19
Contract Management Primer _

ContractPodAI Contract Management Primer Contract … · 2019-11-08 · IACCM notes that “companies lose 9.2% of their bottom line through ineffective contract management.” Not

  • Upload
    others

  • View
    1

  • Download
    0

Embed Size (px)

Citation preview

Page 1: ContractPodAI Contract Management Primer Contract … · 2019-11-08 · IACCM notes that “companies lose 9.2% of their bottom line through ineffective contract management.” Not

ContractPodAI _Contract Management Primer

1

ContractManagement Primer_

Page 2: ContractPodAI Contract Management Primer Contract … · 2019-11-08 · IACCM notes that “companies lose 9.2% of their bottom line through ineffective contract management.” Not

ContractPodAI _Contract Management Primer

2

Table of Contents–

What is Contract Management? ------------------------ 3

What Pain Does it Solve? -------------------------------- 4

Who Needs Contract Processes and Technologies? ----- 5

Industries Affected ------------------------------------- 5

Areas of Contract Management ------------------------ 6

Phases of Contract Management ----------------------- 9

Today’s Contract Management ----------------------- 10

Risks of Ineffective Contract Management ------------ 12

Where Does Artificial Intelligence Fit In? --------------- 15

Importance of Contract Analytics & Reporting --------- 15

Considering a CLM System ------------------------------ 17

Contract Management System Checklist -------------- 18

Page 3: ContractPodAI Contract Management Primer Contract … · 2019-11-08 · IACCM notes that “companies lose 9.2% of their bottom line through ineffective contract management.” Not

ContractPodAI _Contract Management Primer

3

Contract management is the process of managing contract creation, execution and

analysis. This is done to maximize the operational performance of your business

and to reduce financial risks to the organization.

Contracts are the foundation to driving revenue. As such, it is critical that businesses have

processes that ensure contracts are signed in a timely manner, risks are minimized

and obligations are met.

Page 4: ContractPodAI Contract Management Primer Contract … · 2019-11-08 · IACCM notes that “companies lose 9.2% of their bottom line through ineffective contract management.” Not

ContractPodAI _Contract Management Primer

4

ContractPodAI _Contract Management Primer

The U.S. National Association For Purchasing Managers assessed that “the average Fortune 1000 company has between 20,000 and 40,000 active contracts.” With so many active contracts in play, it is simply not humanly possible to manage this volume without good systems and procedures.

Failing to manage company contracts effectively brings tremendous risks. First, the sheer volume of active contracts means that even if small risks are triggered, an organization can suffer the dreaded ‘death by a thousand cuts.’

Contract risks include:

Penalty clauses

Discount renewals

Revenue leakage (one-time discounts)

Automatic renewals

Annual price increases

Uncollected performance bonuses

Other Indemnities

One of the fundamental challenges relating to contracts within organizations is simply keeping track of them all. But, it is not only an issue of the sheer volumes expressed previously. Many companies have contracts managed by different departments and saved in many different places. Agreements can be found in print, in filing cabinets, on thumb drives, network drives, SharePoint portals, and even on external cloud storage systems. The pain here is that without a centralized repository, finding a particular contract becomes a Herculean challenge. Worse yet, running an analysis of risks across all of a company’s contracts becomes nightmarishly difficult.

IACCM notes that “companies lose 9.2% of their bottom line through ineffective contract management.” Not only are there various pain sources with ineffective contract management, but it also costs companies on their bottom line.

Where there are pains, there are also opportunities. In this case, the opportunity is to show the value of a general counsel or contract management team. These teams can make a significant difference toward ameliorating the challenges discussed.

