Businesses have various teams, including legal, that are always required to draw up contracts. The traditional documentation process involves excessive manual work and may take up a large chunk of company resources. This is where contract management software comes into play. This tool helps automate and streamline most contractual processes for businesses. There are various elements to contract management software. So, businesses should be well informed about its benefits and features before they purchase one.

Role of contract management software
This software is an advanced tool designed to automate and streamline the contract management process. It makes it simple for legal and business teams to negotiate, sign, renew, and report on business contracts by automating manual work that traditionally requires multiple individuals to complete the task. Instead of switching between various tools, contract management software allows teams to manage contracts from end to end on one platform. Simply put, the software encompasses a range of features that one would need to create a contract and offers them in one centralized location.

Benefits
Many legal businesses are still reliant on manual and inefficient contract processes. A streamlined process may prevent the establishment from losing profits for every hour in-house counsel spends on a contract. Moreover, some legal establishments do not have assigned roles when it comes to management contracts, and others do not have a viable solution for storing contracts once they are published and signed. This is where modern technology, such as contract management software, comes in.

• The contract agreement timelines can be greatly sped up. This also mean s fewer hours of the legal team’s time spent on contract administration.
• The software allows for automated approvals and signing workflows, which ensures stakeholders are kept informed of the process at the right time.
• Legal teams can use contract management software to move to a streamlined workflow that works perfectly as an end-to-end solution.
• Digital contract management software offers a centralized portal with features like audit trails. This provides access to the entire contract history. A business can maintain an accurate contract history for auditing and keep a full audit trail for external or internal policy compliance.

Who uses it?
Contract management software is used by businesses that need to scale contract workflow without increasing headcount. Various teams can use the software.

• Legal teams
  An in-house legal team may use the tool to manage contract templates and set up rules. The process enables commercial teams to self-serve on contract creation.
• Finance and ops teams
  Employees in these departments require complete visibility into a contract. In the case of contracts and billing, it helps generate accurate revenue expectations for the business. It allows teams to report, analyze, or add contract queries from the opening to the closure cycle.
• Sales teams
  A contract management tool can help the sales team self-serve by closing contracts instead of waiting for legal approval to create them. Most contract management systems integrate with major CRMs, making it simple for sales teams to manage contracts with other familiar tools.
• HR teams
  HR departments might use contract management tools to produce and manage large columns of contracts. These contracts can be automated at a massive scale, which makes it quicker and easier to hire and onboard new joiners or send out full and final settlement agreements to employees who exit the organization.

Top features
Legal establishments and other businesses considering contract management software should look for various popular features.

• Template editor
  An essential feature of contract management software is a rich-text template editor. It allows legal teams to pre-define contract templates that businesses can utilize and implement on contracts.
• AI assistant
  Integrating AI assistant tools may help businesses automate and speed up legal processes, such as contract reviewing, analysis, and drafting. It allows teams to create and agree on contracts faster, freeing up time for higher-value tasks while reducing admin work.
• Approval workflows
  Contract management features include approval workflows that allow teams to review and approve contracts faster without bypassing senior stakeholders. Customized workflows enable individuals to select which contracts require approval and allow businesses to send approval reminders to speed things up.
• Browser-based redlining
  This feature allows legal and other business teams to negotiate contracts in real time. It helps centralize contract negotiations with browser-based redlining, detailed audit trails, and split internal and external versions.
• Native eSignature
  Contract management software with native eSignature capabilities allows teams to add legally binding electronic signatures to contracts remotely on compatible devices. Some contract management systems even allow users to mass-sign routine contracts.
• Renewal reminders
  Software with automated renewal reminders allows businesses to track contracts and manage upcoming expirations without much hassle. The details are picked up automatically by the software. The integrated feature also enables users to send contract reminders so that one never misses a deadline renewal again.

Top contract management software
Business teams, including legal departments, interested in contract management software can check out Conga, Cobblestone, Outlaw, DocuSign CLM, and Juro.