Top 8 Challenges in Contract Management

Contract management is not a simple task. It should be. It can be. But in many cases it really isn't. Contract management often ends up as being far too complicated, as though those who are working on it feel that if it's easy it's wrong; that they must have to do more. Let's take a look at the reasons why contract management can become such a difficult thing to do (and how to make it much, much simpler).

Poor Communication Between Teams

Each contract has a number of different parts to it, and that can mean that a number of different departments or team members need to take a look at it to ensure it says what it's meant to say. The problem here is that this will have to happen before the document is complete, so the draft is circulated.

That can be an issue because a draft document can bear very little resemblance to the finished product, and it can mean that, taken out of context, team members just don't understand what the requirements are.

This is an easy fix. Using intelligentcontract's contract management systems means that different users can attach not only documents but notes and even comments to individual contracts, ensuring that everyone understands it completely. As a bonus, it leaves a potentially useful audit trail too.

Lack of Clarity

Once contracts are dealt with, where do they go? Into a filing cabinet? A desk drawer? Maybe even saved on one person's computer. That's not very useful, really. How are those contracts ever meant to be audited? How can you check that you're not overspending (or that contracts haven't lapsed or automatically restarted without you knowing about it)?

It's important to check these contracts from time to time - and to allow other team members to do the same - to ensure that your business is working in the most cost-effective way. intelligentcontract's contract management systems allows those contracts to be easily obtainable by anyone with the need to see them (who those people are is up to you when you set the system up). The documents will be found quickly and easily, and money can be saved at every turn.

Suppliers Not Fulfilling Their Obligations

How good are your suppliers? Are they fulfilling all of their obligations or are they not pulling their weight? How do you know? Your suppliers might be underperforming yet no one is aware of it because their contract - the document that tells you what you're paying them to do - is locked away somewhere that makes it too difficult, time consuming, or annoying to get to to double check.

If that sounds familiar then it's time to move onto intelligentcontract's contract management system. It can give you the KPIs of any of your suppliers at any time, meaning that you can instantly know whether you are receiving the service you're paying for.

Level of Involvement

Do you ever send contracts over to people and then wait an age before hearing anything back? And then, rather than receiving the completed document, you get a phone call or email saying that they aren't entirely sure what they're meant to do with it? Fixing this issue is time consuming and can delay contract starts by many days, even weeks if you're not on top of chasing documents when they have been sent out.

The good news is that with the approval feature of intelligentcontract's contract management system, you can make the process a lot easier, a lot more streamlined, and send over notes as well as the contract so that the recipient knows exactly what they are meant to do. You can even set up reminders for you and for them to make sure it gets done in a timely manner.

Being Unaware of Hidden Risks

Every contract has risks associated with it. It might be that a supplier can't deliver or a customer wants to cancel. This is all a part of business, but it doesn't have to be one that causes you a lot of stress. Using intelligentcontract's contract management system means that you can make a record of what each of these risks might be in conjunction to any contract and always be aware of what might happen. Coming up with contingency plans for these cases just became a lot easier.

Poor Communication

Miscommunication is a severe issue that can seriously slow down the process of contracts being completed. In some cases, it can even cause the contract to fail completely. With a contract management system from intelligentcontract, you don't need to let that happen. Instead you can link as many people as you need to to each contract and then set up alerts to ensure that they do what they need to do.

Drawn Out Negotiations

What's the longest it's ever taken you to get a contract successfully negotiated? We bet there were times when it was months and months. That's just too long, especially when business is depending on it. Using the intelligentcontract contract management system means that things can be done much more quickly thanks to reminders, ease of passing along documents, and the ability to include as many instructions as required.

Important Information Hidden Amongst Paperwork

Not all contracts are the same, and some will include specific information that can easily be lost amongst the reams of pages needed. If you had a special customisation option, something that allowed you to highlight the most important elements of each contract (perhaps something that included a form layout and unique fields), would that be better? Of course it would; it's what intelligentcontract offers.

intelligentcontract is a highly customisable solution that provides a hub to store all your important contract paperwork plus you get loads of useful tools that make your contract management process a breeze. We don't have a limit to either the size of documents of the total amount of storage - so you don't have to worry about extra bills if your central store of documents gets big.

Pricing starts at £9 per user, per month. For more information, to get a free trial or to organise a demo visit www.intelligentcontract.com or give us a call on +44 (0)333 344 3905.