What Pain Does it Solve?–

Page 5: ContractPodAI Contract Management Primer Contract … · 2019-11-08 · IACCM notes that “companies lose 9.2% of their bottom line through ineffective contract management.” Not

ContractPodAI _Contract Management Primer

5

ContractPodAI _Contract Management Primer

Primary users of a contract lifecycle management (CLM) system are often the general counsel or office of the general counsel. However, there are various other users of these powerful systems within most organizations. These can include:

Primary: General Counsel

Contract Management

Legal Operations

Procurement

Sales

Many more variations and combinations of titles within these realms are possible too. But beyond the traditional users, also consider groups like Human Resources (HR), Marketing, Project Management, Merchandising, Category & Brand Management, IT, facilities, finance (M&As), and other teams will also need access. Marketing, IT, procurement, and other sourcing teams frequently engage in buy-side contracts. Sales always engage on sell-sided contracts. Yet other teams like business analysis, project management, and implementation can engage on buy-side, sell-sided or other contracts altogether.

‘Other’ category contracts include NDAs (non-disclosure agreements), IP contracts (intellectual property), merger and acquisition disclosures, employment contracts, privacy contracts, and so on. These often involve teams within the organization that are not the traditional CLM user-suspects. These are neither traditional buy-sided nor sell-sided agreements. However, they are important to the organization none-the-less. When considering a new contract management process or system, take into account the solution that works for all contracts with equanimity.

Who Needs Contract Processes and Technologies?–

I N D U S T R I E S A F F E C T E D

You may wonder whether contracts have a greater impact on one industry versus another. Are contracts really of great importance to the entertainment, finance, construction, or retail industries, with a lesser impact on others?

Simply put, NO. Contracts affect all modern businesses across all industries. Contracts have been called the lifeblood of today’s business world. They impact so many different aspects, departments, and areas, that it is hard to think of conducting business across companies without a contracting process.

Contracts are important to all industries. In the words of Tim Cummins, President & Founder of IACCM, “Contracts must operate as a framework for trust and confidence. Contracts must be instruments for collaboration” (FT, 2019)

contracts affect all modern businesses

across all industries

Page 6: ContractPodAI Contract Management Primer Contract … · 2019-11-08 · IACCM notes that “companies lose 9.2% of their bottom line through ineffective contract management.” Not

ContractPodAI _Contract Management Primer

6

The business-standard contract management model, employed by many organizations, typically includes elements of the following business disciplines:

Authoring

Authorization & Negotiation

Baseline management

Commitment management

Communication planning

Contract centralization and visibility

Document management

Growth (for Sales-side contracts)

Compliance | Governance

Contract analytics

AUTHORINGAgreement authoring is the ‘contract creation’ process. It involves pulling together the terms, conditions, and appropriate clauses that define the boundaries of the agreement. A good contracting process includes standard templates and pre-approved clauses for this phase. Contract lifecycle management systems often include a standard, accepted clause library, version control capabilities, and an approval workflow.

AUTHORIZATION AND NEGOTIATIONAfter the agreement is drafted it must be approved for release before being sent to the counterpart. If the draft was not created by an attorney, then it should be reviewed by legal counsel representing the organization. Once authorized, it may be sent to the counterpart.

In most cases, the two parties will negotiate the terms, agreements, and details of the agreement. Loosely, negotiating is the process of give-and-take that two parties undergo to reach an agreement. Most negotiations involve compromises by each party to get agreement on the issues that are important to their respective side.

an efficient contracting process includes standard

templates, and pre-approved clauses

Areas of Contract Management–

Page 7: ContractPodAI Contract Management Primer Contract … · 2019-11-08 · IACCM notes that “companies lose 9.2% of their bottom line through ineffective contract management.” Not

ContractPodAI _Contract Management Primer

7

BASELINE MANAGEMENTFor an agreement, setting a baseline is a clearly defined point, status, or version of a contract. It is used as a point of reference from which to measure changes, progress stages and performance. Setting the baseline for the agreement defines the scope, schedule and cost of the project, to assess the health of the business commitment.

COMMITMENT MANAGEMENTIACCM defines commitment management as an “advanced method through which an organization applies quality principles to business terms, policies, practices and processes to drive improvement in negotiation, contract performance and governance standards.” Effectively, it is a means by which to make sure the business requirements of a contract are aligned with the formalized commitments captured in the agreement. This step ensures the needed stages and requirements are fulfilled as initially agreed in the pact.

