By David Parks At Contract Logix, we firmly believe that data is your most important asset when it comes to successful contract management. That’s why we’ve taken a data-driven / data-first approach with our contract management software. I’ve been writing a lot about why this important and how it can help any organization mitigate risk, uncover hidden revenue, cut unnecessary costs, and yes, set a foundation for the digital contract transformation (DCX) of legal, finance, and procurement teams. In case you missed some of our previous posts on why contract lifecycle data is so critical, here are some links to related articles on the topic. In this article, I’ll outline three more of the countless benefits organizations can reap when embracing a data-first approach to contract management. It’s also important to note that while this strategy applies to any company in any vertical, it’s especially important to those in highly regulated ones such as energy, healthcare, biotech, and pharmaceuticals. Download the Essential Guide to Unlocking the Power of Your Contract Data to learn more. 1. Easily and Accurately Track and Reconcile Contract Line Items for BOTH Buy-Side and Sell-Side Agreements Being able to understand, track, and reconcile exactly what you are buying, selling, or specifying in a contract can be a real contract management challenge. This is especially true without an automated contract management software solution. Contract line items such as products, services, providers, payers, approved contractors, and payment terms are some of your most valuable contract lifecycle data. The question is, how do you manage of all it? With contract management software from Contract Logix, you can easily and accurately create custom data objects that allow you to track and reconcile contract line items like the ones mentioned above. For example, a commercial property manager may require a list of insurers for leasing agreements. Or, a healthcare provider might need line items for payers associated with each physician’s contract. You can define exactly what you are buying, selling, or specifying in an agreement and manage multiple datapoints from a separate record within the platform. All your line item data can then be tracked and reconciled based on various relationships within the agreement. 2. Digitally Manage Contract Addendums, Amendments, and Terminations Just Like a Contract Binder “Is this the latest version of the agreement?” “How many times have we amended that contract?” “Did we terminate that MSA?” Your ability to answer those questions quickly and with confidence is really important and the key to doing so is your contract lifecycle data. Gone are the days of having to flip through paper binders or scroll through shared folders trying to find that information. With Contract Logix’s automatic contract record versioning, you can easily manage your contract “binders” with automatic numbering. Our contract management software simplifies the complicated and time-consuming task of tracking contract versions for you through a hierarchical approach to data relationship management. With the click of a mouse, you can add a contract amendment or addendum, track the history of an agreement, and quickly and accurately ensure you are looking at the most recent version and terms. You’ll also always be audit ready. 3. Flexible and Simple Way to Secure and Regulate Access to Your Contracts Protecting your sensitive contract information while providing adequate access to only those who need it is more critical than ever. Just because all your contracts live together in the same shared drive, filing cabinet, or contract repository doesn’t mean all users should have equal access to all contracts. Nor should all users be able to perform the same tasks. The best way to secure your contract lifecycle data is by harnessing the data itself. Our software allows you to manage access to your contract lifecycle data thanks a sophisticated and user configurable organizational hierarchy with role-based and feature-based permissions functionality. You can easily configure access and permissions in a variety of ways. Takeaway In today’s digital age, it’s time to think of contracts as your businesses most important form of data. Data the provides tremendous business intelligence to help run your company more profitably and with less risk. Contract management software from Contract Logix takes a data-first approach. With our platform, your contract lifecycle data can be harnessed and leveraged in an accurate, automated, and highly effective manner. Schedule a conversation with one of our experts and we’ll show you how easy it is to be data-driven in your contract management.Contract Data…Your Most Valuable CLM Asset
