Best Practices for selecting a Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) solution
Imagine this: your vendor or agency agreements are approaching its expiry/renewal date and you can't remember where it was stored or when the exact date was.
Despite checking your desktop files, emails, and other databases, the most recent contract copy is nowhere to be found.
Finally, after an exhaustive, anxiety-inducing search, you discover the contract has been buried in a shared drive amidst a clutter of other documents.
A proper Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) solution can help to avoid these unnecessary frustrations, minimize errors and cut down on time-consuming tasks.
If you are struggling to stay on top of contract expiry/renewal dates or spending too much time searching for them, it may be time to build a more streamlined process.
Continue reading to see how the features of a Contract Lifecycle Management solution can be a valuable addition to your current workflows.
The Stages of the Contract Lifecycle:
Contract Lifecycle Management improves efficiency by automating reminders for important dates and reducing the stress of maintaining multiple contracts at once.
A robust CLM system assists in managing contracts at every stage of the process, from creation to renewal.
From Creation to Renewal:
How the right CLM solution supports the entire contract lifecycle
Contract Templates
Contract templates are essential in a contract lifecycle management (CLM) solution as they provide a standardized framework for creating and managing contracts.
These templates are stored in a library and anyone who needs to create a new contract can quickly find a previously approved template with up-to-date terms to ensure compliance and consistency.
These templates most times consist of pre-defined editable fields which makes it easier to complete the document and ensures that all necessary information is included accurately.
Central Repository
All contracts are stored in a central repository, reducing the risk of losing important documents and making it easier to keep track of where they are and who has access to them.
Also, the system ensures that contracts have a single source of the truth and are always up to date - making it less likely for mistakes or confusion around version control.
Contract Review + Approval
Flexible review workflows allow all team members to review and provide feedback on a contract before it is submitted for settlement.
Users should also have visibility into the approval process, including who needs to approve or sign the contract and at what stage.
Compare Versions
When contracts are sent by email, it can be hard to keep track of changes made to the original document, making it time-consuming for everyone to check and confirm the changes.
Unfortunately, people often skip reviewing the whole contract, which can lead to potential legal issues later on.
With a contract lifecycle management (CLM) tool like Papercurve, teams can quickly find all the edits that were made between versions.
This ensures that the original document stays the same, and only authorized changes were made.
Secure Digital Signatures
Digital signatures are crucial in CLM solutions for authenticity and integrity of signed documents, preventing fraud and disputes.
They simplify the signing process, saving time and money, reducing errors, and increasing efficiency.
They also enable remote signing, allowing parties to sign documents from anywhere, anytime, on any device, facilitating faster contract completion and reducing the handling of physical documents.
Automated Notifications
Automated notifications such as date reminders are an important feature of Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) solutions because they help ensure that key dates related to a contract are not missed.
For instance, a reminder can be set for the date of contract renewal, so that parties are notified ahead of time and can begin preparations for the renewal process.
Contracts are crucial documents that ensure there are no inconsistencies in a business arrangement.
A contract lifecycle management (CLM) is a critical tool for preventing these errors, increasing productivity, and ensuring all contracts are properly created, reviewed and approved for execution.
It is a worthwhile investment in the short-term and long-term to reduce risks that can be costly.
📝 Learn more about how Papercurve can meet your Contract Lifecycle Management needs.
