#improvingcontractmanagementworkflow

[contraxaware]

How to Manage Your Contract Pipeline with Remote Access

Making the shift to remote contract management is a big step for your business. It’s one that many businesses have had to make quickly in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Properly managing your contract pipeline is critical to keeping your business flowing smoothly during this period. You want to make sure your contracts move smoothly down the contract pipeline with remote access features. A smarter contract management system can help, often without the in-person touches that usually help your business manage those tasks. To manage your contract pipeline with remote access, try some of these important steps. 

1. Make sure all employees have the right access.

When you're in the office, things are simpler. An employee who doesn't have access to the right contract documentation can simply walk down the hallway and find someone who does. Unfortunately, when your employees are working remotely, they might not have access to others who can get them into those documents. As you prepare your contract pipeline for remote access, make sure your employees have the right access. Make sure logins are current, that all employees know their passwords, and that they can access contract data remotely. This is also a great time to remove old logins for employees who have left the company.

2. Create contract processes that include automated checks and reminders.

When working remotely, it's important to include automated reminders for your employees. This can help ensure that they take care of all of their obligations with regards to your contracts in a timely, effective manner. Your employees are out of their familiar element. They’re away from the office and struggling to adapt to new and changing circumstances. Make sure your contract management software offers the reminders they need: Reminders That Action Needs to Be Taken on a Contract Has a contract been allowed to sit too long in a particular queue or at a particular stage of the approval process? Make sure you issue a reminder that will let your employees know that action needs to be taken.  Contract Scoring  Automatic contract scoring can help you identify any potential challenges with a contract before it moves further through the approval process. Remote work can mean longer approval times and fewer connections between members of your team. This can make it easier for potential errors to fall through the cracks. With automated contract scoring, on the other hand, you'll be able to more easily identify any potential challenges with the contract before they become more serious.  Renewal Reminders  Do you have contracts coming up for renewal during this period of remote work? Make sure employees get reminders well ahead of time so that they can begin negotiations. This can ensure they will have time to take into account current events and how they may impact future contracts with a given partner. 

3. Automatically move your contracts on to the next phase in the contract cycle.

Once a specific stage of the contract process has been completed, it needs to move on. Set up your contract management system to automatically send the contract on to the next stage in the process. You may, for example, need to move it straight from the sales team to approval. Alternatively, a smart system can move it through the stages of approval. Make sure it automatically moves to the next person who needs to see it. Then your team can accomplish their tasks remotely and easily. 

4. Make sure you have a remote signature option in place. 

Connect your contract management software with a remote signature platform. This will allow both your team and your contractual partners to sign your contracts without having to be in the same place. These e-signatures are just as binding as physical signatures on a document. But they don't require team members to leave the safety of their homes or expose themselves to potential infections. A contract pipeline with remote access to e-signature options will also ensure that the signed version of the contract is stored online, where your team can easily access it.

5. Institute virtual contract compliance monitoring.

Contract compliance — both with external regulations and with the terms of the contract — is incredibly important to your business. You want your contractual partners to know that you will continue to meet your obligations even during a difficult period. Make sure you have virtual contract monitoring in place that will allow you to keep up with how well your employees are complying with the terms of the contract. You should also monitor whether vendors are keeping up with the terms of your current contracts and whether you need to make changes to any of your contracts based on the current situation.  Shifting to a contract pipeline with remote access features can offer unique challenges. With these strategies, however, you can move your contract smoothly down the pipeline and ensure that your business has everything it needs to continue to thrive and meet its obligations during this time. See how ContraxAware can help by scheduling a 1:1 demo. Read the full article

[contraxaware]

How to Make Sure Your Employees Can Access Contracts at Home

With many businesses making an abrupt shift to remote work in light of the current pandemic — or even if your business has decided to offer remote options for employees for other reasons — it has become increasingly important for employees to be able to access contract records from anywhere they are. Employees who cannot access contracts cannot complete many of their daily work responsibilities, including negotiating and approving contracts. So you want to be sure they have the tools they need to be successful, including systems so they can access contracts at home.

