Today’s article is the first of two articles from a report that we recently published, entitled, Signed, Sealed, Delivered: Innovative Solutions and Strategies for Better Contract Management, sponsored by DocuSign and available for free download by clicking here.

In 2015, the speed of business continues to increase. Markets evolve, products improve, requirements change, and timelines shrink. Time gets more valuable every year, particularly as workloads increase while the global supply management workforce continues to recover from the Great Recession. Indeed, the International Labour Organization recently reported that there are still 39 million fewer global supply management jobs than there were before the global economic crisis began in 2007[1]. As a result, organizations today and for the foreseeable future must become more agile – from the Chief Procurement Officer (CPO), to the procurement organization at large, down to the procurement professional, and the processes and tools that they employ to get the job done. All of these parties need to be quick on their feet, able to reach decisions and decision makers faster and more effectively with fewer resources and less room for error. In effect, they need to do more or better with what they have.

In this kind of business environment, manual, paper-based processes are a major obstacle to success, particularly within the realm of contract management. The inefficiencies, opportunity costs, and risks associated with manually generating, editing, mailing, signing, storing, and reviewing paper contracts across the globe to codify business relationships have become too great. Business needs and timelines are too fast and mobile for manual, paper-based contracts. Luckily, technological innovations within business solutions have automated and digitized many procurement processes, including contract management, allowing many CPOs and procurement teams to become agile – to be faster, more effective, and proactive in an ever-changing business environment.

Automated contract management platforms and tools can drive efficiencies, speed, performance, and value over manual, paper-based processes. Nonetheless, 84% of the market continues to manually author, edit, and process procurement contracts, while 58% of the market stores their procurement contracts outside of a central, searchable repository. As a result, the vast majority of enterprises incur opportunity costs by not automating these two contract management sub-processes. Digital contract authoring, reusable templates and language, and central, searchable repositories can save all parties from duplicating efforts and making costly errors. Meanwhile, electronic signatures, automated workflows, straight-through processes, and mobile-first/mobile-ready applications can cut contract signature and execution times down from months to weeks and even days. All told, modern, automated contract management tools can save enterprises time, effort, and money, and prevent them from making costly mistakes or losing paper contracts on a messy desk or in an old filing cabinet. For enterprises looking for cost effective ways to increase efficiencies, performance, and value, automated contract management tools and solutions are essential.

Want to learn more? Click here to download this free report (registration required), which examines the agile and innovative strategies, processes, and tools that CPOs and other business leaders can use – particularly within the contract management process – to offset resource constraints and elevate enterprise performance to the next level.

Tagged in: Adoption, Ardent Partners Research, Ardent Team, Chief Procurement Officer, Contract Lifecycle Management, CPO, Innovation, Process, Solution Providers, Strategy, Technology