Share this
Workflow Automation for General Counsels: How to Save Time, Money, and Deals
by Jessica Alden on September 4, 2019
‘Workflow automation’ refers to technologies that use predetermined processes and rules-based logic to complete certain tasks on a recurring basis without the need for ongoing user input. Workflow automation has proven beneficial in many industries, not least because it has led to time and cost efficiencies. General counsels can achieve these efficiencies themselves through automation tools in Contract Management Software, also known as Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) software. They stand to gain not only savings in time and money, but also improvements in deal completion. Indeed, automation can save deals that might otherwise expire because of missed deadlines, poor organization, or ultra vires lifecycle progressions.
What is workflow automation?
Workflow automation is a way to delegate certain manual tasks to a computer. The software allows a user to input various processes and rules so that the software will perform repetitive tasks itself in future. These tasks can be anything from entering appointment bookings into a shared calendar to sending a document for approval.
For most, the broad applications and benefits of automation are immediately clear. For example, it might take a user several minutes to check an appointment booking system for new entries, cross-reference those entries with those in a shared calendar, check availability, and then confirm the booking on both ends of the process. Workflow automation software can be set up to do this task in milliseconds. It might also take a long time to prepare a document for review, check authorized parties have access, send it to the relevant stakeholders, and ensure document receipt. Again, workflow automation can do all this in seconds.
How to get started with workflow automation in Contract Management Software
Most general counsels will now be familiar with contract management software. In the past few years, companies of all sizes have adopted the software as a means to improve their CLM process. Indeed, an increase in teams' productivity owing to the reduction of unnecessary paperwork is still a major attraction. For some, it might be a mystery how contract management software automates workflows, and how it may save considerable time, money, and deals in the long run.
In this regard, below we share three best practices for using contract management software to automate workflows:
- Set up automated alerts and notifications: Contract management software allows users to set up alerts and notifications. This can serve to improve the management of contracts in a variety of ways. Indeed, different types of alerts and notifications can be set up depending on the contract, contract type, user, or role basis. Not only do these alerts and notifications help users to stay on top of progress in deal-making, but they also allow them to review changes to the status of negotiations and key documents when they occur (or do not occur by a set time or date). Further, notifications may detail upcoming or missed deadlines as well as changes to scheduling. Having, say, an automated email sent to stakeholders when actions are complete (or not, for that matter) saves general counsels considerable time in general oversight activities, allowing them to spend their time on higher value activities.
- Push contracts/changes for approval/review: One reason for delay in negotiations and other key aspects of CLM is that documents sit on desks for hours, days, weeks, or even months at a time without progress. Rarely is there a good reason for this. Indeed, it tends to be the case that general counsels are too busy to stay on top of every minute aspect of the contract lifecycle. The good news, though, is that it is very straightforward to set up contract management software to automate this aspect of contract lifecycle management. If a clause changes, for example, a notification pings to the party who must then review it within a certain time frame.
- Route contracts for signature (wet or electronic): When parties reach prima facie agreement on the terms of a new contract, they breathe a sigh of relief as the complex negotiations come to an end. But general counsels know that such agreement is not the end of their work, but the start of a new part of it. When agreed, contract management software can route the contract for wet or electronic signature. This speeds up the formalities of contract conclusion. In turn, this sets in motion the contract implementation, monitoring, and management activities.
Is coding experience necessary for workflow automation?
The best contract management applications on the market have removed the need for complex code and instead allow users to create and manage workflows either through a visual interface or one that only requires logical, non-technical input. When it comes to workflow automation in particular, the best CLM software allows users to:
- get information and understand contract progress on an attractive user interface
- enter commands via intuitive workflow builders (that look like a flow chart)
- create custom alerts and notifications without back end editing
- visualize processes in easy-to-understand formats
Summary
CLM software has proven itself invaluable in many respects in the day-to-day life of general counsels. In handling the complex administrative tasks involved in CLM, the software frees up time and resources. When used for workflow automation, these benefits compound, leading to improved deal completion rates as well as more efficient resource management.