1. Make sure all your contracts are stored in one place.

Finding a contract that could be in any of several repositories is frustrating enough when you're in the office and can easily ask others around you where that information is stored. Finding that information remotely, on the other hand, can prove much more challenging. As you make the transition to remote work, make sure all your contracts are stored in one place. You should also check your naming system to ensure that employees can easily locate the contracts they need within those systems. Ideally, your naming system should be intuitive and easy to understand. 

2. Use cloud storage that employees can access contracts at home.

With a cloud-based contract management system, you don't have to worry about the servers at the office going down when no one is in the office. Instead, employees can easily access contracts from anywhere, whether they're at home, in the office, or on the road. Cloud storage also provides an additional layer of security that can help protect your vital records, including your documents and internal systems, when employees access contracts from home. 

3. Check your security and your permissions so employees can access contracts at home.

Many employees are shifting to remote work in a hurry. But you still need to carefully consider how your contract management solution keeps your contracts as secure as possible. As you make the transition to remote work for your business, make sure that you: Clearly assign permissions based on the files employees across the company should be able to access.  You don't want remote employees to be able to access contracts they don't have permission to access, especially when it comes to private information. At the same time, however, you may need to carefully check your permissions to make sure that each employee has the permissions needed to accomplish his job responsibilities. As access issues arise, make sure you address them at the source. Don’t rely on complex workarounds so your employees can access contracts at home. Make sure you have strong security in place.  You can't control the security of the networks and devices employees are using to access work accounts when they work remotely. You can, however, control the security on your end. This is the ideal time to update your security. Ensure that you don't have any holes that could allow access to your confidential documents.

4. Make sure you can easily identify the latest version of the contract.

Since employees aren't gathering together in person, it may be more difficult to pass on information about your business. For example, say you've recently modified a contract while working with coworkers in the office. Then, you might mention that it's been updated in your next meeting. You might even share it with other team members in passing. While working remotely, on the other hand, it can prove more difficult to keep up with that information.  Use a numbering or naming system that clearly designates the latest version of a contract. Alternatively, utilize a contract management system that allows you to easily track the latest versions of each document. That way, you'll know that everyone is on the same page and accessing the same version of the document. 

5. Don't forget about signatures. 

In addition to accessing your contracts remotely, you may want to continue many of your usual business operations. This includes approving and signing new contracts. You may need to renew vendor contracts, sign new contracts with subcontractors, or bring in new customers for your business. In order to keep your business running smoothly, make sure you have an e-signature option. This will allow you to finalize those contracts, even when the people signing those contracts can't meet in person. You may also want to make sure that your contract management software is compatible with the programs your vendors and customers use. This can increase their confidence in your business during an uncertain time.  Making the transition to remote work may involve multiple steps for your business. Keeping your contracts organized and easily accessible, however, is an important part of that process. By ensuring that you have the right security, permissions, and version control, you can keep your users functioning smoothly. A cloud-based contract management software can make it easier for your team to keep functioning smoothly from wherever they are and access contracts at home. Try a seven-day trial to see how it fits into your new WFH routine.  Read the full article

[contraxaware]

Why You Should Use Contract Milestone Management

Managing people and projects is never easy. But, when you also have to make sure you are meeting the requirements of a contract with another company, project management can become overwhelming. The key to keeping these projects on time, on budget, and in full compliance with the terms of the agreement is to use contract milestone management.

What is Contract Milestone Management?

Contract milestone management is the act of dividing the overall project into smaller parts. Each part is called a milestone. You want to make sure that each contract milestone is tied to both the successful completion of the project and to the contractual obligations laid out in the agreement.  Contract milestone management is both a project management tool and a contract management tool.

