Contract Management Software: Error-Check, Store & Retrieve Contracts
Posted by Melanie Aizer on Wed, Jun 08, 2011 @ 10:35 AM
Contract management software optimizes every step of the process from contract creation, through distribution, completion, and application of business rules, to filing and retrieval. It improves profit and cash flow by dramatically reducing the number of people required to administer contracts and by speeding up the approval process. To understand how organizations are benefiting from this advancement in digital technology, we need to take a closer look at each step of the contract workflow process.
Step one: Prepare the contracts
Step two: Distribute the contracts
Step three: Route the contracts
Step four: Correct errors
In the middle of the routing process, contracts can get bottlenecked when the client returns them with incorrect or missing information.
Contract management software can:
a) Enforce rules on data fields to ensure they are completed correctly, and
b) Ensure that correct supporting documentation is present and included with the package.
Step five: Store the contracts
Does your company consider contracts to be a critical business asset? Do you know where specific contracts are at this moment? Storing paper contracts makes them susceptible to misplacement, wandering eyes, loss, or even theft.
Digital contracts are never lost, can be easily secured, and are always available. Furthermore, completed contracts or the data fields within the contracts can be automatically mapped and stored in back-office systems.
Step six: Retrieve the contracts
It is inevitable that completed contracts will need to be retrieved. Paper contracts have limited indexing options, which can make it cumbersome or even unrealistic to compile reports. An equipment leasing company may choose to file contracts alphabetically by customer. This causes a problem when the leasing firm wants to assemble a group of leases signed between a certain date range, asset type, or risk category.
Managing data within contracts is a paradigm shift, that offers unlimited file-indexing options. Users can retrieve individual or groups of contracts by any data variable within the contracts such as names, dates, dollar amounts, addresses, signatories, and more; or by characteristics such as published, viewed, completed, contract creator, publisher, and more.
Discover How Your Company Can Easily Automate Contract Workflows - Immediately Improving Operational Margins
Download this Complimentary White Paper Today & Discover:
- A detailed cost-savings analysis of transitioning to digital contract management technology
- How to save 40% of labor costs required to enter, verify, correct and re-key contract data
- How to eliminate all mail and courier costs
- How to minimize storage and retrieval costs to only 10%
