Are you a small business owner?  Do you manage contracts in your business?  Regardless of the position or size of the small business you’re part of, contracts are integral to your organisational processes.  From client contracts to employee contracts, small business contract management KPIs can be hindered by contract non-compliance, disorganised pre-award contract processes, missed contract renewal opportunities without the proper contract management system in place.  Learn how to transform your process for streamlined, user-friendly and success-driven small business contract management.

The problem with manual small business contract management

Say, for instance, you own a local retail shop and need to manage multiple vendor and purchase order contracts.  How do you remain abreast of varying milestones without checking your contracts daily or manually setting reminders?  If you are a self-employed consultant, how do you keep track of your varying consulting agreements and their ranging time-sensitive obligations?

To streamline your small business contract management process, you need a contract lifecycle management software system that can offer complete control and oversight over your contractual pre-award and post-award needs.

Seamless pre-award contract management

The pre-award contract process from contract requests to signatures can be slowed by methods relying upon email, postal mail, paper-based drafts, manual redlining and wet signatures etc.  You can be consumed by more pertinent tasks within your small business and find it difficult to allot time for such manual pre-award contract processes.

Rather than waste time and resources going back and forth with stakeholders manually, you should leverage a leading contract management software with artificial intelligence that can electronically centralise the pre-award contract management process.  You can digitally submit contract requests, author new contracts with pre-approved templates and clauses, submit and track negotiations, request and receive approvals and complete the pre-award contract process with swift and user-friendly eSignatures.

Value-driven post-award contract management

Once contracts are signed, you need to store your contracts securely, ensure compliance, track obligations and anticipate contract renewals.  Utilising paper-based contracts stored in filing cabinets, manually calibrating reminders in spreadsheets or computer calendars, subjectively assessing areas of improvement for contract renewals with limited information and other antiquated processes can waste precious time and resources that could be redirected toward scaling your small business.

Fortunately, leading-edge contract lifecycle management software can virtually ensure contract obligations are kept with automated task alerts.  Furthermore, compliance is easily maintained with advanced audit trails and metrics reporting, and renewal opportunities are maximised with timely notifications.  By allowing a leading contract lifecycle management software to help automate the contract processes, you find the time to tend to other pressing small business responsibilities.

A centralised SaaS contract management software system

Disparate contract management processes – such as postal mail, filing cabinets, paper-based contracts, wet signatures, shared drives, email, spreadsheets and others – can make it challenging to organise and track your contracts.  These processes can also run the risk of security breaches, especially with non-secure email servers and unlocked filing cabinets.

Luckily, you can leverage a web-enabled SaaS contract lifecycle management suite to digitally manage contracts from virtually anywhere with suitable WiFi.  As a small business contract manager, you can know your contracts are secure when working with a contract lifecycle management software provider that is SOC 1 and SOC 2 compliant.  A centralised contract lifecycle management solution with location-based flexibility and paramount security can make managing contracts a breeze – allowing you more time to focus on business growth.

Easy small business contract management with Contract Insight®

Contract Insight’s trusted, award-winning, and highly configurable small business contract management software streamlines the contract process with optimal governance, reduced friction,and high flexibility from contract requests to contract renewals.  This user-friendly, robust and scalable solution seamlessly integrates with mission-critical applications for unified and seamless small business contract management.

Contract Insight from Four

Contract Insight is a cloud-hosted (SaaS) or deployed (on-premise) contract management solution.  The acclaimed platform is trusted by thousands of professionals for their contract management, legal document management, procurement and sourcing needs.  Used by many Fortune 500 companies, Contract Insight gives you real time visibility into your contracts. It doesn’t just shore up your security; it will help you meet contract compliance regulations, centralise your contract management and improve your overall contract administration process.

For more information, contact John O’Brien, CEO at Four Business Solutions, global business consultants and software integrators providing business processes improvements in Finance, Supply Chain and Operations, across a broad range of industries.