How Electronic Contract Management Simplifies Remote Corporate Governance
Let’s take a look at how electronic document management simplifies remote corporate governance and legal matters.
Remote work has become the reality for firms worldwide, and as employees are more dispersed than ever before, document management and data sharing have come under scrutiny.
Employees could once rely on secure workplace email and messaging channels while companies could secure their networks on-premises. These days, employees log in to work networks from outside connections, platforms, and locations, making security and access governance tough tasks.
Sensitive information can be leaked inadvertently as a result, and when the flow of new business partnerships is the lifeblood of your company, ensuring that your contract pipeline is secure and compliant is mission-critical. Dedicated electronic document and contract management platforms can make a big difference here. These platforms are feature-rich and offer a wide range of functionalities.
Let’s take a look at how electronic document management simplifies remote corporate governance and legal matters.
Contract Lifecycle Management
Corporate teams have typically used a shared folder hierarchy to store contract-related data and share updates. Not only was this structure a bad fit for remote work environments, but it introduces usage headaches. For instance, if any employee wished to update specific information embedded across different contracts, there was no easy way to do this.
The security implications of shared folder solutions are also problematic. Remote employees log into company networks from personal devices and networks that aren’t built for sharing sensitive corporate governance data. For instance, if a company has to facilitate due diligence for a potential buyer or partner, employees can hardly be expected to find and send information via files and shared drives.
ContractZen’s end-to-end contract lifecycle management suite is an example of how technological solutions are simplifying this problem and enabling agile due diligence on a daily basis. Teams can log into the platform remotely and securely share contract files via integrated virtual data rooms, for extra security and access control. They can collaborate securely and solicit e-signatures from within the platform as well.
Most importantly, providing context to contractual information is also simple since teams can link and tag related information such as documents, graphics, and discussion notes. Bringing new team members up to speed on the status of a contract is this simple.
All files on the platform are categorized and stored based on custom meta tags and an optical character recognition engine, which makes searching for specific information simple.
For instance, if a legal team member wants to search for options-based compensation, they can search for this term and retrieve all documents that contain the phrase or information related to options compensation. No more sifting through shared drives and scanning lengthy documents.
Simplified Negotiation and Review
A central part of contract lifecycle management is negotiation. Once contracts are drawn, all related parties huddle over them and negotiate terms. Remote working has thrown some challenges into this process since people aren’t in a single location to discuss terms face-to-face anymore.
Communication has become a challenge and exchanging negotiation terms over email or phone isn’t the best way to ensure terms are met.
Parley Pro simplifies both the negotiation and contract review stage.
Once a team member drafts the contract, the file tends to be edited by other members who propose changes. Usually, this results in a lengthy list of crossed out words, edits, and in-doc comments that can be hard to decipher. Since all these edits are suggestions, a person reading the document for the first time will have a tough task determining the status of the discussion.
This platform automatically captures suggestion changes from team member discussions related to the document and highlights them automatically. It also tracks consensus and once every team member agrees, the platform updates the relevant text automatically. Thus, change tracking is simple and no one has to worry about version control.
When presenting the contract to alternate parties, everyone can negotiate terms within the platform. Parley Pro keeps track of all discussions and changes proposed. Thanks to this central repository of terms being established, affected parties can conduct negotiations within the platform without relying on emails or other less-secure messaging platforms.
Simplifying Billing
Legal workflows can get complicated in a hurry. Remotely located legal teams need electronic solutions that handle operations, leaving time for them to focus on the specifics of the case they’re handling. Billing and matter management become challenging in remote situations since communication can become scattered, bringing things to a halt.
The Acuity ELM Essentials suite is a central electronic operations and claims management hub that is designed for legal teams of all sizes. Legal ops teams can monitor budgets, set spending limits, and monitor outside counsel costs and engagements. The platform also has an integrated eBilling system for claims defense.
Its Mass Tort Manager is an eBilling, claims management, and reporting system rolled into one that helps teams address the complexities of a mass tort defense.
In these cases, administering and processing operations can hit a snag if employees are working remotely. Thanks to its novel solution, Acuity makes it simple for legal teams to handle operations efficiently.
Remote Work Brings New Solutions
Remote work has been framed as a significant challenge for companies, but the reality is that technology is offering many solutions to these issues. Document management, contract negotiation, and eBilling are significant steps forward for companies wishing to incorporate remote work, and we can only expect improvements moving forward.