The Anatomy of a Great Document Creation Software

What is greatness?

You’ve most likely seen a drawing of a four-armed, four-legged man in a circle created by the great Italian artist and inventor.

Leonardo Da Vinci made this Vitruvian Man to show the ideal proportions of a body. Today, this is the standard of a perfectly developed human being.

Does a balanced physique make him great? Most likely. But there’s more to greatness than just a body. 

It’s the ability to use it to do great things that makes it so.

Even the most beautiful, ideal race car won’t become great without an engine that powers it and without the driver that takes it to the finish line faster than their competitors.

In legal project management, document creation software is among the key factors to great performance. Without it, you’re simply not as competitive and productive as lawyers who have already adopted it.

In this blog, we decided to look at the body of a document creation software, and find out what makes it great!

Head – AI engine

AI in legal is by far the control center of your contract lifecycle management. The higher its processing power and learning abilities, the better. After all, getting a Master Service Agreement ready in less than an hour is good.

But drafting a pitch-perfect MSA in less than 10 minutes is great.

Your ideal document creation software has to think fast and constantly learn based on your legal template patterns. 

A good way to use AI is to simplify the language of your contracts, so business teams can also understand them.

Powerful machine learning algorithms make sure that your contract workflows are fast and mistake-free. But that’s not it.

AI learns from your contracts. Every time you draft a new one, the software will provide you with better suggestions of clauses that you can use, or data to fill in, saving you precious time.

Another good way to use AI is to simplify the language of your contracts, so business teams can also understand them. 

Using  GPT-3 technology, document automation software can help you translate the complex legal language into something more ‘?human’. 

Using the simplified language for your contracts will help you avoid confusions and unnecessary explanations of the contract, thus saving your precious time.

Vital organs – features and functionality

When your legal document automation software generates templates like a supersonic rocket, that’s already awesome and saves you hours of drafting time.

But that’s just the beginning of a contract lifecycle.

When a template is drafted, it needs to get reviewed, approved, negotiated on, signed, and stored for further use and analysis.

That’s why your software should have the following features:

  • Live collaboration
  • Conditional approval workflows
  • User roles
  • E-signature
  • Built-in storage
  • Metadata & search options
  • Performance reports

It’s all right if your software doesn’t match the full list. But if you want to use something great, make sure to check every point off.

Face & body – design & interface

Admit it’?you want your software to be visually appealing and easy to navigate. You don’t want to draft documents in something that looks like old Windows 97 (not that it was bad, but we’re not in the nineties anymore), or is too complex to navigate’?it will mess with your productivity.

The only thing you’ll be able to focus on is the complexity of your software, and how it makes your life harder, not easier. And that’s not great at all.

Even though document creation software works with something as plain and colorless as contracts, it’s design has to be carefully thought through.

You want your software to be visually appealing and easy to navigate

Gliding through the workflows with ease will help you stay focused on the task at hand instead of trying to find the right button to go to the next page.

A well thought-through design and easy navigation are key to you using the software, and actually enjoying the work you do there.

Great contract automation software will regularly roll out design updates to make your experience better. Greater still, if they ask you for feedback before doing that.

Limbs – support team

A good support team is vital to keep the software running smoothly. Like great limbs, they have to be able to do the following:

  • Run fast to answer your call
  • Take you by hand to show you around the software
  • Fix all errors
  • Help craft product updates by gathering your feedback
  • Walk you through the new functionality when its up and running

It’s the people behind the thousands of lines of code that matter, and if you can’t reach out to them for assistance, how are you going to get around the software?

Nervous system – cloud storage

A secure, properly functioning cloud is your access point to all contracts, wherever you are.

But if you’re able to log into your document automation software from any device, it doesn’t mean that scammers and hackers should have that ability as well.

Great document workflow automation software should ensure maximum protection for your contracts

Cloud solutions give you the flexibility to work with confidential information at any moment without having to go to the office. That’s why a great document workflow automation software should ensure maximum protection for your contracts.

The ultimate way for a SaaS vendor to prove their security is to get a SOC 2 certificate. If you want to make sure your contracts are well protected, ask your software partner for a SOC 2 type 2 report.

Of course, they’ll ask you to sign an NDA with them before showing it to you.

Heart – clients

Without lawyers, sales teams, and other users working inside the document automation software, there is no need for it to exist.

A great document creation software is life-changing for people that work with it. And the clients that use it are the force that drives this software to become greater every single day.

See who else onboarded your document automation software, check out some of the company’s case studies and reviews. They will show you the true value that businesses find in it, and will help you determine if you want the same thing for your company.

If that heart is beating in a good rhythm, rest assured that the rest of the body is functioning really well.

Bottom line

Greatness always has to correspond to certain criterias, and true greatness is achieved only when these criterias are approved by many.

There’s plenty of great contract management software on the market, and it is up to you to find the software that fits your needs, adopt it into your processes, and become its heart.

For AXDRAFT, greatness lies in the balance of all the above-mentioned things. We value and take great care of each of our organs, because they are all vital for the success of our clients.

Check out our instant demo and find out how our workflows can help you easily draft a perfect NDA in 57 seconds, or schedule a full demo if you’re eager to see more.

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