5 Features You Want Your Contract Management Software to Have

In the business world, it’s not unusual for you to enter into all kinds of contracts. If you own or operate a company and you have suppliers, for instance, you will probably sign a contract with them so they can deliver the raw materials you need to make your products. It follows that you need to do all you can to keep track of your contracts and everything related to them.

This is why you need to look into contract management software. There are software suites available now that deal with your company’s contracts, and it behooves you to get one. Let’s look at some of the features you’ll want this sort of software to have.

It Should Have a Faceted Search Feature

To get an example of the kinds of software suites we mean, you can check out the Malbek Contrax CLM solution. This is just one of the many excellent contract management solutions that you can find on the market today.  

You want your contract management solution to have a faceted search feature. If you’re not sure what we mean, think about a search engine like Google that you probably use every day.

Your contract management solution should have a feature that allows you to look through your existing contracts by putting in things like a company name or a particular keyword or keyword phrase. For instance, you might type in a keyword phrase like “packaging materials.” You should get back a short list of any contracts with business entities you have for packaging supplies.

Easy, Secure Contract Storage

You also want to use the digital world as much as possible these days. That way, you can ensure that your contracts and everything else having to do with your company are secure in the cloud.

That is much better than having paper files you need to store in a physical location. Something might happen to those files, such as if there is a fire or your workplace floods.

If your contract management system has a place to store all your contracts, you can peruse them at your leisure whenever you need to, and you can be sure that no unauthorized person looks at them. Having them all in one place and readily available to you at all times will help you to rest easier.

Event and Renewal Notifications

You probably understand already that contracts will have all kinds of time-specific stipulations. For instance, maybe you have a contract with a trash pickup company that comes to your brick-and-mortar store locations. You have an agreement with them for one calendar year, or maybe you pay them quarterly.

Either way, you need to have software in place that can notify you when your contract with them will run out. At that point, you can decide to either renew with them or go with someone else if they have not done as good of a job as you had initially hoped.

Your software suite should tell you whenever a date is coming up on one of your contracts or when a contract-related event is about to occur. That way, you can decide what to do accordingly.

Your Solution Should Offer Your Own Boilerplate or Customizable Contracts

You probably don’t just have contracts with other businesses that they set up and to which you agreed. You likely set up your own contracts with certain entities.

These contracts can be either boilerplate, meaning they’re standard and you don’t have to customize them, or else you might have one that you need to modify depending on what a client wants from you or what you require from them. Your contract management solution should have a variety of contracts you can instantly draw up and offer to a prospective client digitally.

Contract Request Monitoring Capabilities

One final thing you’ll want your contract monitoring software to do for you is to monitor what happens to a contract that you offer to someone or to some business entity with whom you would like to partner. You can use the system to send over the contract once you have looked it over to determine that it’s suitable.

You’ll probably give the other person or company a certain amount of time to consider your offer. Once

that time expires, they need to either sign the contract or reject it. You want the software suite you have to notify you regarding what’s happening with all contract offer you send out.

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