Organizations of all sizes face the need to juggle multiple contracts at a time, with each contract being at a different stage of the contract lifecycle.  Leading contract lifecycle management software is crucial in reducing risk, improving productivity, and maximizing a contract’s value.

What is the Contract Lifecycle?

The contract lifecycle is the evolutionary process under which a contract is drafted, reviewed, signed, and executed.  The “lifecycle” is a model through which an understanding of a contract’s complicated journey is understood and compartmentalized.  It begins with contract requests and ends when said requests are entirely fulfilled - and with the potential for contract renewal.  The eight common steps are as follows:

1. Requests: This initial phase of the lifecycle allows business stakeholders to gather essential details associated with a new contract, amendment, renewal, etc.  The request stage arguably sets the tone for whether a contract undergoes efficient processing or is rife with delays.

2. Authoring: Also known as the contract writing stage, this step involves contract parties putting the terms of a contract into written copy by consolidating standard contract clauses, contract key dates, contract counterparty information, and other important data.

3. Negotiations: During the contract negotiation phase, parties negotiate the parameters drafted during the previous phase.  After back-and-forth collaboration and redlining, conditions agreed upon provide insight regarding the expectations of all involved parties.

4. Approvals: A review on the part of all parties occurs.  Parameters are set to meet compliance standards, contract obligations, milestones, and special terms of a contract.  For a healthy contract approval process, an accessible and up-to-date record of changes that have been made to the contract is a must.  As such, an audit trail recorded by contract management software is crucial for efficient contract lifecycle management.

5. Signatures: A chief employee or an authority with high clearance signs a contract - thus ratifying its enactment.  Platforms that offer a future-minded and user-friendly electronic signature software functionality make it easy to sign contracts one-off or in bulk, in the office or on-the-go, and in an increasingly mobile landscape where manual signatures are time-consuming and inefficient.

6. Obligations: All parties acknowledge their defined responsibilities, milestones, key dates, deliverables, and payment windows.

7. Compliance: It is agreed upon that, in addition to those specified in a contract, general and field-specific contractual rules, standards, guidelines, and practices are complied with.  Proper compliance management helps reduce late fees, litigation, and bottlenecks and sets the stage for future contracts.

8. Renewals: Parties are given the chance to revisit discounts, renegotiate terms, and engage in further opportunity realization.

Now that you are familiar with the contract lifecycle process, it's time to learn how you can transform your organization's contract lifecycle management process with user-friendly, robust, scalable, low-friction, and automated contract lifecycle management software.

Enhance Contract Requests

Cutting-edge contract management software automates contract request management - making for an intuitive, accurate, simple, and efficient process.

Teams can easily establish a request intake form that can virtually ensure that all relevant request information is captured in a centralized fashion.  An easily-navigable screen lets requestors effortlessly provide the information required - allowing individuals reviewing and approving requests to conveniently view that information in one place.

Organizations can also set up a request wizard - or a dynamic questionnaire that helps requestors determine what type of request they need to submit.  This guidance comes in the form of pre-configured and dynamic questions.  Once a questionnaire is submitted, the system assigns users to the relevant request page based on their answers.

Once a request type is determined, organizations can use the aforementioned self-serve contract writing process with clause merging.  Tasks related to requests can be accounted for using automated alerts, a report designer for ad-hoc reports and custom reports, system dashboards, and the ability to approve requests and create contracts - all on one interface!

Maximize Contract Authoring

Contract writing is a complex and multidimensional process.  Without reliable contract lifecycle management software (or CLM software), organizations must rely upon a contract authoring process that lacks the functionality to use preferred contract templates with pre-approved clauses from a standard, pre-approved clause library.

CLM software empowers clients with standardized version tracking that maintains the consistency of a single and unswerving contract - virtually no matter how often it circulates.  Users can easily create contracts and other records from a contract document with contract management AI that allows for intelligent data mapping and data extraction.  Leading contract management software allows organizations to track compliance tasks and document versions, improve clause management with the ability to merge contract data with pre-approved clause templates, enhance item management and line-item management, provide flow down clauses and notifications, optimize contract negotiations, and much more!

Optimize Contract Negotiations

Reliable contract lifecycle management software systems simplify contract negotiations with:

• the abovementioned contract writing process that features clause merging from a dynamic clause library as well as clause ownership.

• organized and streamlined document collaboration and document version control.

• intelligent workflow automation to stay on top of tasks, key dates, and milestones.

