You have made the decision that your company will benefit from a contract management software. Now, which will offer the most for your business? There are plenty of contract management systems on the market. Some can seem tempting because of their low price-tags. Take some time and understand what you genuinely need the software to do for your company.
The latest trend in contract management is AI-driven software such as Evisort. The advantage of AI-driven software is machine learning that allows the software to begin to understand your contracts. In understanding your contracts, the software can start to identify areas for improvement. These improvements and the cost of missing just one contractual obligation can easily cost justify a better system.
Advantages of AI-based contract management software:
- Centralized repository—any contract management software should offer one single source for all information regarding your contracts. This repository should be accessible from multiple locations and capable of handling all types of arrangements.
- Contract risk mitigation—this is a crucial advantage to contract management software. The software should identify any risk factors across contracts. AI can even search for standardized language and help identify the lack of such language in third party contracts. Ideally, the software should flag any language as a risk for review.
- Customizable reporting and tracking—big data has taught us all the value of data mining. Contracts within your own company are a wealth of information, but useless without a customizable way to search for what you need. Each company also has specific needs for reporting, and the software you choose should give you the ability to create reports for your particular needs.
- Machine learning—not all AI is created equally. For instance, some AI looks for information in a specific location, but if the information moves, then the AI is rendered useless. Machine learning lets your software learn to understand the context of information and find it in any location. Machine learning can be critical for the core function of reliable contract management software.
- Less labor-intensive—AI contract management software does not require that a person appropriately flag each page of a contract. In older non-AI systems, the search functions are only as reliable as the human flagging each page of information. One mistake can hide critical data from your search function. It also saves personnel hours in entering and tagging the contracts. These are hours that better spent on creative or interpersonal use. The purpose of artificial intelligence is to take over the tedious work, freeing people to do what they do best.
AI-driven contract management software is the wave of the future. If you are going to invest in document management software, invest in one capable of growing with your company. Many document management solutions are cumbersome and on their way to being obsolete. Do not waste your money and training time on a system that has a short life cycle.
You will also want to consider how easily contract management software will tie into your existing IT. Does the solution you have decided on require a substantial change in your IT system? Will it fit seamlessly into your current system?
Efficiency is the goal of investing in contract management software. Know the needs of your company, both now and projected into the future. Invest in the software that will bring the most efficiency to your team. Factor in cost savings in employee time and risk mitigation. How much do you stand to lose on one lost contract because you missed a contractual obligation? What about the cost of litigation? When you factor in these cost-saving potentials, the cost of AI-driven contract management software seems more and more like a smart investment.