Questions to ask when updating your contracting process

According to a new survey from EY law and the Harvard Law School Center on the Legal Profession, businesses trying to change the way they manage their contracting are hindered by inefficient processes. This leads to a loss of revenue and business opportunities. By not correcting these processes, over half of the companies in the survey are behind when trying to improve their contracting.

In this survey, the main obstacles to improvement are:

• Change management
• Not meeting expectations
• An inability to hire the right people
• Lack of time

As far as the issues for change management, the first problem is the lack of a proper storage system. Second, there is often no technology providing templates for drafting contracts. Also, attempts by some with technology for these concerns make implementing changes difficult. Espeically with the rest of the staff.

Implementing any new technology can complicate things, especially without proper support. Companies that choose successful contract management software to automate documents make sure to offer a simple onboarding process. One that also works for employees that are not as tech savvy. When evaluating contracting software, it’s not only about the product. It’s also about the customer support they offer along with it.

Many companies are hesitant to change their contracting processes because of the time it takes to implement a new system. But what many don’t realize is that today’s solutions are quickly implemented for everyone in the organization with user-friendly interfaces.  With modern contracting solutions, the time from creation to signing is cut in half and productivity is increased exponentially.

We’ve seen in the past that companies who don’t do their research on contracting solutions end up with products that don’t fulfill their expectations. Those who choose a software without examining how it fits their particular needs end up lacking many requirements and having technical issues.

How many of these issues have you faced in contracting?

• Time-consuming drafting
• Compliance issues
• Not being able to immediately find the contract you need to reference
• Getting contracts signed securely and quickly
• Unauthorized changes to contract terms
• Not knowing which contracts are up for expiration or renegotiation

And these are just a small fraction of the obstacles you face when setting up your contracting process. Before you choose the contract management software that works for your business, make a list of your issues and what you need. Checking the features that a CLM (Contract Lifecycle Management) platform has to offer keeps you from wasting time. In particular with a product that might not meet your needs.

The best types of CLMs are those that allow anyone to be able to draft a contract without a legal background. In this way, Legal doesn’t need to be involved in every basic contract, which also speeds up the process for HR, Sales and other departments.

In the EY Law/Harvard survey, the findings show that many businesses outsource to external providers. Or they may even bring in legal teams at extreme costs. But by simply investing in good contract management software, you can eliminate these costs. This is because anyone — not just legal — can create and find contracts with minimal error. In fact, with automation in document creation, you ensure compliance and reduce human error.

With so many legal contracting solutions, there’s just no excuse to have poor contracting practices. In our article about the keys to legal tech adoption, companies must use the legal tech at hand to save time. Especially if they want to to bring in more business. It’s easier than you think to update your company to be a smooth-running, contract making success. Check out the options that match what you need and start immediately before you lose more opportunities.