It's another day at work, and you areelbows-deep in legal research, strategizing how to minimize the company's liability in an upcoming acquisition. A notification chimes, momentarily pulling you from your current task.

The team just closed another deal, and for the umpteenth time, it's up to you to upload the final, executed contract to Google Drive.

You know this is important and can't afford to wait. However, the constant need to manually upload documents to Google Drive every time a new contract is closed is becoming too distracting and exhausting. And as your company continues to scale its contract portfolio, you know this can only worsen!

SpotDraft solves this challenge by integrating with Google Drive to provide much-needed automation, taking the routine workload off your shoulders.

In this guide, we will discuss everything you should know about the SpotDraft-Google Drive integration, its features, and how it can benefit you.

What is Google Drive?

Google Drive is a cloud-based storage and collaboration platform designed to simplify how businesses and individuals store, organize, and manage files.

It's like a virtual filing cabinet, accessible from anywhere with an internet connection, and offering a secure location for all your documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and more.

Many businesses store their contracts in Google Drive. The platform offers a variety of features that enable contract managers to maintain security, accessibility, and version control for all their legal agreements.

Here are some of its major features:

• File storage: 15GB of free storage and higher storage capacities for paid plans.
• Folder organization: Create a structured hierarchy of folders and subfolders to keep files organized.
• Search functionality: Quickly find files using keywords, file types, or owner names.
• Starred items: Mark important files for easy access.
• File sharing: Share files or folders with specific individuals or groups within your organization or externally.
• Granular permissions: Control who can view, edit, or download documents.
• Real-time collaboration: Multiple users can edit documents, spreadsheets, and presentations simultaneously.

Also read: Contract Storage: Tips to Store Your Contracts Effectively

Google Drive in contract management: What you should know

Google Drive offers a robust repository for storing contracts. However, contract management encompasses several other processes that the platform isn’t equipped to handle.

Thus, contract-facing teams utilize various tools for different stages of the contract lifecycle. Here's how what the process and tooling typically look like in traditional contract management:

• Drafting and redlining—Word processors like Google Docs or Microsoft Word
• Negotiations—Emails
• Notifications and  reminders—Emails
• Signing—Adobe Sign or DocuSign
• Contract storage and retrieval—Google Drive

Also read: Contract Workflow: A Step-By-Step Guide

Utilizing these tools for different purposes across the contract lifecycle can get the job done for most contract managers, but here’s why it is counterproductive:

First, the process is fragmented. The need for legal and business teams to switch between apps and interfaces can be disruptive, introducing friction and eating up time that could’ve been spent on more valuable tasks.

Also, this process offers no support for self-serve contracts, which empowers business teams to draft and manage simple agreements independently. When business teams rely on legal whenever they need a new contract, it can create a backlog of requests and slow down essential business processes.

Legal teams can create templates for different contracts and house them in Google Drive. However,  they have limited control over which template business teams use when drafting new contracts.

Uploading documents to Google Drive, as well as managing multiple versions of the same contract can also be a chaotic process, especially when the organization is onboarding new deals at scale.

Organizations need a comprehensive system that doesn’t just bring these fragmented functionalities under one roof but also provides contract-facing teams with everything they need to significantly improve efficiency, collaboration, and compliance throughout the contract lifecycle.

Also read: Tools & Tips to Automate the Contract Creation Process

Introducing the SpotDraft-Google Drive integration

“Leveraging a CLM has been key because it has reduced a lot of friction from handoffs between legal and business. Rather than going back and forth over email, Slack, Word, Zoom, DocuSign, and a whole tech stack, the CLM acts as a single source of truth.”

~Jonathan Franz, Head of Legal, Crunchbase
Navigating Economic Turbulence and Thriving in Chaos

SpotDraft is an AI-driven contract management and automation platform designed to help organizations streamline time-consuming tasks in contract management, enabling teams to launch contracts faster, reduce risks, and improve overall efficiency.

Its integration with Google Drive means you no longer have to manually upload documents to Google Drive or switch between apps at any point in the contract lifecycle.

