Efficient Processes with Contract Management Software: How to Reduce Paper Chaos

What was the small print in the branch's lease agreement again and until when was the car lease actually valid? In a professional context, contracts often lead to mountains of paper and bureaucratic chaos.

Whether in the legal department, accounting or customer service - companies inevitably have to make contracts with partners, suppliers, customers etc. to ensure certain processes. But where should you store the documents as simply as possible so that your teams can access them quickly?

The buzzword here is the often-demanded digitization. In this article we show you what problems lurk in contract management. In addition, we provide best practices and tips for digital tools that can make contract management processes more efficient and simpler.

Who needs contract management and what software makes sense for it

There are contracts that all companies must conclude: lease contracts, shareholder or cooperation contracts. Contract Management and the processes involved are therefore of interest to everyone. Specific contract types come on top specifically for individual teams:

Contract management therefore affects everyone, starting with management and ending with individual departments that have to deal with contracts on a daily basis.

Typical steps in the contract management process

To see where software can lend a hand, you should know the sequence of traditional contract management. Of course there are already companies that handle the processes of contract administration in an exemplary manner. However, many, especially medium-sized companies, are still bobbing between paperwork and archives in storage rooms. Generally, the following steps can be applied to all types of contract.

• You develop the contract content together with the other party.
• You negotiate specific clauses and exceptions (Contract Lifecycle: services, costs, deadlines, conditions etc.).
• The contract serves you as documentation of the agreement. Both sides sign.
• The subject of the contract becomes effective. Now both sides are constantly monitored, whether you abide by the conditions.
• You both store the contract and archive it afterwards.
• After the contract term expires you can renegotiate the contract and extend it. That is, unless it was dissolved by one party beforehand.

Errors and Risks of Poor Contract Administration

Generally, you can't simplify much about these steps. When you plan a contract, work it out and renegotiate, it always depends on the individual case and the parties. While some companies already perform digital contract management, other companies still insist on the analog approach: If your company always tends to printed form and mail, all phases from contract conclusion are error-prone.

• Paper documents are not environmentally friendly and cause work during printing and scanning.
• Sending back and forth by mail leads to higher costs and longer waiting times. In addition, documents can get lost.
• Storage in physical archives requires space and personnel capacities.

Good, but many companies have by now switched to electronic management of their contracts. But even here it can lead to more work and inefficiency:

• Contracts must be signed to be valid. That means if it's technically not possible, you'll have to print everything out and scan it in again.
• Even digital storage can be cumbersome if no one knows where the contact person has stored contracts.
• Accordingly, it can take a long time (up to an average of 18 minutes) until you have existing contracts on hand.
• It is difficult to keep track of individual contract provisions.
• Data from online-stored contracts must possibly be manually transferred from Excel spreadsheets so that you can use them in your database for further activities.
• You cannot always ensure that all parties involved handle sensitive data in compliance with GDPR or influence who has access to the documents.
• In case of contract changes the entire process must be run again.
• You can hardly measure your contract management processes at all - or not at all - in order to optimize them.Deadlines or the expiration of a contract could be missed if no one from the team is aware of them.
• These are now many individual steps where something can go wrong. And what is simply an unnecessary time-eater in some points can also lead to bigger difficulties like a data leak or legal problem. Luckily there is an all-in-one solution for all these weaknesses and inconveniences. Namely a software for digital contract management.What you should consider for successful contract management

A conclusion of a contract can be error-prone; as far as so good. So let's now get to the avoidance strategies: With the help of some best practices you can ensure effective and inexpensive contract management in your business:

All contracts should not be stored locally with your employees, but in a

cloud

• . This way all authorized persons can access them no matter where they are. a contract administration is necessary for this, where you can assign individual permissions. So not all contracts are accessible for everyone - highly data protection compliant.By using an intelligent search function

• you can find urgently needed contracts quickly and without much effort. In a detailed view, you can then change, add or delete information.In order to make future strategic decisions based on contract data better, it is advisable to regularly track

• and analyze data. Only then can you evaluate whether existing contract management processes are still sensible, profitable and legally valid (compliance).Automatic reminders are also extremely helpful to not miss important deadlines

• and not forget any to-do's. Deadlines or agreed contract changes should not have to be entered manually into your calendar.Only in real exceptions

• should you print out contracts and archive them physically. Basically these are documents like wills, certificates and dismissals, which may also not be signed electronically. Contracts generally become valid with an e-signature.This software supports you in the process of contract managementThe best thing would be to be able to access all contracts bundled via a single-source-of-truth. And that's exactly what the tool

ContractHero Contract Management

offers. The software provider's servers (ISO27001 and ISO9001 certified) are located in Germany. So you can rely on GDPR compliant processing of contract data as well as a generally secure infrastructure. On OMR Reviews, the software has already been awarded the Top-Rated badge for some time and is even the leader in the contract management category.Via an intuitive user interface you can avoid all the problems shown above and implement the tips for your process management digitally: Digital contract administration & contract creation

: Use the drag-and-drop function as well as the e-mail and excel export

• Field Construction Kit: Create your own fields and folders for individual use
• Intelligent Search Function: Find contracts and their info faster with the help of AI
• Data export of individual contracts: Export the details for further processing (e.g., with Excel)
• Role management: Assign different permissions within your teams to better protect sensitive data
• Dashboards for automatic contract analysis: Get insights into all statistics to constantly optimize your contract management
• Deadlines and automatic reminders: Keep an eye on all time critical tasks, deadlines and contract extensions
• Digital Signature: Avoid paperwork and postal communication via e-signature.
• To get more information about how to use the tool, you can watch tutorials like this on YouTube.ContractHero can cover all types of contracts, but is specifically directed at medium-sized B2B companies in the DACH region with 200 to 1,000 employees. If you want to focus a bit more on the target group, there are some

success stories

from ContractHero that you should read.As you digitalize all contracts with the software, you can grow sustainably and become more agile at the same time. On the one hand, you save your team annoying archive and search work, on the other hand, you offer your customers an efficient service. Both lead to increased revenue and efficiency.Conclusion: How to improve your contract management processes

So you see, digitalization may have arrived in German companies here and there. But it really has an impact when you consistently digitize all contracts and manage them online, for example

via ContractHero

. This now affects not only authorities but basically every company.If you have stored everything virtually, you can find it in seconds through AI-supported search and rework it with ContractHero. With role management, you decide who can see what and with deadline reminders you don't miss any potential follow-up orders. You can easily and practically implement all best practices with the tool and optimize the contract management process.Mountains of paperwork or private email accounts full of contracts are a thing of the past. Just like the risks of poor contract administration. Administrative processes like agreements in all sectors are well compatible with automation, AI and digitization. So be a hero of contracts with a digital contract management.

Wenn du alles virtuell abgelegt hast, kannst du es mit ContractHero in Sekundenschnelle durch eine KI-gestützte Suche wiederfinden und nachbearbeiten. Mithilfe des Rollenmanagements entscheidest du, wer was sehen darf und durch die Fristenerinnerung entgeht dir kein potenzieller Folgeauftrag. Du kannst wirklich alle Best Practices einfach und praktisch mit dem Tool umsetzen und den Prozess Vertragsmanagement optimieren.

Papierberge oder private E-Mail-Accounts voller Verträge gehören schon längst der Vergangenheit an. Ebenso wie die Risiken schlechter Contract-Verwaltung. Verwaltungsprozesse wie Übereinkünfte in sämtlichen Branchen vertragen sich nämlich gut mit Automation, KI und Digitalisierung. Sei also mit einem digitalen Vertragsmanagement Held*in der Contracts.