In order to manage the contracts in your company efficiently, it is advisable that you use a contract management software service. This not only helps you avoid the hassles of having to deal with a large amount of paperwork but can also save you lots of time and money, even ensuring that you earn revenues faster. And if you are interested in such services, you can identify the perfect software for your business by keeping the following four tips in mind.
Go With Experience
It is better to choose a contract management software service which has been in operation for long. Though the lure of startup services might be too tempting to avoid, the fact is that you will be better off staying away from them. For one, there is no guarantee that these startups will be in business the next year since they have only begun their operations and are probably not earning any significant revenues. If they shut down, then you will have to face many challenges in transferring the contracts stored on their servers to another server or your company’s backup storage.
In worst case scenarios, your contracts may be lost if the company just shuts down suddenly without any explanation. Secondly, startup softwares are likely to have many ongoing bugs in them. But if you choose an experienced service which has been in business for many years, then such disadvantages are minimized. There is more assurance that the business will last for many years to come, and the software will already be mature enough that it won’t contain too many bugs.
ROI
The ROI of a contract management software depends on many factors, with the main one being how effective it is in ensuring transaction compliance. For example, the software should enable you to check the contracts in real time and help you catch any abnormal occurrences in them, like an overcharge. This will help you quickly take action and correct the issue before it starts affecting the profitability of the contracts.
Free-Form Text
You must ensure that the contract management software does accommodate free-form text since most contracts will have a bunch of such text which will not fit in with the normal relational database. The templating function provided by the contract software is obviously helpful, but if it is not able to accommodate free-form text, then you will have a tough time setting up contracts through the software.
Demonstration
Make sure that you get to see a live demonstration of the software before you decide to purchase it. An ideal thing to do will be to pick one contract process that usually occurs within your company and ask the vendor to show how the software is used to handle it. You must also ensure that the software can be customized to the needs of the business. It is a good idea to have your IT team with you during the software demo.
So, make sure that you judge the various contract management solutions using the above criteria, and you are sure to find the perfect service that satisfies your requirements.
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