• efficient, centralized online negotiation collaboration and approvals.

• a streamlined, user-friendly, and highly configurable signing process.

Organizations should enlist the aid of leading-edge contract management software to make the chess-like, back-and-forth contract negotiation process smooth, easy, and centralized - reducing bottlenecks and delays and promoting accountability.

Expedite Contract Approvals

The approval process can be vexing because chains of command are often intricate and variant between parties.  The best CLM software offers approval authority clarity with automated approval routing.  A standardized format under a trusted CLM application expedites and optimizes the approval process.  Automated notifications and alerts, regarding when a document needs approval, streamline the approval process and promote accountability.  Updates regarding changes in chain-of-approval make it so stakeholders quickly receive updates about who needs to approve tasks and actions related to a given contract.

Manual contract management virtually enforces contract managers to personally oversee the assignment of tasks and remind everyone involved in the approval process to perform their assigned duties.  Delay on the part of anyone involved stalls the approval process.

Contract lifecycle management software with workflow automation enabled makes management of contract workflow more efficient, alerting the right people at the right time with notification and automatic alerts.  Managing in-house collaboration and negotiation is simplified with the proper tools to track processes.  Workflow automation cuts contract approval time by eliminating potential bottlenecks and ensuring that everyone involved in the approval process performs the right steps on time.

Sign Fast & Easily with Electronic Signature Software

A configurable, streamlined, and user-friendly document collaboration and electronic signature software system helps keep the approval and signing processes moving, whether key signatories are in the office or working remotely.  Contract management, legal, procurement, and sourcing professionals can utilize credible electronic signature software to keep collaboration and electronic signing processes running smoothly thanks to:

  • faster signing.
  • easy one-off signatures.
  • a rules-based electronic signing process.
  • and more!

Enjoy a streamlined, user-friendly, and configurable signing and document collaboration process in or out of the office with a cutting-edge electronic signature software interface.

Easily Manage Obligations & Compliance

Due diligence regarding timely obligation fulfillment is vital to healthy contract lifecycles.  Thus, clerical organization assists contract managers in both meeting their contractual requirements and in providing attention to more strategic aspects of contract management - such as contract analytics and opportunity realization.

Additionally, contract managers are always ahead of the curve when they have proper CLM software.  If a counterparty has an obligation or compliance standard that they must quickly meet, contract lifecycle management software can notify involved parties with automated key date and task alerts, compliance and obligation status reports, and user-friendly dashboards.  With future-minded, automated, and user-friendly tools that promote accountability, contract managers can virtually rest assured knowing that contract lifecycle processes can commence without issue. 

Contract obligations and general compliance are crucial stages of the lifecycle for parties to track.  The preceding lifecycle stages are for naught unless the terms and conditions of a contract are followed through upon.  Contract management software provides the visibility parties require to effectively manage contracts post-execution.

A solid foundation of CLM practices offers contract management and legal professionals the skills to oversee post-approval stages of the contract lifecycle.  CLM software can intelligently inform parties of whether standards and/or terms on a contract have been met.  Obligations and compliance can be monitored so that both parties meet expectations civilly and without the need for litigation hang-ups.

Quickly Navigate Contract Renewals

Don’t miss out on opportunities from contract renewals.  Enhance the renewal process with contract automation.

Organizations can leverage highly configurable, user-friendly, and automated contract management lifecycle management that optimizes contract renewals with:

  • Automated reminders and calendar alerts for effective renewal and obligation management.
  • A secure cloud-based repository with version tracking to ensure teams can easily search and access the current versions of all agreements.
  • Full audit trails to track renewal statuses and every change made throughout the life of the contract.
  • Intelligent contract management workflows to automate tasks and facilitate fast negotiation, reviews and approvals, and signing.
  • Contract analytics that provide insight into the value and risk of all contract types - uncomplicating renewal decisions.
  • Electronic signatures for faster and more secure sign-offs.
  • Seamless integration with accounting systems, CRM, and other mission-critical applications.

Why Contract Lifecycle Management is Crucial

Outdated contract lifecycle management tools potentially lead to nettlesome and damaging legal consequences due to a lack of observance of contractually-binding terms and conditions.  Such is the importance of proper contract lifecycle management software.  Wide-ranging and easily-digestible interaction with the contract lifecycle gives all parties, virtually anywhere and anytime, access to deadlines and requirements so that they can navigate the contract process - essentially devoid of problems.

To learn more about how you can successfully master contract lifecycle management, click here.