Introduction
The success of a company lies in its business strategies and the solid alliances it forges. To boost your organization’s competitiveness, it’s crucial to have secure and committed clients, collaborators, and suppliers. This is where effective contract management takes center stage, ensuring the fulfillment of conditions, timelines, and obligations agreed upon with the company.
Embark on the universe of contract management through BPM software and find in Qflow your best ally to achieve your organization’s goals.
Types of contracts
An organization manages various types of contracts based on the services or goods it offers. Primarily, companies handle the creation and control of the following contracts:
Employees
When incorporating new employees into your organization, specific details must be included to ensure a smooth employer-employee relationship. For example:
- Start date of tasks
- Job title and description
- Contract duration
- Compensation and benefits
- Working hours
- Company rules and policies
The contract should be carefully read and signed by the new employee, and copies of the document should be archived in both physical and/or digital formats for future reference if needed.
Suppliers
Effectively managing contracts with suppliers prevents shortages or delays in materials or services that could disrupt your organization’s normal functioning, resulting in economic losses. When incorporating a new supplier into your organization, contractual obligations, the duration, and the cost of the business relationship must be agreed upon. Once the contract terms are discussed, ensure that all parties fully understand its implications before signing, allowing quick access to the document once the agreement is closed, in case of any doubts.
A proper creation, signing, and storage of supplier contracts will reduce the risk of disputes and conflicts, optimizing your resources.
Clients
Every time two companies decide to do business together, a contract is signed. Consequently, a business’s profitability is affected by how contracts are managed and controlled, having a significant impact on an organization’s income and expenses. A poorly drafted contract can cause significant financial losses, just as inadequate control of the contract’s fulfillment with a client jeopardizes business profitability and complicates the establishment of strong and trustworthy business relationships.
Clauses and agreements
Sometimes, an organization may request that the employee or supplier sign other types of documents, such as:
- Non-disclosure agreements
- Non-compete clauses
The same situation can occur in reverse, with agreements or clauses requested by clients and signed by your organization. These documents must also be considered in contract management.
The challenge of documents
Whether in an agreement with employees, clients, or suppliers, all business relationships generate documents. Faced with the company’s success, documents multiply, turning their management into a challenge.
Duplicated Documents
From contract creation to signing, discussing details, and editing the document in a word processor, can generate duplicate versions of the same agreement, leading to confusion when sharing the final version. This can be exacerbated by using shared drafting tools, where more than one user can edit the same document. If versions are not properly identified, significant changes may be omitted from the document to be signed.
Poor communication between parties
Effective communication is the not-so-secret weapon for any aspect of a successful business. In the case of contract drafting, it’s important to centralize discussions in a single communication channel and ensure that each comment is accessible to all involved parties. It is also recommended to minimize the number of exchanged messages; consolidating all relevant comments in a single email is preferable to a prolonged conversation in long lists of unread messages.
Lack of contract standardization
Inconsistency in contract formats can lead to errors in their fulfillment. To optimize the control of contract execution, it is important to standardize the vocabulary used to detail the terms and conditions of the agreement, avoiding differences in the interpretation of included points. For contracts of the same nature, it is advisable to use the same template, modifying specific details for each case while maintaining an effective common structure.
Digitalization of physical contracts
While many organizations choose to manage all their documentation digitally, using resources such as electronic signatures, there are still many paper-format contracts. To ensure proper access to contracts once signed, it is essential to digitize the documentation, storing virtual copies virtual copies in a repository that all involved parties can access. This way, physical documents can be securely archived to prevent losses or misplacements, and parties can access digital contracts independently and efficiently.
Qflow’s solution
Workflow automation through BPM software is your best ally for effective and hassle-free contract management. A well-designed system will automate the entire contract process, from document creation, editing, signing, storage, to execution control. Discover how Qflow can revolutionize your contract management, features:
Definition of terms and conditions
Qflow allows centralizing information and comments on a single platform. By sharing contract details in a single workflow, different parties involved in contract creation can analyze them, ask questions, and comment in one place. This avoids errors caused by creating multiple versions of the same document and exchanging emails to edit contract points. Additionally, Qflow allows approval of the final contract version by more than one user, ensuring that all parties are in sync with the documentation before issuing the file for signing by the employee, supplier, or client.
Reduced time
Qflow streamlines contract management processes by controlling response times for tasks, setting reminders and alerts to optimize task completion, and automating tasks such as scheduling follow-ups on the control of terms stipulated in the contract. This allows shortening contract creation times and optimizing monitoring.
Contract storage
Once the contract is signed, Qflow will help you store it to ensure easy access to documentation by the involved parties. The pre-designed Document Approval template includes storage in a document repository and notification to users participating in the process.
If your organization does not have a document repository, contracts can be hosted exclusively in Qflow, configuring views that allow locating documentation based on metadata that identifies it. Alternatively, this step can be replaced by a service task, integrating Qflow with a platform like SharePoint where documents will be uploaded automatically once approved.
Conclusion
Optimal contract management directly influences the outcome of agreements with employees, suppliers, and clients in your organization. By automating the process with Qflow, you will achieve error-proof contract management, ensuring optimal creation, storage, and control. Start your free trial today and leave behind the concerns surrounding your organization’s contracts!”
