7 questions every CPOs should ask before investing in contract management software
Chief Procurement Officers (CPOs) life can be a lot less stressful. Yes, contract management software (CLMS) can help CPOs sleep a bit better at night. However, before investing in any contract management software, every CPO needs to get a thorough understanding and clarity on important aspects to ensure that they have opted for the right solution. These 7 questions can help CPOs evaluate the efficacy of contract management solutions.
1. Does the contract management software have the required capabilities to manage Procurement Contracts?
Procurement contract management is the process of managing, executing, and managing contracts from requests to renewals, in a hassle-free and efficient manner. Check with the contract management software company what all features and capabilities they are offering and to what extent it can be customized further to suit your requirements.
2. How is the Contract Lifecycle going to align with Procurement Industry Standards?
Contract management systems use triggers, alerts, and updates to help users manage obligations and renewals. Sounds simple? It’s not! As your business progresses, it becomes increasingly complex to manage contracts at various stages of their lives. The key is efficient contract management across stages.
Poorly managed contract mechanisms can result in exposure to significant legal risk: 80% of B2B revenue is delivered by contracts.
That’s where trusted CLM solutions, like ContractFlow, come into play for efficient source-to-pay solutions.
3. Does AI really help in contract management?
Why not? Contract managers can have the ability to create smart contracts with the help of AI, re-use the contract library, simplify the contract formats and implement the required contract management best practices. There are a plethora of features that come in handy with AI-enabled contract management solutions.
4. What all Procurement Processes are managed through CLM software?
With CLM software, procurement professionals can reduce risk, standardize and regulate their organization’s buying process, and maximize the value of their procuring opportunities with eProcurement features including:
- End-to-end procurement management
- Identifying spending behavior and tracking, vendor evaluation
- Manage supplier ratings, scorecards, and more
5. Can a contract management solution reengineer workflows?
Contract management software for procurement helps organizations of all sizes to create, store, track, and manage contracts throughout the entire contract lifecycle. If we take the example of ContractFlow built on ServiceNow, using AI, it re-engineers workflows to meet the needs of the market, increase economies of scale and ensure resilience.
6. Does contract management software replace a legal department?
A contract management system does allow numerous self-service options, but the straightforward answer to this question is NO. A contract management system simply streamlines the process, speeds up the documentation process by as much as 75 percent, and frees up your legal team to deal with issues in another crisis that requires knowledge.
7. Can I keep track of tasks, documents as per compliance?
Contract management software offers a secure contract and document repository system that optimizes and secures the protection, organization, location, and sharing of contracts. It centralizes document version control which makes it easy to keep track. Both pre and post-award tracking of requests, purchase orders, invoices, supporting documents, etc. is possible.
Over to You — Digitize your Procurement Process with ease
With an apt contract management system, create secured, scalable, and compliant tender documents in a fraction of the time and track progress all the way. What else any procurement business needs to survive and thrive? Get started with AI-enabled workflows on ServiceNow and digitize your end-to-end procurement processes.