How Workflow Automation Transforms Your Contract Management Processes

Businesses of all shapes and sizes run on contracts. Supplier relationships, freelancer agreements, legal partnerships—these formal agreements are critical for operational success.  

Despite this, the majority of organizations have incredibly disconnected and disorganized contract management processes. Inconsistent forms, manual approval procedures, and email trails that go in circles—all of these pitfalls can cause data mismanagement, incomplete contracts, and overall frustration. This doesn’t even touch on the increased risk of fraud that comes with contract management process vulnerabilities. 

Enter workflow automation. By automating the key components that make handling, storing, and managing your important contracts, your business will benefit from improved supplier relationships, a more streamlined process, and enhanced data security. Let’s take a deeper look at how workflow automation optimizes contract management and positions your business for efficiency. 

An Overview of Contract Management 

By definition, contract management is the process of managing legally binding agreements from initiation through to execution. While every contract may start with a legal professional, the reach of these documents is vast. 

They affect the entire organization, from the AP team to the C-Suite. Contracts are, after all, business agreements that serve as the foundation of any functional professional relationship between your business and its suppliers, partners, and employees. 

Common Contract Management Pain Points 

Given how vital contracts are to day-to-day operations, it’s no surprise that contract management inefficiencies can cause more than just headaches. The most common pain points found throughout traditional contract management processes can look like: 

• Important requests getting lost in overcrowded inboxes 

• Over-reliance on tools that make collaboration complicated, clouding cash flow data and producing inaccurate portfolio performance reports 

• Manual contract renewals, leading to missed financial savings or deadlines 

• Costly fees associated with delayed signings or approvals 

• Contract drafts stalling out in the revision process because of human error 

• Fraud risks due to incomplete invoice-to-pay or contract-creation processes 

These bottlenecks can result in legal, regulatory, and financial complications—something every organization wants to avoid. 

How Workflow Automation Can Elevate Your Contract Management Efforts 

To enhance their contract management processes, many businesses are now implementing workflow automation solutions. Workflow automation is a powerful tool that eliminates many of the problems and inefficiencies found in more traditional contract management systems.  

Examples of this include:  

Streamlining the Entire Contract Lifecycle 

From implementation to execution, workflow automation makes contract management pain-free. Contracts can be dynamically routed and assigned to the right team members throughout each point of their lifecycle, eliminating unnecessary email chains and reducing the number of human interactions. This speeds up contract processing times, better positioning your business for financial and operational success.  

Mitigating Common Risk Factors 

The power of automation provides an extra layer of security and consistency throughout contract management. With this comes better compliance, fraud prevention, and a more efficient contract management lifecycle. Gone are the days of missing signatures and late contract renewals. Thanks to workflow automation, your business will be able to automate commitment tracking, renewal deadline notifications, and maintain clear audit trails for each contract.  

Enhancing Key Supplier Relationships 

More efficient contract management is a boon for external business relationships as well. Contract renewals that are on time, every time, means that your important suppliers are likely to provide dynamic discounts and want to continue working with your business as you continue to scale and grow. 

What to Look for in a Workflow Automation Solution 

If your business is considering adding a workflow automation solution to your tech stack to take your contract management processes to the next level, there are a few features you should look out for. 

• Drag-and-Drop Builder: This feature enables your business to design and build complex workflows that meet your team’s specific needs. The right solution isn’t a “one-size-fits-all" option—it should be customizable to your business, regardless of size, industry, or contract volume.  

• Rules-Based Routing: Your business will be able to create rules to automatically route contracts based on value authority, task status, or approver role. This ensures that each contract flows smoothly and accurately from start to finish.  

• Real-Time Data Visibility: Easily monitor workflow productivity and pinpoint any remaining inefficiencies through your solution’s centralized portal.  

• Seamless System Integration Capabilities: The right solution will integrate with your existing systems with ease, which means your team won’t have to manually move contracts and documents back and forth. 

DocuPhase’s Workflow Automation solution has been specifically designed to improve back-office efficiency and accuracy—meeting your business’s needs for better contract management processes. For more information about how our solution can elevate your contract management efforts, schedule a demo with one of our automation experts today!