The outbreak of COVID-19, while coloring the global economic landscape with risk alerts, has triggered the transformation of multiple business operations. Due to strict quarantine, the shift toward remote work, followed by the unprecedented drop in demand for on-site services, is putting many companies on the edge of survival. It’s either adapt or collapse for many businesses in the beauty industry, finances, traveling, entertainment and more.
Digital transformation has been on the lips of everyone for some time, but it is only now that businesses are feeling the need to give it the attention it deserves. Today, many of us understand that fast digitalization is a pure necessity. It not only meets the expectations of modern tech-savvy audiences but also ensures business survival.
Today digital transformation not only meets the expectations of modern tech-savvy audiences but also ensures business survival.
Legal operations are no exception. To optimize processes and save on budgets, contract lifecycle automation is a must. While it’s not a deus ex machina solution that will protect your company from destabilization, it will certainly prove to be effective. Business needs in a time of crisis change. Leveraging contract lifecycle automation will help process contractual obligations at the needed pace, amid the current circumstances. Here’s how.
Need for risk management and force majeure contractual obligations
Companies these days are spending hours struggling through their contractual obligations to determine the aftermath of the lockdown and predict their position on the market. The process includes hours of work to introduce contract modifications or compose amendments that will adequately reflect the current state of things on the supply chain. Not to mention the endless negotiations with counterparties to agree upon all possible changes. Сontract automation brings an accelerated document approval cycle that is highly appreciated in the circumstances like these.
Need to quickly resolve problematic contracts and negotiations
In the quarantine environment, the possibility to react quickly is the prerequisite of staying afloat. Businesses are introducing many changes to their current contracts, especially those directly affected by modifications in the company’s performance. This includes re-negotiating clauses, time frames, milestones, changing volumes and delivery methods, canceling routine checkups, or even completely terminating contracts. To avoid financial loss, the maximum speed is critical. Think about the duration of your document approval lifecycle. How long does it usually take to get the contract signed?
Contract automation gives your signing process the velocity your business is needing. Progress can be observed by your team, and all changes will be noted. This style of collaboration allows you to arrive at the approval point much faster and with less effort.
Need for the cost reduction
Legal teams spend a lot of time drafting documents and proofreading contracts, especially today, as many contracts must be overlooked and updated to reflect company risk policies. During a time of crisis, every penny counts. One cannot simply hire more team members to cope with all the additional work. Relieving your legal department from this burden is critical for cost optimization. Contract automation offers a drafting process that takes minutes instead of hours. The number of steps between drafting and approval is cut by as much as 70%. More than that, document automation allows you to keep track of all the terms in every contract, evaluating the company’s revenue resiliency and allocating budgets more efficiently.
Contract automation allows you to keep track of all the terms in every contract, evaluating the company’s revenue resiliency and allocating budgets more efficiently.
Need for efficient remote workflow
Not all team members approach remote work with enthusiasm. While some dive head-first into tasks, glad to rest from morning traffic and long meetings, others find it hard to concentrate with a child playing loudly or a cat asking for attention. Organizing remote workflow is not an easy task for managers. The apocalyptic media frenzy is impacting both work-life balance and mental health. In the midst of routine work, employee stress levels are climbing higher than before (like they’re not high enough), and productivity is dropping. Contract management is an effective remedy for the frustrated and stressed legal team being forced to work from home.
Need to store contracts in one place and make them accessible from anywhere
To better adjust to the evolving situation, companies are having to consult their contracts more frequently. But, what if their documents are stored on a hard drive in the empty office or kept in a locked filing cabinet? Time is slipping through the fingers.
Contract automation helps businesses organize their contracts in a single place, making them much more convenient and allowing them to quickly navigate through them when something comes up. Need to review a document? Pull the information at any time, from any location, and get the job done in minutes.
Need for data protection
Data breaches can cost millions and are not to be taken lightly. Storing information in a shared spreadsheet can hardly be considered secure. Ensuring the integrity of confidential information is one of the critical tasks of any business working with sensitive data. There are plenty of document management software solutions that protect your data in the cloud. They have multiple security protocols that allow you to set different access levels and make sure that only authorized people can see the information.
Need to track all document changes
When your team is collaborating on documents with other departments, it may be hard to keep track of changes. Document automation helps avoid the mess in legal operations. It allows you to determine the document update flows, spot and process changes immediately without requiring any additional notifications or reviews.
Holding on to the good old days is no longer an option. With the current circumstances, business survival is at stake, making optimization and cost efficiency an absolute necessity. To add more order and predictability to your processes, contract automation is the way to go. By adopting digitalization and the help of AXDRAFT, you can come away from the crisis with flying colors.