There’s a circle of life for everything – plants, animals, and even the stars in the sky. Business proceedings, including the creation and execution of contracts, are no exception. Contracts allow you to build partnerships, provide services, and get your work done – but they also create work.
Investing in the tools you need to digitally manage records and contracts can save your team significant time and energy. Below, we dive into the basics of digital contract lifecycle management, including what you can do to start digitizing your own system.
Contract lifecycle management involves everything that goes into creating and executing a contract, from initiation to review and termination. You might also see CLM referred to simply as contract management or contract administration.
Regardless of terminology, contract lifecycle management usually requires a combination of technology, clear business processes, and tools that help organizations manage data more efficiently.
As contracts progress throughout their lifecycle – which we’ll break down in a moment – they need to be nurtured and monitored. Using CLM techniques and software to do the heavy lifting makes it much easier to master contract management without letting it become a hindrance.
When done effectively, contract lifecycle management can help your organization:
To identify areas where you can use technology to help your teams save time, it’s first helpful to understand the building blocks of the contract management lifecycle.
From idea generation to review and, ultimately, contract retention, here are the key stages of the contract lifecycle that you’ll need to manage:
Because there are many stages to progress through, contract management is a process that’s prone to bottlenecks. It’s also one that can be difficult to keep up with as your organization scales.
That’s why it’s smart to create a digital contract lifecycle management system tailored to your needs.
Contract management is important but time-consuming and complex work, whether you have a dedicated contract manager or not. Fortunately, contract management software can help you automate the process and keep up with your business needs as you grow.
With the right software, you can skip the hassle of searching endlessly for stray documents and organize key documents using a digital contract repository. You can also ensure that all contract data and metrics are easily searchable so you never have to look far to find the information you need to make strategic decisions.
Let’s take a closer look at some specific ways that contract lifecycle management tools can make a difference.
There are all kinds of opportunities to automate contract lifecycle management, depending on your needs. With comprehensive solutions from CDP, you can build a system that makes sense based on your teams and workflow.
Here are just a few examples of ways you can leverage software for automated contract lifecycle management:
CDP helps you build a digital contract management repository with the help of Laserfiche, an enterprise content management platform. Create a digital contract control center where you can visualize and manage all phases of the lifecycle, from sourcing to execution to long-term monitoring.
Smart scanning capabilities allow you to upload physical documents to your digital repository in seconds. Vital data is automatically captured and recorded so that you can easily search for contracts with keywords.
Eliminate bottlenecks during approval by reducing the work it takes to access, review, and sign contracts.
Tools like eSign allow you to collect digital signatures effortlessly without having to hop from one tool to the other. Send contracts along to different parties and communicate digitally to create a record of where your document is at and what you still need to do to progress.
No matter the kind of business you do, it’s likely that you’ll need to juggle a contract or two at some point. As you build partnerships and take your business to new heights, you need a contract management system you can rely on.
Whether you already have a system in place or not, going the paperless route can help you save valuable time, resources, and money. Plus, when you work with CDP, you get access to customized software solutions that make sense for your workflows.
Our mission is to help you get more valuable work done faster. Ready to take the first step? Start a conversation and book a demo today to learn more.