Improve Compliance

Many contracts have a variety of penalties for failure to meet all of the exact requirements of the deal. While one single penalty may not be excessive, each penalty eats into your profit. If you are regularly incurring penalties on a variety of contracts, it can lead to huge losses. This also damages your business reputation. The most common cause of late deliveries and other problems that incur contractual penalties are the result of mistakes and poor management. There are too many moving parts for one person to keep track of everything without help. Contract milestone management simplifies contract management and allows you to focus on the small steps that will ensure a timely, high-quality delivery. This technique also allows you to better forecast the resources you will need in the near future to complete the rest of the milestones.

Monitor Progress of Big Projects

Large, complex projects are difficult to monitor. It can be hard to project when future work will be completed or even how close you are to project completion. When you use contract milestone management, you have an objective method for monitoring completion percentage and progress. The company will know early on if they are on schedule or if they will need additional resources to speed up project completion. It is easier to show executives and other stakeholders what milestones have been completed and what milestones remain.

Clear Deadlines

When you are working with a variety of different departments, managers, and employees, it can be hard to monitor deadlines. It is easy for different parts of your organization to become confused about what deadlines they are facing. However, with contract milestone management, everyone has a clear set of deadlines that must be met to complete the project on time.

Improved Workflow

The biggest advantage of contract milestone management is that it improves the company workflow. By creating milestones at the outset of the project, it forces everyone to spend more time thinking about all of the work that goes into a single project. It also forces the organization to create an efficient workflow. It establishes greater accountability. Managers can plan for their portion of the project because they will know when something is supposed to be delivered and who will be making the delivery. Conscientious monitoring of contract milestones will lead to better contract compliance, stronger relationships between different departments, and more improved workflows. Read the full article

[contraxaware]

Why You Should Use Contract Milestone Management

Managing people and projects is never easy. But, when you also have to make sure you are meeting the requirements of a contract with another company, project management can become overwhelming. The key to keeping these projects on time, on budget, and in full compliance with the terms of the agreement is to use contract milestone management.

What is Contract Milestone Management?

Contract milestone management is the act of dividing the overall project into smaller parts. Each part is called a milestone. You want to make sure that each contract milestone is tied to both the successful completion of the project and to the contractual obligations laid out in the agreement.  Contract milestone management is both a project management tool and a contract management tool.

Improve Compliance

Many contracts have a variety of penalties for failure to meet all of the exact requirements of the deal. While one single penalty may not be excessive, each penalty eats into your profit. If you are regularly incurring penalties on a variety of contracts, it can lead to huge losses. This also damages your business reputation. The most common cause of late deliveries and other problems that incur contractual penalties are the result of mistakes and poor management. There are too many moving parts for one person to keep track of everything without help. Contract milestone management simplifies contract management and allows you to focus on the small steps that will ensure a timely, high-quality delivery. This technique also allows you to better forecast the resources you will need in the near future to complete the rest of the milestones.

Monitor Progress of Big Projects

Large, complex projects are difficult to monitor. It can be hard to project when future work will be completed or even how close you are to project completion. When you use contract milestone management, you have an objective method for monitoring completion percentage and progress. The company will know early on if they are on schedule or if they will need additional resources to speed up project completion. It is easier to show executives and other stakeholders what milestones have been completed and what milestones remain.

Clear Deadlines

When you are working with a variety of different departments, managers, and employees, it can be hard to monitor deadlines. It is easy for different parts of your organization to become confused about what deadlines they are facing. However, with contract milestone management, everyone has a clear set of deadlines that must be met to complete the project on time.

Improved Workflow

The biggest advantage of contract milestone management is that it improves the company workflow. By creating milestones at the outset of the project, it forces everyone to spend more time thinking about all of the work that goes into a single project. It also forces the organization to create an efficient workflow. It establishes greater accountability. Managers can plan for their portion of the project because they will know when something is supposed to be delivered and who will be making the delivery. Conscientious monitoring of contract milestones will lead to better contract compliance, stronger relationships between different departments, and more improved workflows. Read the full article