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Why Using Google’s G Suite for Contract Management Isn’t Enough

The current number of freelancers in the U.S. according to Upwork is about 62 million which equates to about 38% of the workforce. This temporary workforce is often spread out across different cities and time zones. This means that several organizations turn to cloud-based collaboration tools, such as Google G Suite (formerly known as Google Apps), to complete tasks.

While Google G Suite may be appropriate for certain industries, it’s not the right tool for contract management. Below are several reasons why that’s the case.

Editor’s Note: To learn more, download our whitepaper on the top 10 contract management best practices.

  1. No Data Recovery Past 25 Days

Once your data disappears from Google G Suite it’s gone. Administrators can only retrieve files that have been deleted within 25 days. This means that if you didn’t discover several of your contract templates were deleted within that time frame, there is no way to recover them. Additionally, you need to have a system administrator that is always very responsive. Only the owner of the account can request file recoveries to Google.

  1. No Customer Service During Downtime

Have you ever tried contacting Google during a service outage? The Mountain View based company is well known for not answering any inquiries and only provides updates via its G Suite Status Dashboard. This means that you will be in the dark during outages. Depending on your tolerance with uncertainty, you may not be comfortable with this lack of communication during outages.

  1. Limited Credit for Outages

While Google has a decent record of uptime, let’s imagine that your service is out for 20 days. This is an extreme scenario, indeed. However, in such an extreme scenario you would expect to get your money back for those 20 days. Unfortunately, the maximum credit that you can get for a month is the monetary equivalent of 15 days.

  1. No Backups

Remember that Google Drive is a solution for syncing files, not for backing them up.  Particularly, if you sync the primary data on a primary computer any error will be replicated, and you only have a few days to recover deleted files. If you must meet industry regulations or internal company policies, you can’t rely on Google to do the backups for you. The best practice is to keep an off-site backup that allows you to recover your data in case of any loss. This can only be achieved with the right contract management software.

  1. No Compliance

If you need to meet compliance requirements, such as those from the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, Google G Suite can’t help you. You need to look for a solution that keeps full contract history for auditing purposes and automatically maintains compliance standards.

  1. No Automation

All files in Google G Suite are isolated and don’t “talk” with each other. Google G Suite lacks the automation that contract management software provides. You have a spreadsheet application, a word processor, and a calendar. That’s it. You cannot build a contract workflow that automatically indicates the next step, alerts the right team member what needs to be done, and provides the location of the necessary files.

  1. No Enhanced Document Scanning

A key feature of excellent contract management software is the ability to use optical character recognition (OCR) on documents when scanning them into the system. In contract management processes, documentation is key for compliance and record keeping. Google G Suite doesn’t offer the ability for batch scanning of documents and making annotations on scanned documents.

Takeaway

Google G Suite is a useful tool for personal use or collaboration of non-sensitive files. However, it’s not the right tool for contract management. Look for a software solution that is built specifically for contract lifecycle management and meets your industry requirements, including compliance standards.

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