Why is there so much change occurring specifically in the contract management space?
Contracts are important. Money may be the blood of a business, but contracts are the bones. If you think about a company, underlying almost every asset or every important relationship is a contract. Every business, every non-profit organisation, and every government entity has lots of contracts. They hold the business together. They generate assets for the business.
Yet, as critical as they are, they’re still not actionable. In fact, even in 2020, they are still quite manual. Professionals who create, negotiate, or manage usually don’t use data analytics, or even modern technology. That’s why you see a lot of interest in technology for contract management. Contracts matter.
At the same time, there is a trend in general counsel in-house legal operators wherein in-house attorneys are demanding twenty-first-century tools, maturing technologies like the cloud, AI, and blockchain, and increasing the critical business role of legal departments. It’s no coincidence that contract management is having a moment; in-house attorneys are seeing its importance and seeing the enormous potential for technological advancements.
Visibility…..Efficiencies ….Process Control
What are some of the characteristics of a modern contract management platform?
I think of it as three things: visibility, efficiencies, and process control. While there are numerous other characteristics, these are the main reasons that an in-house counsel, whether it be general counsel, legal operators, or in-house counsel, decides to acquire a contract management solution.
Visibility: If you find that you are doing a job and your peers in other departments have no idea what you are working on, when it’s going to be done, and what the process looks like, you probably have a visibility problem. A contract management solution can help.
Efficiencies: If you find that your peers in other departments, or even in your department, think that you are taking a little too long or that contracts process is a black box, you likely have an efficiency challenge. It can probably be addressed by a contract management solution.
Process control: If you find yourself cutting and pasting, reconciling versions, going back and forth between email and other applications, you probably have process problems. A contract management solution can definitely help.