Why Traditional Contract Management Is Inefficient
Printing, signing and scanning are standards in traditional contract management processes. The inefficiency of current methods makes contract management tiring and lowers the overall value of many businesses.
Traditional contract management is inefficient
First of all, it’s almost impossible to get an overview of all contracts and their content in a company without digital means. Their statuses, value and even start and end date. It’s estimated that ten percent (!) of all signed contracts in a company have completely disappeared (Faulkner Information Services). They’re gone.
ten percent (!) of all signed contracts in a company have completely disappeared
Not rocket science: it can be costly to miss when a contract is about to expire or to be automatically renewed.
Where do you have your contracts today? In a binder? In your email inbox? Somewhere in the cloud? Scattered all over? Don’t worry, you’re not alone.
Moreover, contracts often take long time to draft — even for me as a lawyer. When recreating a contract from a template (i.e. copy-pasting and editing), the contract needs to be read through from start to finish. I hardly need to say that this process is unnecessarily inefficient.
If a company has several people involved in the contracting process, it takes even more time. And often implies a loss of control — not least when the number of employees handling contracts increase. Hey, what if something was cut out or deleted by accident? Believe me, I have been in court to dispute contracts where this the actual case.
When the drafting is done, another process is initiated. Signing. Traditionally, the contract is printed and manually signed. Unfortunately, the signees might not be in the same room, town or even country. This means that postal services (or couriers) are needed to circulate the contract. More time spent, less deals done. It is not for legal reasons (a digital signature is basically as binding as a physical one). So why uphold a paper-and-ink regime?
That’s why we’ve developed Precisely. Precisely is a cloud-based contract management platform for smarter contracting. We offer a digital touchpoint for all your contract-related matters; from automated creation and electronic signing to digital archiving and smart reminders — in one place.
What if you could take advantage of all business intelligence in your contracts in order to take better and more informed decisions?
But believe me, we’re just getting started. Getting rid of paper in exchange for structured contract data comes with a ton of new opportunities — many of which we can’t even comprehend yet. What if you could take advantage of all business intelligence in your contracts in order to take better and more informed decisions?
We’re moving towards a future with less administration and more time for (smart) business.
Happy contracting,
Nils-Erik