COMMUNICATION PLANNINGPart of the contract management cycle is effectively communicating the agreement to the groups that need to know about it. That means the parties affected, impacted, or with a responsibility to deliver on a set of obligations, are outlined in the agreement. A good process within a company involves pulling together a plan to update all parties outlined. This should happen once an agreement is achieved on a contract. However, it may take place earlier, while the contract is being developed or negotiated.

CONTRACT CENTRALIZATION AND VISIBILITYFor many companies, agreement documents can reside in many different places. They can be in print, filed in cabinets. Alternatively, they may be on thumb drives, department network drives, or on a SharePoint site. Each department may have its own process for handling contracts. All this can be a liability nightmare. This is espcially true if there is little consistency from one contract to the next.

Centralization means pulling all contract data into one common system, record, or repository. Putting all your contracts in one place gives you and your team the ability to gain full visibility to all contracts, their details, and related documdents. It offers easy access to all agreements, both in draft versions and as finals. One of the strengths of a contract lifecycle management (CLM) system is pulling all the different organizational contracts into one location.

A CLM system pulls all the disparate

organizational contracts into

one location

Page 8: ContractPodAI Contract Management Primer Contract … · 2019-11-08 · IACCM notes that “companies lose 9.2% of their bottom line through ineffective contract management.” Not

ContractPodAI _Contract Management Primer

8

DOCUMENT MANAGEMENTThis is the control and co-ordination of electronic and paper documents for an organization. It includes processing, storing, routing, retrieving, printing and distribution of an organization’s documents. Document management is also concerned with handling this process securely and efficiently. As an example, only authorized personnel should be able to access different high sensitivity documents, like associate salary data.

Document management is an element of the contract management process.

GROWTHSales sided contracts often have a unique element, being contract value growth. This sets up the contract for upside opportunities. As an example, a sales contract may provide auto-renewal provisions, upgrade options, allow for additional volumes, bill for overages, or allow customers to buy additional associated products or modules.

COMPLIANCE / GOVERNANCEContract governance and compliance focuses on processes to monitor developments and deliverables against the agreement, as well as tracking changes to the contract. A governance structure outlines the decision-making process, an approval flow, and an escalation path when issues, abnormalities, or breaches occur. Obligations of the agreement must be actively tracked, with reporting on key deliverables achieved. This may apply to service delivery performance as well. Ultimately, compliance and governance in contracts concerns managing risks for a company. It comes down to having procedures to identify, evaluate and mitigate hazards.

CONTRACT ANALYTICSA review of a company’s agreements to identify key and pertinent information about the terms of the various accords. Analytics may pull information about:

Auto-renewal clauses

Auto-renewal dates

Contract expiration dates

Region of contractual governing law

Indemnities

Pricing (valuations)

Payment terms

Penalties

Maximum liabilities

Today’s contract analytics typically involve sophisticated technology like artificial intelligence (AI). The AI engine extracts the information needed in real-time, for the contract managers and general counsels, as needed.

today, analytics often involves sophisticated

technology like artificial intelligence

Page 9: ContractPodAI Contract Management Primer Contract … · 2019-11-08 · IACCM notes that “companies lose 9.2% of their bottom line through ineffective contract management.” Not

ContractPodAI _Contract Management Primer

9

ContractPodAI _Contract Management Primer

PRE-CONTRACT

This is a phase in which the two parties have a desire to work together. Before a contract is drafted, and before any work takes place, there is an opportunity to plan the work, roles, responsibilities and contract terms. A pre-contract phase may include:

• Introductions & exchanging contact details

• Outline roles, responsibilities, and communication methods

• Highlight the major steps and stages in the project

• General pricing, cost or spend profile (where applicable)

• High level objectives of the agreement

• Risk assessment (where applicable)

• Set meeting schedules as needed

• Exchange needed documentation (insurance certificates, authorizations, bonds…)

• Review overview roles (project management, inspections…)

• General outline of expectations, monitoring procedures, timing

• Tacit agreement on best practices to follow

• Highlights of any critical issues (access to sites, transportation, equipment to be used, resources…)

• Statement of work

Many of the pre-contract phase discussions, details, and documents will be useful for the next phase of drafting an agreement document.

