Effectiveness of Cloud-Based Contract Management

The digital era we currently live in has revolutionized how we perform daily business functions and the way in which we operate – one technological advancement that has made a big impact in the last few years or so is ‘cloud computing’.

Cloud-based contract management software (CMS) has many benefits over not just traditional non-digital contract lifecycle management, but it also performs better compared to other types of effective contract management software -this software is the solution to how to manage contracts effectively.

Cloud-based CMS: Details

Contract management software helps businesses manage the entire contract lifecycle – from creation to the signature to renewal – within the software that automates and streamlines the entire process, making it much easier to manage contracts.

In this day and age, contracts are becoming increasingly complex and the actual volume of contracts businesses deal with on a day-to-day basis is growing as well. In order to stay afloat and effectively manage these contracts and the obligations they have, contract management software is basically essential.

With this software, there are certain ‘subsets’ of how these systems operate… which we will now explain.

What types of contract management software are there?

There are a couple different types of contract management software.

They are:

• On-premise
• Cloud-based

What does cloud-based contract management software mean?

‘Cloud-based’ simply refers to how data is stored – it means that all data is saved within a network of servers that are hosted on the internet, as opposed to being stored in computers and local servers.

Everything is saved in the cloud, which means no need for hardware or in-house servers to save your important files and contracts.

On-premise vs. cloud-based system

There are a few main differences between on-premise and cloud-based contract management systems.

Main differences

With on-premise contract management software, contracts (data) are stored within your in-house data center.

Everything is hosted ‘on-premise’ – as in, your business handles the hardware that is needed to store all the contracts and files that take up space on a computer. 

This gives you the following benefits:

• You have complete control of the software (no need to schedule calls with IT teams)
• You control security and backups (this might give you a sense of confidence that your business data is protected by you, and not another company)
• You have security over sensitive data (many businesses will simply not allow their contracts to be stored via cloud in case of hacks or malfunctions)
• You are in control of updates and systems (your business chooses when the system gets updated and when to fix technological problems)

Although there are certain benefits of on-premise contract management software, cloud-based contract management solutions have an array of benefits that outweigh any downsides.

Benefits of cloud-based contract management

Cloud computing lets businesses focus more on what really matters and less on the logistics of dealing with software solutions.

WIth cloud based management software, it eliminates the need to manually store data in team members computers – thanks to ‘the cloud’, data and important documents can be accessed anywhere so long as the user has password access to the central storage.

Other main benefits of cloud-based effective contract management software include:

• No need for in-house IT – the software provider takes care of this (doesn’t matter if you are a big business with an IT department or a small business without, there is a  benefit of not having to devote money, space, and time to on-premise contract management)
• Good security (although on-premise contract storing may have better security if you can afford it, cloud-based contract management solution providers typically have excellent security teams and protocol)
• Unlimited data (when storing via cloud, there is unlimited data storage assuming you are willing to pay for it – this is not possible with on-premise storage)
• Scalability (with unlimited data, scaling your business does not require the need to increase your data storage capabilities – the more business you have, the more contracts, and the less you have to worry about gathering hardware to store those contracts, the better)
• Universal access (this is one of the main benefits of cloud-based contract management software – all parties can access the centralized storage so long as they have password access)

Why choose cloud-based contract management solutions?

Cloud-based contract management solutions typically end up being less expensive than on-premise contract management because businesses don’t need to spend time on security, in-house storage, tech issues, and data problems.

Since most tasks are handled by the cloud-based contract management solution provider, this frees up time for businesses to focus on core functions and what really matters – sales and long-term growth.