What is Contract Management?
Contract management is the process of monitoring and managing all of the company’s contracts to ensure that there is compliance with deadlines, deliverables, and all other terms, conditions, provisions and clauses within the organization’s agreements.
Some companies rely upon a single individual to handle the contract management function. This approach may work fine for smaller companies. Larger organizations have trended toward the use of a team of managers. This allows a manager with specialized knowledge in a particular area to manage contracts dealing with the subject matter of his or her expertise. Advancements in technology have driven the creation of contract management software, which provides contract managers with new and effective contract management solutions. Contract management as a profession has also risen to new heights.
A few contract management software features and capabilities which best provide for effective contract management include the following:
- A centralized repository for all of the company’s contracts – this ensures that every contract, including amendments, addenda, and other related documents, are located in one place so that nothing will be overlooked.
- Once all contracts are scanned, they can be searched instantaneously with Google-like Boolean searches through OCR technology.
- Controlled accessibility through easy-to-use permissions.
- Automated reminders of important dates, such as auto-renewals.
- Use of cloud technology.
- State-of-the-art security.
- Easy to implement and easy to use.
- Easy integration with current IT and other software, such as Salesforce and DocuSign.