Learn how a contract workflow platform can benefit your business

Have you ever felt that your business is spending more time reviewing and managing contracts than getting the important work done? It’s time to use an efficient contract workflow platform. According to the research conducted by Aberdeen, organizations that build a streamlined contract process shortens their sales cycle by 24%[1] . Therefore, you can focus more on revenue growth and close deals faster with a contract workflow platform. What is a contract workflow platform? A contract workflow involves all the steps that lead to the execution of a contract. A contract workflow platform solves the major pain points associated with the contract workflow and speeds up the entire process. From contract initiation, collaboration, contract negotiations to faster approvals and secure storage, a contract workflow platform does everything in a single space. Benefits of a contract workflow platform: Here is how a contract workflow platform benefits your business: Boosts productivity With a contract workflow platform, you can spend less time going back and forth for reviews, negotiations, and approvals. With a pre-approved contract template, centralized contract negotiations, and convenient e-signatures, a contract workflow platform saves a lot of valuable time. Reduce expenses According to World commerce and contracting, the average labor cost for a basic contract is $6900 [2]. And it exceeds up to $49,000 for more complex contracts. A contract workflow platform helps speed up the process and saves a lot of labor expenses and efforts. Quicker approvals The survey reports from Forrester and Aberdeen suggest that it takes an average of 3.4 weeks to get a contract approved by all the parties involved[3]. A contract workflow platform allows multiple teams to collaborate and negotiate the contract terms in a single platform. Additionally, all the signatories can instantly sign the contracts with e-signatures speeding up the approval process. Key Features of a Contract Workflow Platform: Set up standard contract templates Using a standard contract template ensures your contracts are consistent and accurate. Instead of starting from scratch for every new contract, a contract template allows you to fill only the critical data such as the start date, end date, payment details, etc. A contract template assures fewer human errors and saves you from the trouble of skimping through the old contract templates. This is how you can do it with InkPaper: The InkPaper platform enables you to select a template from their standard contract repository. You can also upload multiple templates yourself. Additionally, you can also combine two or more templates in the InkPaper contract workflow platform. Inclusive contract reviews and negotiations Every new contract that is initiated follows a lengthy reviewing process. And often, the edits are exchanged via emails, phone calls, virtual meetings, messaging tools, and shared drives. The outcome? Multiple versions of the same contracts are dispersed all over the emails. It makes it difficult to compare two versions of the same contract and track the changes made. A contract workflow platform features real-time document edits, inclusive reviewing, and creates easy-to-track versions of a single contract. This is how you can do it with InkPaper: InkPaper allows you to draft the contract and edit it on the same platform. Multiple team members can edit, review, redline, mention, and approve contracts in a single space, saving all the contract versions in the same file. InkPaper also records the changes made and makes it easier to compare different contract versions. Collaborate with role-based access Contracts are a collaborative function. Often sales teams, logistic departments, and other internal teams want insights into the process. The constant follow-ups among the internal teams and legal teams or in-house counsels get tiresome. The contract workflow platform makes collaboration simple among internal teams and stakeholders by providing complete visibility into the process. Transparency also increases the accountability of each of the team members. This is how you can do it with InkPaper: InkPaper allows you to tag the internal teams that are involved in the contract (for ex: a sales rep). You can also control who can access the contract and give designated roles to each member of the team. In simple terms, you can control who can only view the contract, can edit, and can approve the contract. InkPaper streamlines the handovers to multiple team members and also enhances the security with role-based accessibility. Centralize the contract database A centralized database ensures easy and safe accessibility of the contracts. The internal team members and external stakeholders can access a particular contract quickly whenever needed. A secure contract database is also beneficial for future audit trials and to monitor and analyze the performance of old contracts. This is how you can do it with InkPaper: InkPaper stores all the contracts securely on the cloud. The centralized database includes all the contract templates, edits made, e-signatures, and approved contracts. With all the data stored in a single platform, legal teams and businesses won’t have to worry about the loss of any critical information. Streamline the signing process with e-signatures An e-signature is a legal, reliable, and secure solution to delayed contract approvals. Multiple signatories can sign the contract from anywhere, at any time with any internet-enabled device. It saves time from sending a contract over email and waiting for it to be signed, scanned, and mailed back. This is how you can do it with InkPaper: InkPaper enables you to streamline the contract workflow and also obtain e-signatures quickly in the same platform. Each of the e-signature is safeguarded with a unique hash over the blockchain. You can send the contract across multiple signatories and notify them to sign the contracts as feasible. Selecting the right contract workflow platform Now that you are aware of the benefits and the features of the contract workflow platform, it is crucial to understand which platform suits the best for your business. The best contract workflow platform for you is the one that can help streamline the process the way you want it. The one which accelerates the process, mitigates contract risks, and fits best with your team members. Here are a few things to evaluate while selecting the right contract workflow platform: Provides high functional value: The contract workflow platform should be innovative and help you grow your business. The product should be of high quality. Increases productivity : The contract workflow platform should accelerate the process and save valuable time and effort, which can be utilized for productive work. Easy to use: The contract workflow platform should be easily adaptable and help your team work more efficiently. Safeguards the confidential data: While selecting the contract workflow platform, it is essential to look out for ethical considerations with business considerations. Implement a platform that protects the confidentiality of the contracts. Prioritizes client’s experience : Follow a customer-centric approach while evaluating a correct contract workflow platform. You should adopt a contract workflow platform that makes the user experience easy and trouble-free. Ready to get started? The mundane and lengthy contract workflows can result in various consequences for your business, from delays in the sales cycle to increasing workload on legal teams. They can even stop you from hitting your revenue goals. Hence, it is essential to implement an efficient contract workflow platform like InkPaper for your business. From contract initiation, authoring, easy reviews, seamless negotiations, faster approvals, secure e-signatures, and centralized storage, InkPaper does it all for you. So, you can do more work in less time and focus on growing your business multifold.