Here’s how the integration works:

• You connect your SpotDraft account to your organization’s Google Drive. The steps are described here.

• You handle all contracting processes within SpotDraft—drafting, redlining, negotiation, automation, etc.

• Whenever a contract reaches the "executed" or "signed" stage in SpotDraft, a PDF copy is automatically uploaded to a designated folder in your Google Drive. SpotDraft can create a structured folder system in Google Drive based on contract types, dates, or other criteria, keeping your contracts well-organized and easy to find.

• SpotDraft automatically manages version history, ensuring you can always access the latest contract revisions.

Also read: 6 Must-Have CLM Integrations with Business Tools

Features of the SpotDraft-Google Drive integration

Here are some features you will find in the SpotDraft-Google Drive:

#1 Automatic upload

The integration allows SpotDraft to automatically upload executed copies of your contracts directly into Google Drive.

“The importance of simply being able to locate all of the company's contracts and relevant amendments in one place without significant effort cannot be minimized."

~Sterling Miller, CEO and Senior Counsel, Hilgers Graben PLLC
‍Ten Things: Minimizing Risks in Commercial Contracts

#2 Automated file organization

The integration will automatically organize your contracts within Google Drive, often using a preset folder structure and naming conventions. This ensures that you can easily find and retrieve any contract when needed.

#3 Sharing and collaboration features

With contracts securely stored in Google Drive, the integration simplifies sharing them with colleagues, clients, or other stakeholders. You can control access permissions, granting view or edit rights as needed, and easily track who has viewed or modified the document.

#4 Automated backups and security

The SpotDraft-Google Drive integration combines SpotDraft’s automated backup with Google’s robust security features. Thus, your contracts are regularly backed up and protected against loss or corruption.

Benefits of the SpotDraft-Google Drive integration

By integrating SpotDraft with Google Drive, you can leverage the strengths of both tools to create a more efficient, collaborative, and secure contract management solution. Here are some benefits the integration can offer.

#1 Reduced manual efforts

The integration eliminates the need for manual tasks like downloading contracts from sources like emails and uploading them to Google Drive. This saves time and reduces the risk of human error.

Additionally, SpotDraft automatically organizes contracts in Google Drive using a clear folder structure and consistent naming conventions. This eliminates the need for manual filing while keeping the files searchable.

#2 Better version control

SpotDraft automatically updates the contract versions in Google Drive whenever changes are made. This ensures all stakeholders work with the most up-to-date document and eliminates confusion caused by multiple versions.

“Another problem we face in contract management is version control - different departments may be using old templates and rolling contracts out manually. We want to implement a CLM solution to have better visibility into our contract pipeline, especially when our business is scaling in different countries.”

~Juliette Thirsk, Chief Legal Officer, Peach Payments
Streamlining Legal at a FinTech Startup

#3 Increased efficiency

By automating the process of uploading, organizing, and managing contracts in Google Drive, The SpotDraft-Google Drive integration frees up valuable time for legal and business teams to focus on more productive tasks and provide better value to their organization.

#4 Enhanced collaboration

The integration empowers teams with the best of SpotDraft and Google Drive's collaboration features. This results in better communication, faster approvals, and overall improved productivity.

#5 Improved security

By combining Google Drive's robust infrastructure with SpotDraft’s automation capabilities, the integration ensures your contracts are regularly backed up and protected from accidental loss or data corruption.

“I have seen a demo of SpotDraft’s CLM technology and they should be on your short list of vendors to talk to about a contract management system.”

~Sterling Miller, CEO and Senior Counsel at Hilgers Grabens PLLC
Ten Things: “Cool Tech” For In-House Counsel (2022 Edition)

Wrapping up

While Google Drive does a great job securely storing documents for contract managers, manually uploading documents for every new deal can be exhausting, especially for companies with a growing portfolio of contracts.

SpotDraft’s integration to Google Drive doesn’t just eliminate the challenge of manual uploads and limited version control. It also empowers you with robust contract management functionalities that accelerate turnaround times, enhance compliance, and boost overall productivity levels.

If you want to learn more about this integration, click here.

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