Choosing Contract Management Software in Australia

How to Choose the Right Contract Management Software If You’re An Organisation in Australia

All businesses have one thing in common – when doing business with another company, some kind of contract is entered into. It could be a formal contract, such as one drawn up by lawyers, or an informal one like that between a customer and an e-Commerce company. Contracts simply state how business will be conducted and what each party’s responsibilities are in respect to that. A contract may detail specific outcome dates and other expected outcomes, as well as consequences if responsibilities are not met by either party.

With the ubiquitous nature of contracts, and their clear importance to business dealings, it’s surprising how many companies still rely on inefficient ways of storing, sharing and formatting contracts. But this need not be the case anymore. Enter the concept of the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform, which has the potential to make contracts more convenient, profitable and easy to use. Contract management software creates these benefits by uniting and securely storing all documents and negotiation details together in a timeline format where all parties can view them.

The best contract management software systems on the market today will also have additional functions such as analytics and reporting, useful notifications, as well as management and workflow automations. But the complexity of the contract management system you choose is up to you – some stick to the basics, while others have all the bells and whistles.

This blog post details some of the most important criteria that should be considered for businesses in Australia looking for the right contract management software. 

Contract Storage

As a basic pre-requisite, the contract management software needs to offer storage of contracts and other related documentation. Ideally, contracts will be stored in Australia or New Zealand to allow Australian companies to remain compliant with Privacy laws. For this reason, it’s important to find out which jurisdiction the data will be held in.

Customisation

Check if the contract management software you’re intending on buying has functionality for customisation based on the user’s needs. This can make the interface more intuitive and easier to use.

Notifications

Do you want your contract management software to send key stakeholders virtual sticky notes? It might be useful to know when a contract is automatically renewing, expiring, or some other notable event is taking place.

Search

Is the search function on your contract management software actually useful? Does it find the right things at the right time? Check that the data fields entered by the user are actually searchable as a bare minimum.

Saved Search

After you’ve conducted a frequently searched term, can you save that search for later use to save time? All these small things add up to greater overall efficiency when using your contract management software, so pay attention to these details. 

Search Results

Yes, we’re talking a lot about searches here, but contract management software is so much about information retrieval that it’s vital to its operation. When you’re searching, your search results should be able to be exported into a report for easy sharing and presenting.

Reports

While your contract management software might claim that it does analytics and reports, you’ll want to check whether those reports are purely numerical or if they can be transformed within the program into an easily digestible visual form.

Cost

Obviously, the size of your budget will be of some consideration when choosing the right contract management software for your organisation. But this should not be the only criteria. You need to choose an option that ticks all the boxes and is the possible overall fit for your company.

Privacy

Many Australian companies come undone by choosing contract management software companies that are based overseas and don’t respect Australian privacy laws. If privacy for your own organisation, your clients and your collaborators is of prime importance to you, choose an Australian contract management software company and avoid the complications of contravened privacy laws.

Choose WebCM – Australian Contract Management Software for Australian Businesses

Don’t bother with overseas companies for contract management. Did you know that their conflicting international laws can impede the ruling of our own Australian rights to privacy? Now that’s a complication you can do without.