Contract management is an inherently long and complicated process involving many different phases, organizations, departments, personnel, etc.

So, as the landscape of commerce continues to be altered by the introduction of technology and automated solutions, it makes sense that the contract lifecycle and contract management are also being made easier thanks to contract lifecycle management (CLM) software.

Benefits Of CLM Software Solutions

No matter what area of business you are in – real estate, finance, tech, etc. – contracts play an important role in the daily operations and general function of business, and CLM software can help with this.

Contract negotiation is a major part of the contract lifecycle; in this phase, parties discuss various terms and elements of a transaction in order to arrive at an agreement. This agreement will then be placed in a legal document which is to be signed by both parties, thus establishing a legally-binding contract.

As you can expect, the contract negotiation process can be lengthy, difficult, and confusing; arguably the most labor-intensive part of the contract lifecycle, negotiation can be a lot to manage. It may involve multiple departments and personnel within a business who then need to negotiate with multiple departments and personnel within the other organization involved in the agreement – this means bottlenecks, delays, and errors.

When you consider each side of a contract and their particular set of goals, personalities, and business, it makes sense that contract negotiation must be made as easy as possible in order to function properly.

Modernizing the contract negotiation process is an essential transition for modern businesses in order to ‘keep up with the times’; CLM software solutions have many benefits, especially in the important phase of negotiation.

Therefore, modernizing the contract negotiation process is the only way to eliminate wasted time, frustration, and errors.

By helping businesses become more efficient, reducing manual tasks, enhancing visibility, improving compliance, and automating laborious processes, CLM software solutions have many benefits for any and all businesses that use legal documents to operate.

What is CLM Software And What Are The Advantages?

Traditionally, much of the contract negotiation process took place directly, either in-person or phone; this is still commonplace, yet CLM software has streamlined the process and eliminated many of the bottlenecks that typically occur during this phase of the contract lifecycle.

Instead of lengthy processes and relying on users to be responsible for their own tasks and obligations, CLM software automates various elements of the negotiation; for example, it used to be that users involved in a contract would have to keep track of when they need to perform any type of action.

Now, the software alerts users when exactly an action is required of them – this means that everyone involved in any particular contract is always aware of exactly what is expected of them and what they must do at any point in time.

CLM software solutions fix many of the issues with the contract lifecycle and traditional contract management.

Contract creation, negotiation, execution, agreements, signing, renewals, and general management are all made easy by CLM software; every step of the way is tracked, saved, and stored within a central database that can be accessed by users with the correct permissions at any time of the day, from any location.

Pros and Cons

Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of CLM software.

Pros 

• Cost-saving
• Less manual tasks
• Entire contract lifecycle is streamlined
• More efficient 
• Less human-caused errors
• Less confusion
• More secure
• Easier to manage contracts

Cons

• Sometimes time-consuming and tricky to implement 
• Business teams are naturally against change
• Technical difficulties do occur

How CLM Software Helps With Negotiation

CLM software solutions allow for contracts to be negotiated faster – with traditional negotiations, the process takes much longer than it should. Chasing down various personnel within multiple organizations/businesses/departments/teams is naturally a labor-intensive process, and this is solved by the use of CLM software.

More useful information can be found here.

The general experience of negotiation is improved by using CLM software solutions due to less confusion and time spent actually negotiating.

Also, CLM software is cost-effective; going paperless and reducing hours can save an immense amount of money for businesses, not to mention the new time available can be dedicated towards more essential growth-oriented tasks.

All versions, edits, and comments on any particular contract within CLM software is automatically saved and stored; users do not have to worry about accidentally making an incorrect change since prior versions can always be restored.

The software will simply not allow contracts to be edited in a way that breaks legal barriers or is not allowed.

Also, the entire negotiation process can be managed by the ‘higher-ups’ – no need to call anyone, since all you need to do is access the CLM software to get a birds-eye view of precisely what stage any particular contract negotiation is in.

The contract negotiation and management process can be greatly improved for any business by implementing CLM software solutions; the benefits far outweigh the downsides of this software.

Why Your Business Needs CLM Software

It is crucial for businesses to keep up with the demand of the increasing volume of contracts that are becoming more complex by the day – CLM software solutions help organizations manage this area of business in order to focus on more important aspects of commerce, such as sales and growth.

Before purchasing any software, be sure to research various CLM software vendors and reviews to find the right solution for your business.