CONTRACT DEVELOPMENT, AWARD, AND EXECUTION Here, the concern is to get to an award phase (often the buyer will have multiple options), author a contract based on the pre-contract discussions, then negotiate, agree and start execution of the terms. Significant steps at this phase include:

• Authoring agreement

• Detail full pricing (ex: for project)

• Outline preparations required, implementation, integrations

• Include terms for monitoring, inspections and performance metrics

• Clearly state legal region under which the contract resides

• Point out procedure for contract changes, or adjustments

• Add auto-renewal periods, or termination clauses

• Consider penalties, expiration period, and indemnities

• Provide payment considerations (period, methods, currency …)

• Compliance and regulatory considerations

• Negotiating the agreement terms

• Authorized parties signing the contract

Signing a contract can at times be complex, especially among larger multi-national enterprises. There are many steps involved, and often these contracts can be lengthy and complicated. Here too, contract management software is very helpful. It plays well in the authoring phase, providing templates and standard accepted clauses. It helps teams maintain consistency across different agreements (given a single repository for all deals). Also, a CLM’s AI (artificial intelligence) based analytics and reporting can be enormously helpful in the post-award phase outlined below. This helps teams determine the consistency, boundaries and key attributes of the organization’s contracts.

Phases of Contract Management–

POST AWARD(also called: contract compliance/governance)

After the agreement is negotiated, signed and settled, the third contract management phase comes into play. This phase largely involves performance monitoring, remedies and reviews.

After a contract is signed there is a continual compliance and evaluation phase. A compliance team must ensure all conditions of the agreement are met to the quality expectations of both parties.

Just because a contract is signed, does not necessarily signal the end of all negotiations. There are often changes needed due to unforeseen situations. These circumstances often require additional work effort, hence adjustments to the originating agreement.

Key aspects of the post award phase include:

• Contract administration (invoicing, follow-up…)

• Detailed contract audit

• Ongoing performance & status monitoring

• Penalties for delays, defects, breaches and shortcomings

• Sudden contract end for breach, expiry, or other triggers

• Refinement of breach and termination definitions

• Claims & dispute resolution

• Final contract completion review

Page 10: ContractPodAI Contract Management Primer Contract … · 2019-11-08 · IACCM notes that “companies lose 9.2% of their bottom line through ineffective contract management.” Not

ContractPodAI _Contract Management Primer

10

As pointed out earlier, the sheer volume of contracts, multiplied by the depth and complexity of those agreements, steer more and more organizations toward formal contract management processes and solutions. CLM systems are a significant step up from relying on the manual management of paper contracts. Spreadsheet management is only mildly better than a fully manual process. For any mid-to-large organization, contract management is an essential tool. It keeps track of multiple activities with cost implications, and can be especially helpful for automating administration, ensuring compliance, monitoring risk, running reports and triggering alerts.

In addition, contract management software provides a centralized repository for employees to quickly access all contracts in one place. This means contracts don’t get lost. It also means that even global agreements, are housed in one system of record. It makes it easy to find, with all associated documents attached. The alternative of having contracts stored in multiple locations can delay and interrupt your business flow, when an issue arises that needs to be cross-checked.

Basic functions should include the ability to store contract documents, track changes to contracts,

search documents for a particular criterion, send key date alerts and to report required aspects of the contract. Other functions include managing a new contract request, capturing related data, following a document through a review and approval process and collecting digital signatures. Leading contract management software provides contract visibility, monitoring and compliance to automate and streamline the contract lifecycle process.

Today, organizations are using contract management technologies to drive productivity, increase agreement visibility, reduce risk, and transform critical business processes. The contract process itself can involve several players. Usually, it includes team members from various departments (internally and externally), depending on the complexity of a contract. CLM solutions are meant to simplify contract collaboration between all players involved. It also allows each to be more productive in their own role.

