Do you still print your contracts and store them in filing cabinets? If you’re unaware, there is a better way to manage your contracts. Technology has made everyone’s lives more convenient, especially with dealing with contracts. With today’s digital contract transformation, users can now access their contracts anytime, anywhere, and make decisions at the speed of business.
What is Contract Repository?
A central contract repository is a single location where you can store documents and metadata related to your contracts. Instead of companies using the traditional way, such as filing cabinets, teams can store contracts on a cloud. The software enables users to upload documents, create them directly on the platform, and store them.
Not only can you store your contracts, but you can also use contract repository management, which enables businesses to manage their contracts on a system. Switching to contract repository software has many benefits, whether you are starting a business or will digitize your workflow.
Importance of having a Central Contract Repository
A contract lifecycle management has eight steps: creation, reviewing, approving, execution, storage, searching, auditing and reporting, and renewal or expiration. All of the CLM steps should be accomplished in contract repository management. Each step helps businesses with the central contract repository so that owners can automate contracts in one platform.
Here are the benefits of using a central contract repository:
01. Upload All Your Contracts at One Place
When managing your contracts, the best way to do this is to store them where you can easily find information, pull up contracts when needed, and organize them as you wish. A contract management system can do exactly that. Create or upload contracts directly no the platform and then organize them to your liking. This easily gives you a clear overview of all of your contracts. Unlike before, when you had to group them manually and sometimes even misplace contracts, the software removes the possibility of misplacing contracts.
02. AI Features and Capabilities
The beauty of AI is that it removes tedious work and lessens human errors. You can’t go wrong with AI features and capabilities. With AI features, you can type a text or keyword, and everything you need will automatically appear. This is convenient because you just cut back on hours spent looking through contracts.
03. Security
Handling paper contracts can sometimes be challenging. Many accidents can occur, and you could lose contracts completely, especially if they are not backed up on a system. Then there is the issue of piles of contracts that you run out of space to sort. However, in a contract management system all of these challenges are solved. You can store your contracts on a cloud and give access to only those who need it. Your contracts will be safe and secure especially because software usually has layers of security to make it harder for data to end up in the wrong hands.
04. Manage Contracts on Scale
A central contract repository enables users to have a complete overview of all contracts, no matter how many they have. It helps improve productivity and efficiency for your team members as everything is in one place and can even be accessed wherever a person is. Travel time and organization is cut down significantly. You don’t even need a big team to manage the contract repository because anyone can do it.
05. Auditing and Reporting
The best thing about contract repository software is the ability to generate reports and analytics. Whether you need to know where money is spent, how long it takes suppliers to deliver, how many items suppliers can deliver, and so on. All you have to do is generate reports on the data you need, which can be done instantly. You can have a view of everything you need.
06. Customizable Features
In some software, users are free to manage their contracts how they want to. However, having limitations can make it difficult to reach a business’s needs. Customizable features on a contract repository should allow users to organize the documents that best suit them. Custom Field is an example of features that can encourage users to create and add fields of their own, making managing contracts faster than before.
How to Look for a Contract Repository Software
You’ll find that there is multiple software to choose from. But once you are aware of your needs and requirements for your business to reach its goals, you can already filter out which ones will work for you and which ones won’t.
01. Security
Make sure that the software can give access only to users who need them. That way, you can control who can make edits or changes to all your contracts.
02. Integrations
Check to see what integrations the software has. It should be something that can benefit your business, such as Zapier. This way, you can automate workflows.
03. Search Capabilities
Finding information or data is one of the most important things in a repository. For example, in some software, you can type a keyword or text, and the contract, including the details, will automatically show up.
04. Search Capabilities
Finding information or data is one of the most important things in a repository. For example, in some software, you can type a keyword or text, and the contract, including the details, will automatically show up.
05. Extraction
Once you’ve searched for what you need, you may need to extract the data. This can be done with AI features that enable you to extract data.
Conclusion
Seamlessly manage your contracts in one place using a central contract repository. You can save time and costs and improve workflow overall for your team. In addition, most software is user-friendly and easy to use, so anyone can learn how to automate contracts.
Revnue is an AI-based feature that covers end-to-end CLM. The convenience it brings can change the way businesses manage their contracts and better understand how they can work towards improving their organization. But, of course, it all starts with finding the best way to manage contracts.