Deconfliction has arrived, and for many companies, the month of May holds the promise of renewed activity. In this context, good contract management is essential, both to control risks and costs, and to identify opportunities and generate new growth. Online contract management solutions are formidable tools for achieving this. Those who were equipped with them during the containment will be able to testify to this, particularly in terms of remote contracting and risk analysis linked to the health crisis. Here, we list the questions they asked themselves before switching their contracts to the cloud. If you’re wondering about this too, whether you’re looking to equip yourself now or plan for the future, this article will shed some light on the subject.
#1 Why choose an online solution rather than on-premise software?
The primary advantage of online software over so-called “on-premise” solutions (i.e. those requiring on-site installation) is remote access. Containment has shown that business continuity depends on being able to access documents and sign contracts wherever you are.
What’s more, SaaS solutions don’t require complex installation; all you need is Internet access and a login and password. This makes it much easier for your IT team to deploy the technology, and for it to be adopted by all the company’s departments!
Finally, the ability to collaborate simultaneously on the same document, and an interface designed to be easy to use, make online software widely used. This aspect, which seems obvious at first glance, is not to be taken lightly: in fact, software that is left to languish due to its complexity of use, whether at the level of the individual user or of teams struggling to share their joint work, is useless. An effective contract management solution is first and foremost one that is used within the company.
#2 Will my contractual information be secure?
This is the most critical question to ask yourself before taking the plunge, given the sensitivity of the data contained in your contracts. Although cloud technologies were misunderstood just a few years ago, they are now well established and widespread. They benefit from transparent standards and robust security and availability measures.
In concrete terms, this doesn’t mean you should go into it with your eyes closed: before subscribing to a SaaS solution, you should ask your service provider about the security measures it implements. There are four key points to bear in mind when considering a long-term, trouble-free collaboration with your software partner:
- infrastructure ;
- data (e.g. with encryption) ;
- organization ;
- backups.
Finally, certain security and confidentiality best practices can be managed directly by your company: these include access rights for different users, enabling you to compartmentalize your contract database and the use of each document (read-only or editable). This is all the more important in view of staff turnover: what do you do, for example, when a project manager leaves the company? Another advantage of online solutions is the ability to transfer or suspend rights at the click of a button.
#3 Can I easily incorporate my existing contracts into my solution?
Connecting to a contract management cloud solution isn’t enough to get the most out of it. Indeed, without a document inside, it’s an empty shell. Of course, you can create new contracts, but retrieving your history is essential to centralize all your company’s contractual information. So how can you integrate hundreds or even thousands of contracts, whether in paper or digital format, into your solution without spending months doing so?
You’ll save a lot of time if your software provider takes over your existing system. At DiliTrust, our Customer Success team takes care of this. It uses Artificial Intelligence to automatically recognize imported document types and their key information, such as clauses, dates, amounts, durations and so on. This automatic recognition and input, controlled by our Legal Experts, means that your documents can be integrated in 1 to 3 months, depending on volumes, compared with 6 months to 1 year if you had to do it by hand.
The result is a fully-featured solution that you can use straight away: schedule reminders for due dates, find out at a glance which contracts are in the process of being validated, identify those with a force majeure clause… in short, you can make immediate use of all your contract data.
#4 Will I be able to use my data outside the contract management solution?
Having a clear view of your contracts, both precise and global, as offered by AI-enabled contract management software, is great. Being able to export your data outside this working environment is even better.
On the one hand, the contract is a cross-functional object that circulates between different departments within the company, for example, purchasing for supplier contracts, or sales for customer contracts. It is therefore important for these teams not only to have access to the contract management solution, but above all to be able to retrieve the data from their own business software (CRM, ERP, EDM…) without having to enter it a second time. The connectivity of the contract management solution to the company’s information systems is therefore a considerable asset if you want to exploit the full value of your contracts on a company-wide scale, while optimizing the productivity of each team.
On the other hand, in the event of an audit or reporting, you need to be able to mobilize the data both quickly and exhaustively, which is not always compatible. If your contract management solution can provide you with a statistical dashboard, presenting clear legal KPIs, it must also enable you to export this data in Excel so that you can analyze and share it easily.
#5 Can the software be adapted to my organization’s specific needs?
Your online contract management solution not only needs to be flexible to meet your challenges and requirements, it also needs to be scalable to adapt to future business changes.
In concrete terms, this means being able to organize your documents according to your tree structure, finely manage access by user and by team at any time, quickly find information specific to your contracts, customize your dashboards according to your criteria or your internal approval circuits… so many possibilities for harmonizing the solution with your organization.
And what about tomorrow? Of course, this flexibility must continue, but not only that. If your solution uses AI, it must rely on Machine Learning to continue learning from changes in your contracts. New regulations, new contract types, new clauses, new notions to be followed… with every click of the user’s mouse, AI learns autonomously, to be ever more efficient and up-to-date.
Last but not least, SaaS software can be upgraded without you having to think about it. You don’t have to go through the hassle of buying a new version; you can always work on the most recent version, with complete peace of mind.
#6 What kind of support can I expect?
While it’s often easy to get to grips with online solutions, getting to grips with them can sometimes require a little help, especially if you want to adapt certain tools and make a few customizations. So don’t forget to ask about the availability of training at the time of implementation: this service is a real plus, as it encourages rapid adoption by the company’s teams. With some providers, training is already included in the purchase of the solution.
For the rest, make sure you have an up-to-date online help center, accessible 24 hours a day, and responsive human support who can provide personalized assistance with your problems over time.
#7 What value does the solution bring to the company?
This question appears both at the beginning of the process (“what’s in it for me?”) and at the end, when it comes to convincing management to validate a project to digitize contractual processes. The benefits for the company as a whole, and not just for the individual user, are all arguments that need to be weighed in the balance. Used at all stages of the contract lifecycle, a contract management solution enables the full value of the contract to be exploited. Among the advantages to be taken into consideration, we have identified four main ones:
- It maximizes revenue thanks to contract generation tools, internal approval workflows and electronic signatures that accelerate negotiation and time-to-market. Added to this are measurement tools that enable business and performance to be assessed, so that the right decisions can be made.
- It provides better control of risks and reduces related costs, thanks to obligation reminders that ensure you never miss a deadline, as well as intelligent search tools and summary sheets that help you quickly and easily locate any information in contracts. The centralization of all contractual flows within a single, shared, up-to-date environment also provides global visibility.
- It enhances compliance thanks to search functions and reporting tools that make it possible to find the right information in the entire contract database, at any time, and particularly during audits. In addition, the contract template repository and clausier are knowledge-sharing tools that promote operational and regulatory compliance.
- It optimizes team productivity by automating low-value-added tasks such as collecting, entering and filing information, but also by offering modern, fluid collaborative processes that avoid bottlenecks and communication gaps.
A non-connected solution won’t allow you to take full advantage of these benefits. Only online software gives you the opportunity to build up a database of contracts at the same time:
- updated in real time ;
- accessible anywhere, anytime;
- shareable with all stakeholders;
- can be seamlessly integrated with your other software.
What’s more, the speed of deployment and ease of use make it possible to implement such a project in the short term!