Most contract management systems have a relatively short ROI period. In fact, it is not uncommon for a company to run an analysis of their agreements, and to find a single contract that when scrutinized in more detail, pays for the entire system.

89% of cloud-based Legal

Work Automation projects (like

CLM deployments) - met or exceeded their expected ROI

(Gartner, 2019)—

Today’s Contract Management–

Page 11: ContractPodAI Contract Management Primer Contract … · 2019-11-08 · IACCM notes that “companies lose 9.2% of their bottom line through ineffective contract management.” Not

ContractPodAI _Contract Management Primer

11

BACK OF THE ENVELOPE ROIHaving discussed contract management systems (CMS), the big question arises: Does it pay to buy and implement a system? Every general counsel considering a CMS must ask this question. If the general counsel does not ask the question, the chief financial officer, invariably will ask it.

As a quick, back of the envelope calculation, consider recent research from the International Association for Contract & Commercial Management (IACCM). IACCM found that the average company loses 9.2% of their bottom line due to ineffective contract management.

Consider a company generating $1 Billion in annual revenue. Estimate that perhaps 10% - 20% of the topline revenue will convert to the bottom line. That means a typical company will net $100 - $200 Million of bottom line revenue.

Now consider the IACCM finding. If 9.2% of their bottom line revenue is lost due to poor contract management, this is $9.2 - $18.4 Million. In effect, by implementing an effective CLM, the General Counsel will bring up to $18.4 Million dollars to the bottom line. That is equivalent to $92 - $184 Million in topline (gross) revenue. Imagine that. The impact of the General Counsel’s office can be as much as bringing in an addition $92 - $184 Million in net new sales!

Now, very roughly imagine that a reasonable contract lifecycle management (CLM) system runs this company about $100k in annual fees.

Simply put, the bottom-line return on investment (ROI) is the net at-risk revenue saved by using the CLM divided by the annual cost of the CLM. In our case it is a range from $9.1 - $18.3 Million divided by $100k. That works out to a bottom-line ROI of 91 – 183 x (times).

So, for every dollar invested in CLM technology, you will generate $91 - $183 in recovered net revenue (revenue NOT lost due to poor contract management practices). Best of all, the IACCM has openly suggested their figures to be very conservative. So, even with a back-of-the-envelope calculation, this is a likely and conservative ROI estimate.

This definitely presents a solid case to promote to the CEO or CFO. With this level of ROI, buying a CLM is a sound investment for any organization.

Topline revenue —> $1,000 M

Conversion —> 20% Est.

Bottom line revenue —> $200 m

Lost revenue Due to ineffective —> 9.2% Contract mgt

Lost bottom line —> $18.4 mrevenue

Typical cost —> $100 kof a clm (EST)

Net recovered —> $18.4 M bottom line – $100krevenue = $18.3 m

Roi on clm —> net bottom line revenue — Clm cost

= $18.3 m — $100 k

Roi bottom line = 183 X

—>—

>

—>

—>

( (

Page 12: ContractPodAI Contract Management Primer Contract … · 2019-11-08 · IACCM notes that “companies lose 9.2% of their bottom line through ineffective contract management.” Not

ContractPodAI _Contract Management Primer

12

While there can be many risks inherent in not having proper methods for managing your contracts, there are several critical ones that stand out. For modern businesses, these risks extend to not having a sound contract lifecycle management system. As exemplified earlier, the volume and complexity of today’s active contracts continues to grow. As such, it is important that all mid-to-large organizations invest in effective systems for their contract management processes to reduce the risks of too many contracts.

Although not an exhaustive list, risks include the following:

ACCESS CONTROLSLimiting access to a company’s contracts is a good practice. It brings in a certain level of discipline, to ensure agreements are considered the serious matters that they are. Loose access means information can be mishandled. Worse yet, a disgruntled employee could have access to pricing details, confidential IP (intellectual property) data, customer lists and private employee information. Theft, or loose access to this information can open the company to damaging competition, reputation loss, and lawsuits.

