Contract Management Software: Improve Legal Operations and Transparency
The True Value of Contract Management Software: Beyond Cost Centers
Labeling departments as mere cost or revenue centers is misleading; any function can face cost overruns and uncover new value. The key is identifying areas that hinder profitability, speed, and efficiency. Poor contract management, particularly in legal operations, can lead to significant time and resource losses. Investing in robust contract management software is essential for maximizing value and minimizing waste in these critical areas.
Unlocking Value Through Streamlined Contract Management Software and Smart Lifecycle Management
When contract operations are streamlined, their time aspect is amplified, and their weak areas are proactively managed, the legal team can translate a piece of paper into a rich tap of value and competitiveness. It all boils down to using technology for smart contract lifecycle management with the following:
- Easy management of volumes of contract data
- Accurate and time-sensitive documentation and retrieval
- Automated and intelligent task management in contract lifecycle management (CLM)
- Reduction of manual labor and use of technology for primary, repetitive, and data-heavy areas
- Massive reduction in error rates with CLM-powered visibility
- Huge improvement in project completion milestones
- Strong alignment with compliance
- Good view on mishaps, red flags, and dead-ends that allows for swift corrective action
- A streamlined contract lifecycle management (CLM) with good visibility and action-oriented reporting
Tech adoption in the legal function
Enterprises must leverage technology, particularly contract management software, to enhance efficiency, speed, and visibility in contract lifecycle management (CLM). While legal departments face mixed technology adoption, spending on legal technology is projected to triple by 2025, with 50% of major corporate transaction work automated by 2024. However, legal teams report that 55% of their work is automatable but will only capture 30% of the potential benefits from their contract management software investments by 2025, highlighting significant room for improvement.
If we turn to another report- The ABA 2021 Legal Technology Survey Report – highlighted that more firms have adopted document assembly software recently, with 57 percent of respondents reporting having this software at their firm. In addition, document and records management accessibility had also increased at firms, with 65 percent of respondents reporting having access to this software this year.
Legal operations – transformed with contract lifecycle management (CLM)
Legal teams require greater automation, tech-driven speed, and transparency than ever. The seventh Legal Department Operations Index by the Thomson Reuters Institute reveals that 65% of legal teams reported an increase in workload over the past year. However, nearly 60% of respondents noted that their budgets remained the same or decreased. While 71% prioritize implementing time-saving technology tools to simplify workflows, 47% feel the pace of technological advancement in their departments is slow or non-existent.
Moreover, over 20% of respondents believe their existing technology is underutilized across at least 13 categories, with contract management software identified as a major area for improvement, alongside electronic billing and legal research. There is significant potential for enhancing efficiency and effectiveness in legal departments through better adoption of contract management software solutions.
Legal teams can discover a lot of hidden value when they are empowered with the right technology for contract management. Because with the right solution, an organization can:
- Can streamline contracts
- Watch what’s going wrong and going right
- Arrest delays and diversions in advance
- Expedite workflows like requests, approvals, and spends
- Do away with fears of lost data or incorrect data
- Strengthen authoring, tracking, documentation, and accountability
- Support compliance, enable collaboration and version-control
- Use transparency for efficiency and speed
- Use rule-based management and exception-handling
- Inject cohesive risk management
- Reduce contract cycle times – with simplicity and seamlessness
- Improve relationships with vendors and partners
Whether you are managing employee contracts, handling deals with vendors, juggling non-disclosure agreements, guarding high-priority deals or sensitive IP data, or simply trying to have a good view of the ongoing projects in various areas of your enterprise- a smart contract lifecycle management (CLM) software can bring in a lot of value. Stop thinking of it as a cost center. It can be your hidden cave of new value.
To learn how you can manage risks, enforce contractual rights, improve compliances, and drive performance with robust contract lifecycle management (CLM) software, talk to ProEn experts.
Email: contactus@proen.co.in
For additional information, read this: What is contract management software