82%. According to EY, this is the share of companies planning to reduce the cost of the legal department by 2021, while at the same time 87% of them have seen an increase in their legal needs over the last five years. In this context, technology represents a real opportunity. The legal and financial risks caused by manual contract management are no longer compatible with the rationalisation needs of companies.
What are the impacts, risks and costs of manual contract management? What are the new technological solutions on the market? And how can contract management solutions enable you to do more with less?
Historically, companies have often regarded contract management as an administrative activity, not directly value-creating. As a result, very few have invested in the digitization of the contract cycle and many still rely on manual and inefficient contract management.
Contracts are the foundation of business. From customers to suppliers, from real estate to employees, they have always governed business relationships. In fact, according to a study by the Institute for Supply Management, 60% to 80% of B2B transactions are governed by contracts, and on average, a Fortune 1000 company manages between 20,000 and 40,000 active contracts.
As in many other areas, contract management solutions have evolved significantly before becoming what they are today. Originally, the very first contract management software was designed solely for archiving, allowing companies to scan and save a large amount of paper documents.