MISSING CRITICAL DATESIt seems unlikely that a major corporation would miss a date. But with 20,000 – 40,000 active contracts, you can imagine how challenging it is to recall all the important ones. Agreements can time limit access to IP, include auto-renewal clauses, maintain fixed pricing, or cap annual price increases. Missing deadlines here expose the organization to liabilities, claims, penalties and unnecessary price increases.

COMPLIANCEAlthough a very broad topic, there are regulatory compliances to consider, and adherence to the agreement between all parties. On regulatory issues, good contract management ensures clauses are adhered to, in respect to personal privacy, data privacy, confidentiality, arbitration and other regulatory issues. For operational compliance to the contractual stipulations, people and companies often fall short. Contract management here means to outline and track performance standards and obligations. Payment timing, terms, and penalties for missed deadlines, are good examples.

22% of Legal departments believe

Improving Risk Management in

Contracts will be their highest priority

by 2023(Gartner, 2019)

Risks of Ineffective Contract Management–

Page 13: ContractPodAI Contract Management Primer Contract … · 2019-11-08 · IACCM notes that “companies lose 9.2% of their bottom line through ineffective contract management.” Not

ContractPodAI _Contract Management Primer

13

LOW CONTRACT VISIBILITYA significant problem in many organizations is the dispersed nature of the many contracts. Various departments have and sign contracts with external agencies. Contract terms and conditions vary. The agreements themselves are stored in filing cabinets, desks, thumb drives, network servers, offline drives, cloud storage sites and on SharePoint portals. Getting a holistic picture of the contracts becomes an incredibly difficult task. As you can guess, this exposes the organization to potential penalties, unknown auto-renewals and liabilities – simply from not having visibility to all agreements. This could be easily remedied with a central contract repository offered by a CLM.

APPROVAL WORKFLOWSChallenges with the approval process can be a deal killer. This is the last thing that your sales or M&A team wants to hear. Think of a situation in which a critical approver is on holiday and misses a time-sensitive email for sign off.

Naturally, in the digital age we need processes that not only adapt to the approver (backup signatory), but that also accept digital signatures. Approval workflows aren’t just a matter of completely losing a deal. Effective approval workflows also allow for a faster review and final sign off process with options to route and escalate notices.

POOR REPORTINGExecutives need overall key performance indicators (KPIs) and risk assessments based on the active contracts owned by the organization. It equips them to be able to make key business decisions and advanced

visibility to future risks, or potential problems and conflicts. Manual processes aren’t just cumbersome, they can make it all but impossible to provide timely reports and analyses. Failing to have a means to provide sound and fast reporting on contracts exposes the organization to losses (missed opportunities and penalties) and risks.

SLOW CONTRACT TURNAROUNDRunning a tight contracting process is important. It affects the image of your company’s brand. Slow turnaround on an agreement can frustrate the partner or other party. In the most serious of cases, it might even come at the cost of the entire deal itself.

Although the approval process discussed above is one element – there are other parts on which to focus as well. For example, working out standard, authorized clauses for contract authoring is a good step to get started faster.

LACK OF CONSISTENCYWhere possible, contract consistency is an industry best practice. More than being a risk, it offers a method of reducing contract risks. Consistency across contracts makes it easier to accept terms or the overall agreement. It also ensures the organization and teams better understand the obligations, performance checks and expectations of the contracts on both sides. In this light, lack of consistency across contracts injects the risk of signing on to terms that are not favourable to the organization, or which are simply not well understood. Ultimately, that can lead to future challenges.

Page 14: ContractPodAI Contract Management Primer Contract … · 2019-11-08 · IACCM notes that “companies lose 9.2% of their bottom line through ineffective contract management.” Not

ContractPodAI _Contract Management Primer

14

C O N T R A C T R I S K M A N A G E M E N T

One of the biggest examples of corporate embarrassment, erosion of brand value, and a major blow to a company’s market valuation, is that of the Facebook - Cambridge Analytica data scandal. In early 2018 it was revealed that UK company, Cambridge Analytica harvested millions of Facebook profiles without the owners’ consent. These profiles were used for political advertising purposes.

