Is contract management software a good investment?

Table of contents

• What’s contract management software?
• How can contract management software benefit my business?
• Who benefits from contract management software?
• What’s the ROI of contract management software?
• How do I pick the right contract management software?

What’s contract management software?

You’re probably already familiar with digital signature tools like DocuSign. Contract management software goes beyond digital signature tools by streamlining every part of the contract lifecycle from creation to approvals to storage—even automating post-signature tasks like invoicing, onboarding, and renewals. That way you can speed up the entire process and never miss a deadline again. Bonus: Your business comes off as reliable and professional to your partners and prospects.

How can contract management software benefit my business?

Contracts are the source of truth for your business. They’re the agreements you’re making with customers, partners, and employees. 

Every major business milestone starts with a contract and after the contract is signed, you actually have to make good on all the promises you made. So contract management software doesn’t just help with the contract process; it helps you with everything that comes before and after the signature, too.

Pre-Signature

• Spin up contracts instantly using contract templates that your legal team has already approved to ensure compliance while spending less time on each contract.
• Create editable fields to inject data from your CRM into your contract to make sure all the language is accurate.
• Ensure transparency among key stakeholders while keeping contract data safe and secure with the ability to invite collaborators to comment and edit contracts.

Signature

• Speed up the signing process with digital signatures that are legally binding in all western marketing, including the US, EU, UK, and Australia.
• Set the signing order to automatically trigger notifications when it’s the next person’s turn to sign.
• Let signees request changes and use activity tracking to view any amendments to the contract.

Post-Signature

• Automate the handoff to each team member after the contract is signed by setting up tasks for anyone who needs to act on the contract terms.
• Streamline everything from onboarding to renewals by syncing contract data with your CRM, invoicing platform, HR software, and the rest of your tech stack.
• Make sure all your contracts are organized and stored in one centralized location so everyone in the company is on the same page.

Who benefits from contract management software?

Anyone on your team who’s involved with contracts—not just who’s signing them. Sure, contract management software makes contract negotiation and signing easier. But it also makes everything that comes before and after the signature easier. The main teams impacted are Sales, Operations, Legal, and HR.

• Sales - Close bigger deals faster by streamlining the contract creation and signing process. Never send out the wrong version of a contract again with version control, and never wait for legal or leadership approval with templates for your most frequently used contracts.
• Operations - Make sure everything your team promised in the contract gets delivered and no deadlines get missed by automating the post-sales handoff and syncing the data from signed contracts with your existing tech stack (CRM, accounting software, etc.)
• Legal - Take control of contracts with full version control and permissions that help you avoid compliance risks. Approve and store contract templates to avoid reviewing every single contract that goes out individually.
• HR - Hire top talent before they get scooped up by another company by streamlining the signing process for employment contracts. Onboard new hires faster and avoid data entry errors with integrations that sync your contract data with your HR systems.

What’s the ROI of contract management software?

Sure, contract management software will make your life easier, but what about the return on investment? Glad you asked. After all, revenue is the goal of any business. So if you’re not getting significant ROI, why bother changing your processes?

The speed at which your contracts get signed is the speed at which your business can scale. If your contract processes are smooth and fast, your business can grow quickly. But if the contract processes are stalled with numerous blockers, your business growth will stagnate. Contract management software lets you create digital workflows that speed up the entire contract lifecycle, which speeds up your business growth.

But the exact ROI of contract management software all depends on the volume of your contracts. If you send out and/or receive many contracts that use standard boilerplates like sales agreements, NDAs, and DPAs, you likely have a huge volume of contracts that you can easily streamline—and even automate—with contract management software.

The more contracts you can manage with contract management software—instead of manually by your already overburdened team—the greater the ROI.

Calculate your ROI

How do I pick the right contract management software?

We’ll admit that we’re biased. We believe Contractbook is the best contract management software. Our customers rank us highly on ease of setup, ease of use, and quality of support. In fact, Contractbook was named the contract management software that users were most likely to recommend by G2 (Spring 2022). 

"Contractbook makes life easier, ensures consistency across teams and gets contracts signed quicker."

‍

Try this interactive walkthrough to see Contractbook in action. To learn more about how Contractbook can improve your contract management across the entire lifecycle, book a time to speak with our team.