Are you still relying on traditional methods for creating and managing agreements? You may be storing and organizing contracts in shared folders or filing cabinets. If that’s the case, it’s time to consider adopting contract management software. Many legal professionals have already started embracing this technology, and according to Gartner, legal departments are projected to triple their legal technology spending by 2025.
Contract management software, such as nextPLOS, simplifies the creation and maintenance of legal documents. It streamlines the contract negotiation process, facilitates renewals, and offers a centralized platform to manage day-to-day contracts efficiently.
However, choosing the right contract management system can be a challenge in today’s market. Evaluating the latest features can be time-consuming, especially with daily work demands. Selecting the wrong CMS can lead to future problems for your organization, making it crucial to make an informed decision.
To help you navigate the contract lifecycle management (CLM) market, we have compiled a list of essential features that you should look for in contract management software:
- Centralized Data Repository: A central contract database is a fundamental component of your CMS. It enables easy access to agreements and related documents, providing crucial data. You should be able to view legal information at various levels, including contracts, organizations, contacts, documents, or tasks. Moreover, accessing your cloud-based repository from anywhere and at any time is essential. This eliminates the need to search through spreadsheets, email inboxes, or file cabinets. nextPLOS contract management system offers a smart contract repository as part of our One Legal Platform. With intuitive visual components, it enables effortless storage, access, and management of your contract and legal data.
- Search Capabilities: Having contracts stored in a centralized data repository is valuable only if you can find them efficiently. Robust search capabilities are crucial for locating contract-related information. Full-text searches should be possible using legal terms, company names, or specific words and phrases within a legal document. Instant search results with the ability to quickly open any agreement are essential. Additionally, the option to save and export search results should be available. It allows you to perform advanced, filtered searches, providing results in mere seconds. You can obtain a Quick Snapshot or high-level contract visualization and conduct a cognitive search across your entire database.
- Reporting: You need comprehensive reporting capabilities to extract valuable insights from your contract information. It is important to know the status and performance of each agreement while staying on top of the entire contract management process.
- Advanced contract management software offers an intuitive dashboard for a holistic view of deals across the enterprise. Customizable reporting lets you stay updated on contractual details and analyse real-time contract data. Assessing the progress of contract lifecycles allows you to identify and mitigate risks effectively.
- Template Libraries: Creating contracts from scratch can be time-consuming, especially without pre-approved language or standardized clauses. Template libraries streamline the contract creation process by allowing you to enter key information into a template. This enables quick assembly of agreements based on business rules, ensuring up-to-date contract languages and formats are used. Template libraries also help mitigate contract risks and increase compliance.
- Custom Workflows: Mistakes can happen throughout the contract management process. Tracking agreements during pre- or post-execution phases is as crucial as creating, centralizing, searching, and reporting. Custom workflows enable you to define contract management steps, assign tasks to notify approvers when a contract requires signing, and send notifications. Automated contract workflows minimize gaps in