In March 2018, the story broke, with an enormous public outcry. Within days Facebook lost $100 Billion in market value. US and UK politicians called the CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, to task, ultimately having him testify before US Congress.

Although hypothetical, one cannot help pondering whether an AI equipped CLM might not have helped Facebook avoid this embarrassing episode. An AI equipped CLM could have detected the risk in the contractual terms, and the violation of the existing terms. Facebook survived this episode, but such a watershed moment could easily be the demise of even some of the largest and most influential companies.

Have you look at the business, legal, or contract media lately? How far did you get before seeing an article about AI?

It’s difficult to scan any of these without coming across dozens of articles about AI (Artificial Intelligence) and how it is changing the world. The world of contracts is not immune. AI is the use of technology to complete tasks which formerly needed human intelligence. Some of the most exciting developments in the legal involve embedding AI into the contract management systems. It helps general counsel and contract teams identify risks, improve the consistency of reports, author contracts faster and improve the efficiency and speed of the contracting process.

An important area in which AI helps is in reporting and anomaly detection across a large data set. Since an AI does not tire, it is ideally suited to scan thousands of contracts and documents to find spurious clauses and risks like ‘limitless liabilities.’ This identifies the most likely clauses to be of

Where Does Artificial Intelligence Fit In? –

concern. A person can then scan the noted cases. It alleviates the load on the person having to review the documents. This also keeps the general counsel and contract managers focused on work that provides a higher value to the organization.

AI technology helps on highly repetitive reporting tasks, too. An AI will use natural language processing (NLP), to interpret contract details across a subset or all contracts for a company. From this it extracts key information important for a high level snapshot of the agreement. It may include starting dates, contract expiry, autorenewals, penalties, financial contract values and so on.

Finally, artificial intelligence can also improve an organization’s contract consistency. As an example, it can highlight clauses that breach a company’s policy. It may identify missing standard clauses that should be included in the agreement. It may also spot wording that has consistently been red-lined in earlier negotiations.

Page 15: ContractPodAI Contract Management Primer Contract … · 2019-11-08 · IACCM notes that “companies lose 9.2% of their bottom line through ineffective contract management.” Not

ContractPodAI _Contract Management Primer

15

Using an automated system or not, reporting and analytics are important to the contract management function. Today, companies expect the office of the general counsel, legal operations and the contract management teams to have a pulse on their contracts. That means understanding what’s in them, where the boundaries are, and potential risks to the business. This is exactly where reporting and analytics becomes a priority.

To support the senior executive team, the general counsel must be able to report on various aspects of a company’s contract

Importance of Contract Analytics and Reporting –

The General Counsel must be able to

report on various aspects of

a company’s contract base

base. That includes many of the functional areas described earlier. It is a monumentally large feat to do manually, on a regularly basis. Should this become an ongoing requirement, the general counsel (GC) is strongly advised to consider automating the contract management process. Implement a solid contract lifecycle management system, equipped with some of the powerful AI features described earlier. Doing so will give the GC a better feel for their contracts, with the option of running real-time inquiries. That adds value to the office and offers greater value to the company.

Page 16: ContractPodAI Contract Management Primer Contract … · 2019-11-08 · IACCM notes that “companies lose 9.2% of their bottom line through ineffective contract management.” Not

ContractPodAI _Contract Management Primer

16

0_1Make a PlanThe better prepared you are, the higher the chances for success, which is why the very first thing you need to do in order to increase the effectiveness of your contract management is make a plan. This plan should include your goals, your expectations and your budget as well as a list of the responsibilities categorized by department.

0_2TrainOnce you have established a contract management plan, you are going to need to train your employees on the process, terms and guidelines. If you plan to use contract management software, make sure that all of your employees are equipped with the skills they need to navigate the system.

