrations

Contract security and compliance

  • Contract management platform conducts annual penetration testing and quarterly vulnerability testing for our apps and security infrastructure to proactively identify and remediate vulnerabilities

  • The physical and electronic records data retention policies ensure that records that are no longer required by you are purged at regular intervals. 

Key Takeaways:

  • Rules-based authorizing contract management system capacities greatly enhance the scalability.
  • Advanced collaboration and negotiation help to manage contract redlining and revision in one place.
  • The contract management dashboard provides insights of the business.