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5 benefits of contract automation that will boost your business

Contract automation has many benefits, such as saving you copious amounts of time (spoiler alert). In this article you will find our top 5 benefits to contract automation and how it will help you to boost your business! 

Signing contracts with pen and paper has been the norm for hundreds of years – and more recently signing PDF documents. But we live in a digital age and these outdated methods just don’t cut the mustard anymore. 

This article covers:

  1. What is contract automation?
  2. How contract automation saves time
  3. How to close deals faster with contract automation
  4. How contract automation reduces risks
  5. How to be cost-effective with contract automation
  6. How you can use contract automation to boost customer and user experience

What is contract automation?

First things first, let’s discuss what is meant by the term. Contract automation is the streamlining and standardization of all contract related processes in a business, using contract management software. When you think about it, virtually every aspect of a company is facilitated by contracts. 

From employment contracts in HR, to legal, procurement and your good old fashioned sales – they’re everywhere. With this in mind, contract automation exists to increase efficiency and remove friction to a famously tedious and time consuming process. Leaving more time to focus on the things that really matter.

Alright then, let’s get back to those benefits:

1. Save time with contract automation

It may be an obvious one – anything automated generally saves time – but it’s very true. Think of all the laborious and time consuming tasks involved with traditional contract management.

The admin associated with creating contracts, negotiating and editing them and signing them take a mere fraction of the time when the process is automated. Especially compared to paper contracts; the downloading, the printing, the signing, the scanning the emailing. So much hassle.

Research conducted by Forrester and Aberdeen suggests that using a contract management system reduces the time it takes for a contract to be approved by a nifty 82%, on average. 

pink clock demonstrating saving time – one of the benefits of contract automation

2. Close deals faster 

How many times have you done the heavy lifting by making the hard sell and getting a verbal “yes”… only to wait weeks for the deal to actually close because of inefficient contracts? Working through multiple iterations and negotiations, with PDFs being sent back and forth, can add weeks or even months to a sale. 

Now, imagine you and the counterparty could both access an online version of your contract and make edits in real time. Like magic! The entire process now only takes days – or even minutes. 

Read more: How to close more deals faster with digital contracts?

3. Contract automation benefits: Reduce risk

We’re all human, and as such prone to human error. Managing your contracts manually runs the risk of these human errors creeping in. This can have both financial and legal implications and may also impact the trust you have built with your counter signatory. 

Introducing contract automation has proven to significantly reduce these errors. On top of that, all of your contracts are safely stored in one place and the access can be monitored/granted/restricted by the person responsible for them. 

Many contract management tools have a host of integrations to CRM systems and other useful tools that can also ensure that your contract data is accurate across all of your touch points.

You also have the power to use standardized templates to ensure that people can only use proposals that have been vetted and approved for use. This is incredibly valuable to prevent mistakes – when everyone has the freedom to create and edit contracts things can get very messy.

Read more: Contract software: a quick guide to the basics

hands typing on a keyboard –contract automation in action

4. Cost effective

Another benefit of contract automation is the potential for saving money! A report by Aberdeen found that top-performing companies believe that getting the contract right the first time can have a positive impact on sales. 

It’s also been found that delays in closing a deal can often result in the deal being lost altogether. Generally speaking, having a speedy and efficient process will increase the likelihood of success and also free up extra time to concentrate on other potential sales.

In a worst case scenario, those pesky human errors that are more common in manual contract management can also result in costly legal fees, so error-free documents can save a business a lot of money. 

Contract automation also allows you to have much more control and peace of mind over your stored contracts. For example, keeping track of your contracts’ expiry dates when doing so manually can be extremely challenging.

Using a contract management tool like Oneflow you can set yourself reminders on contracts before they are due to expire to make sure that you are in the best position to avoid customer churn. 

Read more: Grow your business with contract management software

oneflow contract on phone – contract automation in action

5. Better customer and user experience with contract automation

Whether you’re sending the contract or signing, neither party enjoys the tedious process of playing PDF table tennis. What’s more, contracts can be a fairly dull and uninteresting aspect of business. So, anything you can do to make them more engaging will be massively appreciated! 

For example, with Oneflow you can add videos to your contracts to talk your counter-party through the contract in detail. This not only makes the process as easy as possible, but also more fun. Contract management tools generally have a much friendlier and simple user interface compared to old fashioned PDF contracts. 

To be honest, there are many more benefits to contract automation than the five listed above – but we’d be here all day giving them all a shout out. If you’d like to learn more about how contract automation (and specifically Oneflow’s truly digital contracts) can boost your business – then get in touch here!

Explore contract magic!

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