The document outlines critical considerations for selecting a contract management system, emphasizing the importance of deployment times, ease of use, training, and support. It suggests that effective contract management software should have a deployment period of four to six weeks and provide free ongoing training for users. Additionally, it highlights the need for ease of use and integration capabilities with other tools to streamline the contract management process.

1. Choosing a
Contract
Management
System
6 things to look for

2. Contract Management
• Contract lifecycle management isn't fun. It can be a long and
tedious process that leaves everyone involved with a headache.
• Contract management software automates all those menial tasks,
reducing human error in many capacities, and simplifies complex
contract workflows.
• There are a lot of companies offering contract management
software.

3. Foundation of Contract Management Software
• A lot of people evaluate contract management software
based who built it, without considering how it was built.
• Contract software built from the ground up tend to be more
expensive and boast a steep learning curve.
• In contrast, contract management software built using
platforms like SharePoint tend to be more affordable and only
require an understanding of the platform.

4. Deployment Times
• A lot of companies boast that their contract management
software will revolutionize contract management for your
company.
• 6-12 months to reach full deployment has occurred, however
4-6 weeks is the most ideal deployment time.
• If deployment is less than about four weeks, perhaps the
quality of the software is low.

5. Deployment Times
• Make sure to see a demo of the contract management
system before making the investment to purchase it for your
organization.
• Also, make sure that your staff gets the appropriate amount of
time to learn the system.
• Learning the system should be a free-of-charge feature of
the contract management system provider.

6. Deployment Pitfalls
• What some contract management system providers don’t tell you is that deploying the
system might take anywhere up to six months to even a year. Even if it’s just two
months, that’s way too long to wait.
• You need contract management software that you can hit the ground running with.
Ideally, you should be looking for contract software that can be deployed in less than
six weeks.
• The sweet spot exists somewhere between the four-to-six week mark. Any longer than
that and it’s too slow.
• Any shorter than that and the system likely isn’t thorough enough to meet your needs.
You could even say that a four-to-six week deployment time is the “goldilocks zone” for
contract management software implementation.

7. Training
• In a perfect world you should be able to jump into a contract
management system and get going. Unfortunately, that’s
generally not going to be the case.
• All contract management software has little idiosyncrasies
that you need to learn.
• Additionally, users in your company are also going to have
varied levels of technological competence

8. Training
• Basically, training is needed from the contract management
system to the users within your organization.
• You should be on the lookout for contract management
software providers that offer free training for their systems.
• It shouldn’t be up to you and your team to puzzle things out.

9. Training
• Further, you’ll want to find a provider that offers free ongoing
training as you’ll inevitably be bringing in new users.
• Companies that offer contract software without training likely
aren’t invested in your ongoing success.
• That’s why you should always look for free, ongoing training
when looking for contract management software.

10. Ease of Use
• The framework of the system should be easy to navigate and
simple to use.
• The training that the contract management system provider
offers should only point out functionality.
• Your users shouldn’t have to hold their nose, chant a magic
phrase, and hop on one leg to get simple things done.

11. Ease of Use
• Contract software that requires a song and dance to use isn’t
going to benefit your company.
• It’s going to do the opposite. A complicated system might put
people off using it.
• They’ll see others struggling with it and not want to even try
learning it. This creates a situation where only a few people
know how to use the system.

12. Ease of Use
• If employees are sick or leave the company you’re left with an
overcomplicated system that’s costing your company money
that no one knows how to use.
• That’s why you should be looking for how easy the system is
to use.

13. Support
• What separates different types of contract software is what
support the provider offers. There are plenty of questions you
need to ask regarding this.
• Do you need to pay for support or is it free?
• When is support available?
• How quickly does the company’s support team get back to
you?

14. Integrations
• Your company is probably using more than just contract
management software. It’s likely you have a whole suite of
tools and platforms you use.
• Having to memorize logins and switch between different
platforms can waste a lot of time over a long period.
• However, contract management software that offers a large
number of tool integrations can help that out.

15. Integrations
• This can help break down any information or document silos and
make contract management a lot easier.
• You can log into a contract management system using one set of
login information and have access to all of your tools within one
platform.
• This saves you time and helps cut down on a lot of the mistakes
that can creep into the contract management process.

16. Conclusion
• These are just some of the things that you’re looking for in
contract management software.
• If you’re looking for a list of features you should look for,
make sure to check out this blog we wrote at the end of 2020.
• It gives a comprehensive view of what to look for in contract
management software.