When handling contracts, it’s always a good idea to track their progress from its early stages. This will ensure that all parties have a clear understanding of the whole process, allowing you to meet all the requirements and objectives that will promise optimal results.
For this reason, many businesses rely on contract tracking software that will allow them to streamline contract lifecycle management, making it a great solution for small- and medium-sized businesses. This way, all parties will be on the same page, eliminating miscommunication and mistakes.
Understanding contract lifecycle management can be a game-changer for your business. So if you want to learn more about this, read on; we’re breaking down each stage of contract lifecycle management to give you a better overview of the whole process.
Stage 1: Plan Your Strategy
Before establishing a process, you should first develop a system that will suit the needs and resources of your company. By doing this, you keep things organized and streamlined, allowing you to create processes that can be implemented for the whole company and its departments.
When developing a contract strategy, you can help determine your company’s needs by asking the following questions:
- What are the different types of contracts you have to manage?
- How many contracts do you need to manage?
- Do you have default or standard agreements you use often?
- Who is responsible for contract management?
- What are the common issues you experience with contract management?
Stage 2: Implement Your Plan
Once you have a bird’s eye view of your contract management process, you can now implement your plan. This includes integrating practical tools, such as contract tracking software to help your team manage contract-related tasks.
Stage 3: Integrate Your Plan With Your Tools
Now that you have a solid base for your contract management foundation, you can start integrating tools into your new contracts. This means that you can start creating standard contracts to help streamline agreement creation, helping you reduce risks of mistakes and miscommunication.
Having a standard contract will allow you to have a key contract to work on, and depending on the client you’re working with, you can make tiny adjustments and tweaks in the information included in your contract.
Stage 4: Walk Through the Whole Contract
Having a smooth handover is essential, especially when your contract involves some complexities. At this stage, you invest a lot of time to go over the contract details to ensure that all roles, responsibilities, and milestones are present and well-communicated.
Stage 5: Contract Stage
At this stage, all the goals in your contract are accomplished, but only if with proper management. Because of this, you need to pay close attention to all the details and terms within your agreement and ensure that everything is happening as it should.
Stage 6: Contract Renewal
There are several reasons a contract may come to an end; it could reach its natural conclusion, you may renew your contract, or a party can terminate the agreement. Oftentimes, when a party breaches a contract, termination can be a course of action, as well as penalties.
If you’re planning to renew a contract, evaluate how the previous contract was performed and if you need to make necessary changes. Additionally, ensure that all stakeholders know the renewal date, so they have sufficient time to consider all information before signing the contract.
Stage 7: Post-Contract
When a contract ends, the process is pretty straightforward — you just need to ensure that all the conditions are met and all final invoices are paid so you can archive your contract. Besides that, teams may also have a contract post-mortem to discuss their learnings and share valuable information they’ve gathered throughout the experience.
The Bottom Line: Knowing Each Stage of Contract Lifecycle Management Can Help Streamline Company Agreements
It pays to know what goes on in every stage of contract lifecycle management. With this, you’ll create effective strategies and utilize the right tools to ensure that actionable steps are taken to ensure a smooth agreement between two parties. Using contract tracking software and other contract management techniques can help boost your team’s productivity and efficiency.
How Can We Help?
With all the legal jargon and details you need to include, contract management can be quite overwhelming. Thankfully, contract tracking software can help simplify the process.
Anapact is a contract management software that provides effective contract management solutions for small and medium-sized businesses. We strive to reduce your risks, empower your team, and streamline your workflow with our contract management software.
Try our software today!
