Contracts 365 Contract Management Customer Survey Highlights
The Contracts 365 Customer Success team regularly surveys our customers to identify trends and to better understand the impact of our software on users and on the contract management process.
The data points here come from Contracts 365 customers surveyed who have been utilizing the software for at least one year and who did not have a Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM) solution in place prior to implementing Contracts 365. Our goal was to quantify the results achieved by those companies that move away from using manual, non-specific business tools like email and spreadsheets, in favor of a purpose-built CLM solution like Contracts 365.
42% Reduction – Contract Processing Costs
Respondents were asked to benchmark the before and after costs associated with 5 steps in the contract lifecycle: author, review, negotiate, approve, and execute. Contract authoring and negotiation emerged as the most time consuming and therefore most costly steps in the process. Contract processing cost reductions experienced after implementing the CLM solution were attributed in large part to the introduction of template and workflow automation thereby reducing the workload on costly legal resources.
52% Reduction – Contract Processing Time
Similar to the responses related to contract processing costs noted above, respondents stated that the time required to process a contract was reduced an average of 52% after implementing the CLM solution. In lock step with the cost of processing contracts, contract authoring, and negotiation emerged as the most time-consuming operations in the contract process. Reductions in time required for contract processing realized after implementing the CLM solution were again attributed in large part to the introduction of template and workflow automation reducing the manual workload on legal and operational resources.
67% Reduction – Delivery Time of Contract 1st Draft
The period of time measured from when a contract is received up until the first draft of a contract is delivered to the requester is a key metric for many Legal and contract management professionals. Respondents noted that they were able to deliver the first draft of a contract an average of 67% faster after implementing the CLM solution. The results were heavily attributed to the introduction of a request process, utilization of template and workflow automation to create the first draft and obtaining necessary approvals required prior to delivering the contract to the requester.
8 Days Faster – Sales Contracts to Customers
Accelerating the contract stage of the sales process ranked as a top priority for most respondents. On average, respondents reported sales contracts being delivered 8 days faster following implementation of the CLM solution. This was attributed in large part to the introduction of self-service request support and automated contract authoring reducing the time from request to delivery.
4 Hours Per Week Reduction – Sales Administrative Labor
The contracting phase of a sales cycle is a common source of frustration for companies on multiple levels. First, it is often plagued with inefficiencies which extend the time needed to close a deal. Second, the inefficiencies noted above consume time and direct the attention of your sales team away from sales-specific (revenue generating) activities.
Inefficient contracting processes impacting sales teams include:
- Multiple applications required for sales/contract Users to initiate/complete processes
- Manual retyping of contract data that exists in CRM or other application
- No visibility to contract status, requiring email, phone or IM follow up
- Manual drafting of contract redlines
- Contract requests submitted over email
In this category, we had two survey targets:
- Group 1: Customers using our sales-focused integration with CRM systems Dynamics 365 or Salesforce
- Group 2: Customers who have not integrated their CLM and CRM systems
Respondents in Group 1 (those who integrate their CLM and CRM solutions) reported a reduction of contract related administrative tasks averaging 4.3 hours per week per sales rep.
Respondents in Group 2 (those who do not integrate their CLM and CRM solutions) reported a reduction of contract related administrative tasks averaging 2.6 hours per week per sales rep.
We look forward to sharing more highlights from the report in the coming weeks.