Contracts are a sponge which gather knowledge and information from multiple sources… on average an organisation will have 24 different systems which contain contract-related data. But that means we do not have a single source of truth.
Where is your contract data stored and what does it tell you?
Contracts are also sponges in how they suck up time. In-house legal teams spend nearly 25% of their time on low-value low-complexity contracting. You do not need someone who studied law for 6 years and practised it for a decade (or more!) to review those contracts. Your legal team should use their expertise where it is most needed.
What are your biggest time sponges?
It’s not just legal whose time is sucked up by contractual sponges, 25% of an organisation’s workforce are somehow involved in the contracting process. But do you even know who they are? Well… 38% organisations admit they don’t know who is responsible for contracts and contract management.
Who is in charge of contracts and contracting in your business?
Even if you are in the 62% who do know, do you know what they want from contracts? You must design your contracting processes and contracting tools for the whole user community. Let’s move away from contracts designed by lawyers for lawyers.
Who uses your contracts and what do they want those tools to do or do better?
[Data: shared at World Commerce and Contracting EMEA Summit 2022]
What should you do?
You need to start thinking of contracting as a process, and one which is crying out for reform. The pandemic highlighted the importance of creating contracts quickly and simply, and ones that are fit for purpose and help us navigate the current and any future unpredictability.
Don’t leave contracting to chance.
