David Parks March 4, 2021 As I mentioned in earlier blogs, companies are under significant pressure to digitally transform their business processes and contract negotiation is no exception. Contracts are the backbone of the modern organization, and many have turned to Digital Contract Transformation (DCX) to digitize their contracts and contract lifecycle management (CLM) processes.
That said, does any of this sound familiar?
“Who approved this? I don’t agree to these terms!”
“I sent you my edits already.”
“Do we have a signed SOW yet?”
“After you get our General Counsel’s review, make sure you send it to their counsel, and then after you get redlines back, resend a new version to everyone on this email.”
Negotiating even the simplest contract can involve multiple parties and multiple rounds of reviews. Based on those factors, the World Commerce and Contracting group estimates that the average cost of processing and reviewing a negotiated contract continues to rise and can range from $ 6,900 for a simple contract to more than $ 49,000USD for complex agreements. While poor contract management processes continue to impact companies’ bottoms lines, anything that makes the process of reviewing contracts more efficient can help chip away at that number, and help save people’s sanity.
While workers are unlikely to return to a physical office anytime soon, the business of negotiating contracts continues. Cloud-based solutions that allow parties to collaborate and negotiate contracts in real-time are key to making the contract negotiation process easier and more efficient. Solutions that enable all relevant parties to simultaneously review, approve, and mark-up contracts in a secure way, on their own devices, help meet organizations where they are today. In another blog, I talked about how contract lifecycle management solutions can help identify, assess and mitigate risk in contracts. Real-time collaboration tools are another great way to add to your risk management arsenal, as they can provide a complete audit of the entire negotiation process. They also allow you to benchmark and track KPIs that can be used to improve contract negotiation strategies. And finally, they are fast so you lower the risk of losing a deal or slowing down revenue due a poor negotiation experience with a customer or vendor.
For organizations being asked to do more with less, contract management software helps leaders optimize their businesses. Real-time collaboration tools are another way to use data-driven insights to manage business risk.
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