Arjen van Berkum | Technology & Contract Management Evangelist

Nowadays,with all the outsourcing going on in the world, you would expect businesses to look differently at contracts. It is more than a piece of paper with some legal mumbo jumbo to rule out possible claims. It should be a collaboration bible that forms the foundation of success. With digital transformation high on the agenda, the number of automation suppliers are increasing. In the near future contract management professionals will be freed of boring administrative tasks too. I am even wondering what is taking the software suppliers so long. Organisations need to give their people purpose. In this case, being able to focus on the true purpose of a contract: managing results. Automation will boost the success rate of collaborations. How else will you be able to stay in control of all your supplier contracts within your organisation?  

Automation in contract management

In mylatest article I wrote about how integrating automation technologies incontract management systems and working uniformly through a solid method like CATS CM®. It would help organisations to better manage all contracts and have all information for decision-making available in a split second. More and more processes are being automated, why not contract management processes?Automation can lower process cost up to 12%. Especially in large organisations,where contract management often happens within silos. That means different suppliers, different goals and different targets. Is your supplier strategy truly unlocking the best results? To get an answer to that question you need to have a complete oversight of your contract landscape. Without an intelligent system, based on a solid operational framework, that is not going to happen. Ever.

Seems like a very good use case for Robotic Process Automation; RPA is ideal to harvest information from multiple systems without delving too deep into the technology itself. The potential in combining CATS CM ® with user-friendly RPA solutions like Another Monday will bring great benefits.

Contract management as strategic approach

Contractmanagement is first of all a strategic instrument that helps businesses to master their outsourcing activities, covering crucial performance, compliance and risk management issues. Many organisations have stuff outsourced that contribute to the critical business activities. So, suppliers are an important part of their company strategy. Making sure all contracts have outlined the best possible business outcomes and are managed according a uniform way of working (framework), is a strategic approach that can also save up to 12%. So, by embracing both contract management and automation the cost savings could go up to 24%.

Operational framework for contract automation

CATS CM® is a method that provides organisations with structure and control when it comes to contracts. When this framework is implemented throughout the whole company it also provides a uniform way of working. But it is not only an operational instrument for humans, it also a foundation for intelligent contract management systems. Especially for organisations that start their automation journey in contract management, it is crucial to consider a framework like CATS CM® as basis for digitising their processes. Automating the administrative parts of the contract management processes through robotic process automation (RPA) suddenly becomes a lot easier. Same counts for the integration of artificialintelligence (AI). It will only optimise and speed up contract management processes when implemented along established lines.

Operational structures such as provided by CATS CM® will help organisations to successfully automate their contract landscape and get fully in charge of their business performance. It will also allow software suppliers to build systems that become nearly plug & play when it comes to technology integrations. Either way, it will enable all involved parties to get the most out of contracts and, most important, to get in control!