Convert the negotiated business terms into a corporate contract that includes tracking of obligations, deadlines, and renewals.
Contract management encompasses the creation, approval, signing, and implementation of agreed-upon terms and conditions with the customer regarding products, services, pricing, delivery, payment, warranties, service levels, and other legal terms.
The contract should not be stored merely as a file. Important dates, obligations, price validity periods, quantity commitments, and renewal conditions should be managed as structured data.
Contract lifecycle
Drafting
Template and item selection
Internal legal and commercial review
Customer negotiation
Revision and comparison
Approval and signature
Enforcement and compliance monitoring
Change, extension or renewal
Termination and archive
Managed conditions
Parties and authorized signatories
Product, service and scope
Price, discount, and price update formula
Quantity or purchase commitment
Delivery and service level
Payment and credit terms
Warranty, liability and termination
Start, end, and renewal dates
Electronic signature and verification
The electronic signature method should be chosen taking into account the identity of the parties, their authority to sign, the integrity of the document, the time stamp, and the applicable national legislation.
Implementing the contract into business processes
The prices, products, quantities, delivery, and payment terms defined in the contract should be automatically applied to quotation and order processing.
Manage the contract not as a document archived after it's signed, but as an active source of business rules governing sales, ordering, delivery, and collection processes.