What is a contract library?

Why manage your contracts using a contract library?

Contract management is a crucial stage in the life of company, whether large or small. Contracts are legal documents that define the obligations and responsibilities of each party involved in a commercial transaction. As such, they may be complex and difficult to manage, especially when you have several different contracts in force with different suppliers, customers or partners Inefficient contract management may result in financial losses, legal risks, delays to projects and poor communication with stakeholder. That is why it is essential to implement an efficient contract management strategy using a contract library.

A single, secure repository for all contracts 

In many cases, signed contracts are digitised and stored in a shared, PDF-format repository, alongside an Excel file, which is difficult to update, to monitor the digitised contract. This exercise quickly reaches its limits when the number of contracts is significant and sharing information is essential. Legal documents are not the exclusive preserve of the Legal Affairs Department. 

A contract library quickly proves essential to give access to information and give autonomy to each employee whose position requires them to have access to certain contracts. 

Therefore, each contract, regardless of its nature (supplier, customer, partner, etc.) is centralised in a single repository, making it easy to retrieve. Each contract is saved using metadata to classify the contract according to the name of the supplier, type of contract, deadline, addenda, etc. 

Easy access to information for all contracts 

A contract library not only stores the digitised contract, but also all the related information making it easy to

 retrieve using various criteria. Thanks to the use of filters, it is very easy to list all the contracts of a supplier, or the contracts under the same category (maintenance contracts, telephone contracts, rental agreements, etc.), contracts that expire within 3 months, etc. 

Accessing a contract and reading certain clauses is a quick and easy task for anyone authorised to access the library. This type of solution is generally available in SAAS mode. 

Reduce contract monitoring costs and save time 

Monitoring and managing contracts using an Excel spreadsheet is a time-consuming and risky activity if there is a significant number of contracts. It becomes very difficult to monitor deadlines, contractual commitments and, consequently, to manage the entire lifecycle of the contract. 

A contract library provides automated features that facilitate the day-to-day management of contracts. 

A large number of automated features simplify the management of different types of contract. The centralisation of contracts within a single contract library, which is secure but shared, facilitates the administrative management of different contracts, during the negotiation, renewal, termination and archiving phases. 

A contract library is corporate software that meets the needs of your business, to ensure the integrity of your contracts, and therefore the lifecycle of your contracts. 

Why digitise a contract library? 

Digitisation of contracts 

Digitising the contract management process using a contract library is the key to reducing

operational risks, to provide the teams in charge of managing contracts with autonomy and monitor your contracts. 

A contract library is a secure space for saving contracts, but is also a space that makes it easy to manage the entire lifecycle of a contract thanks to features that help with contract creation, contract validation (workflow), electronic signature, automatic reminders of deadlines, and monitoring of contractual commitments. 

From a single interface, you can very easily find a contract or clause using the search engine, or classify your contracts using a filter that is specific to your business activity. 

A contract library offers the following features: 

• Saving of contracts and management of addenda
• Automatic entry of contractual information using metadata
• Search of multi-criteria information
•  Search filter
• Access rights for contracts
• Monitoring of the contractual process
• Reminders
• Monitoring and reporting