Share this
- Blog Posts (39)
- contract management software (38)
- contract management (35)
- SharePoint (9)
- contract managers (7)
- office 365 (6)
- Microsoft (5)
- contract lifecycle management (5)
- contract management needs (4)
- contract professionals (4)
- Microsoft Dynamics 365 (3)
- ROI (3)
- automation (3)
- contract economics (3)
- corridor company (3)
- efficiency (3)
- enterprise contract management (3)
- legal professionals (3)
- Change Management (2)
- IACCM (2)
- Sales Pipeline (2)
- SharePoint 2013 (2)
- Tim Cummins (2)
- bottlenecks (2)
- effectiveness (2)
- process improvement (2)
- procurement (2)
- return on investment (2)
- Arizona (1)
- Blockchain (1)
- Blue Cross of Idaho (1)
- Buy Side VS Sell Side (1)
- CRM (1)
- CSS (1)
- Central Administration Service (1)
- Contract Clause (1)
- Contract Creation Module (1)
- Contribute Permission (1)
- Digital Signature (1)
- DocuSign (1)
- Efficient (1)
- Essential SharePoint 2013 (1)
- GDPR (1)
- IACCM America (1)
- IT (1)
- Javascript (1)
- Jquery (1)
- Las Vegas (1)
- Merger And Acquisition process (1)
- Microsoft SharePoint Conference (1)
- NDA (1)
- Negotiation Strategies (1)
- Nevada (1)
- Phoenix (1)
- Power Shell (1)
- RFP (1)
- Richard Susskind (1)
- SharePoint 2010 (1)
- SharePoint Conference (1)
- Tomorrow's Lawyer (1)
- Web Designers (1)
- West Australian Health Department (1)
- Windows Azure (1)
- Workflow Automation (1)
- Yammer (1)
- breach of contract (1)
- business case (1)
- clm software (1)
- clm system (1)
- compliance (1)
- contract administrator (1)
- contract audit (1)
- contract cycle times (1)
- contract management for healthcare (1)
- contract management tools (1)
- contract manager (1)
- contract risk (1)
- contracting errors (1)
- eContracts (1)
- elements of a contract (1)
- equal (1)
- implementation (1)
- innovation (1)
- legally binding (1)
- love (1)
- migration (1)
- playbook (1)
- real estate (1)
- request for proposal (1)
- revenue leakage (1)
- sales (1)
- self-service contracts (1)
- sell side (1)
- sharepoint on-premises (1)
- subcontractors (1)
- supply chain management (1)
- valentines (1)
- May 2022 (2)
- April 2022 (1)
- March 2022 (1)
- April 2021 (2)
- March 2021 (2)
- February 2021 (2)
- December 2020 (1)
- November 2020 (2)
- October 2020 (4)
- November 2019 (1)
- October 2019 (1)
- September 2019 (3)
- August 2019 (5)
- July 2019 (1)
- June 2019 (2)
- May 2019 (4)
- March 2019 (3)
- February 2019 (5)
- January 2019 (5)
- December 2018 (7)
- November 2018 (6)
- October 2018 (4)
- September 2018 (1)
- August 2017 (1)
- July 2017 (1)
- April 2017 (1)
- February 2017 (1)
- January 2017 (1)
- September 2016 (1)
- June 2016 (3)
- May 2016 (1)
- April 2016 (4)
- December 2015 (1)
- October 2015 (1)
- September 2015 (2)
- May 2015 (1)
- February 2015 (2)
- November 2014 (1)
- October 2014 (2)
- September 2014 (3)
- July 2014 (1)
- June 2014 (1)
- April 2014 (3)
- March 2014 (2)
- February 2014 (2)
- January 2014 (1)
- October 2013 (1)
- September 2013 (2)