Contract analysis software is a powerful tool for anyone managing the provision, signing, and storage of contracts, as well as for those in charge of compliance and process improvement.
Automation and workflow creation help drive efficiency, while AI can extract important contract data from lengthy legal documents and surface the most critical information, speeding up the analysis of agreements.
But which software platform should you invest in?
This guide will help you answer that question. We will uncover the benefits of using contract analysis software, run through the most important features and functions to look for, and present a list of the leading contract analysis platforms available today.
Benefits of contract analysis software
Okay, let’s begin by answering an important question: What exactly does contract analysis software have to offer?
Quite a bit, as it turns out.
#1 Greater compliance with internal contract policies
Contract analysis software helps ensure contract compliance against internal policies while speeding up the contracting process by allowing those responsible for approving agreements to surface key contract information.
“Ensuring compliance while building a product can help avoid legal blockers in the future. If the product is compliant with technology laws, GTM becomes easy. Hence, GCs should have regular calls with developers and closely monitor product development from a legal standpoint.”
~ Bhavna Singh, GC & DPO, Subex Limited
Elevating Legal: Fostering Transparency and Accountability in Large Tech Enterprises
#2 Improved risk identification and management
By using contract analysis software to surface key clauses related to liability and contractual obligations, risk managers can more accurately (and rapidly) determine whether a new contract presents potential risks beyond the acceptable limit or if it’s okay to sign as is.
Also read: Contract Risk Assessment Checklist: A Guide to Future-Proofing Your Agreements
#3 Faster contract cycle times
Time equals money, and any efficiency gained on contract management processes (provided there are no additional associated risks) makes for a more profitable operation.
This is especially true in the case of contract cycle times. The faster you are able to get a deal across the line with an eSignature affixed, the sooner you’ll see that revenue in your account.
The ability to extract and analyze critical data without the need to scroll through hundreds of pages speeds up this process significantly. Couple that with the improvements in approval, risk, and compliance management processes, and you will see how AI-powered contract analysis tools can boost contract cycle times.
Also read: Contract Lifecycle Management Process: All You Need to Know
#4 Greater identification of improvement opportunities and enhanced decision-making
At a higher level, contract analysis software is instrumental in helping teams identify process improvement opportunities.
These helpful software platforms can not only analyze individual contracts but the entire contract management process.
They can surface important data such as how long the typical contract spends in review or how many revisions and redlining sessions a given agreement goes through before the deal gets across the line.
By diving deeper and analyzing the overall performance of your contract lifecycle management (CLM) processes, you are better positioned to make important calls about hiring, policy changes, or cost-cutting initiatives.
What to consider when choosing a contract analysis software solution
Before you start looking at software options and pricing, it's a smart idea to have a strong understanding of what aspects and features to keep in mind.
#1 Automation and workflows
A contract management platform with a strong base of automation is going to be very beneficial in the context of creating time-saving efficiencies.
This is especially true of platforms that make it easy to build custom workflows.
For instance, you might build a custom approval workflow that automatically routes agreements to the appropriate authority for approval.
The contract analysis software surfaces the most critical information to make their job easy, and once the contract is approved, it's sent back to the owner to move forward with the next step.
“Legal ops team members focus on the core problem. When I have a legal ops team, I'm not focused on tasks that aren't the best use of my time. So if, for privacy, there's a whole new set of documentation that we need to put out, legal ops can help me do this. They figure out what we can do manually, what we can automate, and identify who are the most important or valued customers.”
~ Ken Priore, ex-Director of Privacy, Atlassian
Mastering the Intersection of Law, Technology, and Privacy
#2 AI assistance
Hand-in-hand with workflow automation is the use of artificial intelligence to work smarter, faster, and with less risk incurred.
Take, for instance, the AI-powered features offered by SpotDraft:
- Instantly create contract templates from Word documents
- Conduct comprehensive due diligence on multiple contracts at once by surfacing key information
- Ask questions in plain English and receive helpful insights immediately
#3 Customization of reporting dashboards
When the time comes to dig into reports on contract performance, you don’t want to be wading through piles of graphs and spreadsheets. You need to get right to the stuff that matters.
A good contract analysis software tool should allow you to pull key contract insights together in a custom reporting dashboard.
Some will even let you go a step further and send an automated email to your inbox every morning (or week) with your desired reports inside.
Also read: Contract Management Dashboard: A Comprehensive Guide
#4 Integrations with other tools
You want your contract analysis platform to integrate nicely with the other tools you’re already using, such as sales CRMs and team communications platforms.
That's why, when choosing a new contract analysis tool, you should check out the integrations that the platform already has built in. If you are using Salesforce as your CRM, for example, then you will want to make sure your new contract analysis software comes with a native Salesforce integration.
#5 Searchable contract repository
You can’t exactly do a lot of analysis on a contract if you can’t find it first, right?
That’s why, when searching for a contract analysis software platform, you want to look out for one with an easily searchable contract repository.
For example, with SpotDraft’s contract repository, you can accomplish the following:
- Browse through high-level details to locate a given agreement
- Search using filter and sort functionality
- Use the full-text search function to find exactly what you’re after
Also read: Rethinking Contract Repository Management in the Age of AI
#6 Affordability
Of course, don’t forget that whatever platform you choose, you’re going to have to pay for it.
And when it comes to software for legal teams, there is a huge range of software options, many of which exclusively serve enterprise organizations (and charge as if they do).
So, the last step on your checklist should be to check out the various plans and pricing options of the tool you’re looking at buying and confirm that it's within your approved budget.
Leading contract analysis software
By this point, you should have a good idea of what you’re looking for when it comes to choosing a contract analysis software platform.
While each company has individual needs and should use the advice covered above to guide its decision-making process, it’s always helpful to get a bit of a head start.
Also read: How to Choose the Best AI Contract Review Software
So, let’s quickly explore why SpotDraft is one of the leading contract analysis software tools on the market today.
SpotDraft is a complete contract lifecycle management platform, with a searchable contract repository, a powerful and easy-to-use workflow automation tool, and AI-powered contract drafting, templating, and analysis features.
With SpotDraft, you can dive deep into contract performance in our reporting suite and uncover insights like turnaround times and process inefficiencies.
Other popular tools that are used for contract analytics include the following:
Harness the power of contract analysis software
Contract analysis software is a powerful form of legal technology that helps business stakeholders accomplish the following:
- Surface actionable insights from individual contracts and the contract management process
- Monitor contract performance in real time
- Automate time-consuming manual tasks to streamline contract review processes and work faster with fewer mistakes
The best contract analysis tools are those that sit within the wider architecture of a full-scale contract lifecycle management platform, like SpotDraft.
With SpotDraft, you can build automated workflows, store and easily locate legal documents, pull out key insights from a dedicated reporting dashboard, and instantly create contract templates from existing Word documents.
Learn more about SpotDraft by requesting a demo with one of our experts.
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