0_3MeasureThen, you will need to begin measuring the effectiveness of your company’s contract management. You can do this by recording any mistakes made by employees while preparing contracts, the amount of time it takes to retrieve a contract when necessary, how long it takes to run an analysis across your contracts, and the amount of time needed to prepare certain contracts.

0_4AuditYou will also want to periodically audit the contract management process previously implemented to make sure that everything is operating properly. If you find any problems during an audit, you can then address them right away. Managing business contracts can be a tedious process, but taking these steps helps to ensure your contract management is effective and efficient.

F O U R S T E P S T O D E V E L O P I N G E F F E C T I V E C O N T R A C T M A N A G E M E N T

Page 17: ContractPodAI Contract Management Primer Contract … · 2019-11-08 · IACCM notes that “companies lose 9.2% of their bottom line through ineffective contract management.” Not

ContractPodAI _Contract Management Primer

17

Contract management is a complex subject. There are many moving parts and nuances to this function. It is critically important to any mid-large sized company. The risks of doing a poor job can be extreme, from losing a contract, right through to losing millions of dollars in missed revenue or incurred penalties. Getting contract management right can mean the difference between surviving and thriving in business.

If you are considering either setting up or changing your existing contract management process or system, then consider a contract lifecycle management (CLM) solution. As shown throughout this document, a CLM improves the capabilities and functionality of the office of the general counsel, legal operations, and contract management

Considering a CLM System? –

teams. It gives you control over your contracts. It gives you a deeper understanding of your commitments, as well as those you can expect of your business partners. All told, it gives you that feeling of having your finger on the pulse of business agreements.

On the following page, you will find a CLM checklist. Use it to help you learn about your own needs and the capabilities of systems on the market. It is a guide to help you focus your discussions and learning journey.

At any point on this journey, feel free to reach out to ContractPodAi for a pressure free discussion about contract management. After all, it’s our favorite topic – and we want it to be yours too!

Page 18: ContractPodAI Contract Management Primer Contract … · 2019-11-08 · IACCM notes that “companies lose 9.2% of their bottom line through ineffective contract management.” Not

ContractPodAI _Contract Management Primer

18

CONTRACT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Checklist— p CLM deployed and ready-to-go, Out-of-the-Box (OOTB)

p Includes automated contract assembly using templates and clause libraries

p True End-to-End CLM functionality

p AI based on industry trusted IBM Watson AI platform

p Handles ALL contract types (buy-side, sell-side, NDA, IP, Personnel, SLA, SOW…)

p 8-12 week implementation (NOT months or years)

p Aligns contract approval process to legal and business approval workflows

p AI that instantly extracts & tracks key obligations and metadata

p Access to best-in-class tools like DocuSign, WorkShare, OCR (at no additional cost)

p Massively scalable capacity (when needed)

p SaaS based on trusted, technically sophisticated partner like Microsoft Azure

p Pre-trained AI (no 6-month training cycle post implementation)

p Intuitive and easy to learn look & feel (user interface)

p Seamless integration with Salesforce CRM

p Can use industry leading Microsoft Power BI for custom reporting & analytics

p AI-driven contract analytics engine

p Supports NLP (natural language processing) for AI-driven contextual text search

p Quickly exposes risk in 3rd party contracts using AI to extract key legal obligations

p Easy integration with other business platforms through industry standard APIs

Page 19: ContractPodAI Contract Management Primer Contract … · 2019-11-08 · IACCM notes that “companies lose 9.2% of their bottom line through ineffective contract management.” Not

ContractPodAI _Contract Management Primer

19

New York OfficeDeirdre Leone, VP Sales NA East

+1 646 351 6357

[email protected]

San Francisco OfficeBob Grier, VP Sales NA West

+1 925 518 5518

[email protected]

London OfficeMark Langsbury, VP Sales, UK & Europe

+44 207 993 5031

[email protected]

Toronto OfficeCharles Dimov, VP, Marketing

+1 647 702 1494

[email protected]

Find out more _