In contract lifecycle management, it’s necessary to have a simple and efficient contract intake and contract request process. This is important because separating both new and existing contracts can help keep your system organized for your contract management team. By having a well-planned and organized contract intake and request process, you can streamline your contract management system from the very beginning.
Content-
- The Importance of the Contract Intake and Request Process
- Benefits of an Organized Contract Intake and Request Process
- Why an Email-Based Contract Intake and Request Process Is Inefficient
- Contract Requests and Intake Made Simple with Request Forms
- A Glimpse of the Dock 365 Contract Intake and Contract Request Step
- Boost Visibility
- Conclusion
The Importance of the Contract Intake and Request Process
During the contract intake and request step of contract lifecycle management, having contract management software like the Dock 365 Contract Management System can help you optimize and speed up this lengthy step in contract management. During the intake and request step, several different actions might take place. For example, you may submit a fully executed contract agreement and add it into your centralized contract repository for further monitoring. Or you might rely on your legal team to develop particular documents (i.e., non-disclosure agreements) for a new partnership with an oncoming client.
Without a proper contract intake and request process, you lose out on converting potential leads. If your current contract intake step is a bit unorganized, you may be encountering bottlenecks, unnecessary delays, wasted resources, and minimized returns very consistently. Improve your contract intake and request process, and you’ll certainly improve your return on investment, client/vendor-business relationships, and the efficiency of your contract management process. Identify where there might be areas of improvement in this critical step at the very beginning of contract lifecycle management, and then see what actions you can take to optimize.
Benefits of an Organized Contract Intake and Request Process
By creating efficiency from the very beginning of a contract’s lifecycle, you improve your contract management system for your contract management team, your legal department, and for the rest of a contract’s lifecycle.
- Increase visibility of document status
- Enable automated workflows to process requests, approvals, and rejections
- Create standardization in submission requirements
- Reduce miscommunications by reducing email exchanges
- Increase security
Why an Email-Based Contract Intake and Request Process Is Inefficient
Using email during the contract intake and request step of contract management can lead to unnecessary bottlenecks, delays, and miscommunications. Utilizing email is also a security risk for important data. With specialized contract management software like our Dock 365 Contract Management System, uploading documents and submitting requests is made simple.
Our contract management software allows the user to submit contracts, request contracts, and build contracts on any device, anytime, anyplace. With automated notifications, the party submitting the request will be alerted in the case that a form or request is rejected, or if required documentation is missing. The technology provided by Dock 365 makes for a simplistic and minimalistic contract intake and request process – making it straightforward and effortless for both your contract management team and your clients.
Contract Requests and Intake Made Simple with Request Forms
Prior to setting an automated workflow in place for the contract to go through, you can set your contract up for success by beginning with a customizable contract request form. Using customized contract management request forms makes sure that all critical information is documented at the start of the contract’s lifecycle. In this way, communication is clear and concise – full of the details that are pertinent to the future of the request.
The Dock 365 Contract Management System utilizes your contract templates, clause library, data, organizational policies, and automated workflows. This allows your business to reduce data entry, auto populate contract management forms, and increase overall speed and coherence of your contract management process. Requests sent for approval are easily sent through to the next steps in contract lifecycle management. The efficiency in this beginning step allows for less time spent overall, so the request can be converted and drafted into a contract template and then sent through the negotiation stage and following stages.
A Glimpse of the Dock 365 Contract Intake and Contract Request Step
Our Dock 365 Contract Management System streamlines the entirety of a contract’s lifecycle. In the contract intake step of the lifecycle, our technology provides several contract request features to help centralize and optimize the contract intake step.
- Configurable and customizable request forms
- Efficiently generated contract documents (based off the data provided in the request form, your contract template library, preapproved contract clause library, and type of contract requested)
- Compatible with several document types for the submission of supporting documentation
- Configured workflows for the request forms following approval, drafting, etc.
- Accessible on all devices in all geographical locations
Boost Visibility
Now, you can easily keep clients informed of their contract’s status. This is one of the premier benefits of contract management software, and it greatly improves communication between your business and your clients. When a request is submitted, the requester typically is obligated to repeatedly ask for the status of their contract request (often through email). Contract management software helps to solve this problem for the client and for your contract management team. With contract statuses updated and displayed for all parties in real-time, it simplifies communication and makes getting answers easy and accessible for your client.
Conclusion
Don’t let contract lifecycle management be less efficient than it has to be. By being set up for success at the beginning step of contract intake and contract request, you can mitigate potential communication issues and confusion for both your contract management team and your clients. By having critical information and contract request statuses readily available for all parties, you create a clear and functional system for everyone.
The Dock 365 Contract Management System optimizes the contract intake and contract request step of a contract’s lifecycle. From the contract request, the request is then set up in an automated contract building and template stage, and then sent off for the rest of its lifecycle in an automated workflow. Our system empowers your contract management team and clients by providing customizable request/intake contract management forms, easy and operational approval and rejections, and enhanced visibility so that your contract lifecycle management system is able to reach key businesses goals and increase results and ROI.
We would love to discuss our contract management solution with you. Schedule a free demo with us today for an interactive overview of our Contract Management System.
