Keeping your SaaS contracts organized is the first step to having a tech stack that works well with each other and fulfills the needs of the business. However, with varying renewal dates, complex terms, and sophisticated pricing plans, managing them often feels like juggling, and it’s complicated to keep all the balls in the air without a tool designed to manage the intricacies that come with software spend.
As budgets tighten, software buyers face increased pressure to take control of contract management to prevent unexpected renewals, shadow spending, and overpaying for software that’s no longer needed.
Instead of outdated processes that rely on complicated spreadsheets and manual data entry, contract management software streamlines the full contract lifecycle, improves compliance, and optimizes procurement processes. To find out more about what a contract management system can do for your organization, keep reading.
What is Contract Management Software?
Contract management software provides the ability to track agreements between a company and its vendors to reduce waste and ensure compliance. Typically, these platforms offer unified contract databases, automated workflows, and management features to manage the creation, storage, and tracking of contracts. This software is crucial to achieving complete contract lifecycle management (CLM), which focuses on enhancing all stages of the contract process, including:
- Request
- Negotiation
- Approval
- Execution
- Expiration/Renewal
By efficiently managing the contract lifecycle end-to-end, companies can minimize manual data entry, mitigate risks, and maximize value from their agreements. For the best example of a technological solution that is helping companies achieve this level of optimization, consider Tropic. Tropic offers B2B contract management software that increases contract and spend visibility and takes the headaches out of contract management. Tropic also helps businesses with automated procurement orchestration, spend intelligence and benchmark pricing, negotiation support and expert advisory services.
The Key Features of Tropic’s Contract Management Software
Tropic’s contract management features provide 360 degree visibility of your supplier information in a single, easy-to-use dashboard. Our platform’s powerful tools include:
Centralized Contract Repository
Tropic creates a single pane of glass of all of your contracts, displaying contract metadata in a sortable, filterable dashboard. Create custom fields to display the most relevant information to your business. All supplier documentation can be stored in a supplier or contract record for easy access and viewing of critical documentation.
Automated Contract Workflows
With Tropic, you can easily set up rules-based logic to route contracts to the right person at the right time, every time. Users can take advantage of Tropic’s straightforward workflow builder and pre-built templates to quickly design custom approval processes that meet their needs.
Spend Analytics
Compare actual spend from your ERP system against your contracted spend in Tropic to find discrepancies. You can also gradually reduce spend across the contract term to to calculate and forecast aggregate spending across time periods, departments, and individual employees.
At-a-Glance Status Management
Easily see the statuses and stages of all your contracts at any time. Admins enjoy a kanban style of view of all purchase requests to track what stage they’re at in the procurement process. Requesters have full visibility into the stages and status of their requests in real time.
Contract Audits
Tropic’s contract repository stores important supplier documentation in one place, making it easy to audit your contracts for compliance so that you can quickly identify discrepancies and close gaps.
Document Index
Looking to access a specific document? No problem. Tropic’s Document Index allows you to easily see all your supplier documentation and instantly download the documents you require.
Powerful Renewal Notifications
Never miss a renewal again. Tropic provides automated reminders via Slack and email so that you can process renewals well in advance of critical dates.
Renewal Calendar with Automatic Alerts
Have peace of mind knowing that your contracts are under control with the Tropic renewal calendar, and completely visualize your spending pipeline. Tropic also offers automatic renewal alerts with timeline recommendations, so you can maximize your leverage with ample time to renegotiate, right-size, and cancel your contract if needed.
What are the Benefits of Using Tropic for Contract Management?
The powerful tools and features within the Tropic platform deliver numerous benefits to organizations like increased visibility, control, and leverage over spend. This includes:
- Increased Efficiency And Productivity: With Tropic, you no longer have to worry about updating spreadsheets each time a contract changes status. Instead, Tropic reduces contract cycle time by letting users add new contracts with just one click as the system pre-fills information using automatic data capture from the contract document.
- Enhanced Compliance and Risk Management: Automatically verify compliance with policies, service-level agreements (SLAs), and usage limits. Identify and mitigate risks like unexpected renewals and overuse penalties.
- Improved Contract Visibility and Accessibility: Instantly see all of your contracts, their statuses, and values from within a single platform. Drill down to specific documents with ease and create custom fields to track the data that matters for your contract lifecycle.
- Cost Savings and Better Negotiation Outcomes: Increased visibility supports cost-cutting by reducing shadow spend and ensuring that renewals never catch you off guard. Rightsize contracts and negotiate better outcomes with greater leverage through Tropic’s robust, unbiased database of Supplier Intelligence.
- Real-time Collaboration and Communication: Tropic integrates with Slack and DocuSign to support real-time notifications on requests, approvals, renewals, and mentions.
- Analytics and Reporting: Clear, pre-built reports and dashboards enable users to analyze cycle times and approved spending amounts to identify opportunities for optimization.
What Customers Say About Tropic
One of the key challenges with contract and spending management is a lack of visibility. Competitors in this space are “pay-to-play,” meaning that they get a return on commission, so their market databases are biased towards their partners. With Tropic, the insights you get are 100 percent reliable and unbiased, ensuring that you can make informed decisions to maximize ROI. Let’s look at the experience of one Tropic customer.
Broadlume, an all-in-one technology platform for retailers, manages millions in technology investment. However, the team had no way to oversee the purchasing process consistently, and the company was losing money as a result of shadow spending. With the help of Tropic’s contract repository and tracking features, Broadlume employees were able to achieve a comprehensive view of all their existing software and tool usage metrics in just a few weeks and immediately began seeing savings. The results?
- Over $178,000 saved per year
- 300+ hours reclaimed annually
- 100% contract coverage
As Steve McMullen, General Manager at Broadlume, says:
“Tropic really is a no-brainer, it pays for itself multiple times over.”
Streamline Your Contract Management With Tropic’s All-in-One Solution
The outdated, legacy processes many companies still use to manage their contracts are ill-suited to meet the needs of the fast-paced, modern organization. Manual data entry and spreadsheet management processes increase the risk of missed automatic renewals and make it difficult to achieve true visibility.
Tropic offers an alternative approach. Our platform supports you through the entire contract lifecycle, from negotiation to contract management and renewal, through a single source of truth with a centralized contract repository, and automated contract workflows with our no-code workflow builder.
And here’s what makes Tropic’s contract management tool unique—Tropic AI provides an insights and interaction layer, providing any contract information you need in seconds simply by asking a question (like ChatGPT), without the need to manually dig for it. Not to mention, Tropic AI also pulls and surfaces customized negotiation strategies from our proprietary database of Supplier Intelligence at the right time, so you can improve software contract negotiation outcomes.
Our plans are transparent:
- Intelligent Spend Management
- Starting at $22,000 per year
- Pricing is based on 100 employees
- Includes all features of the Tropic platform (Intake to Procure and Supplier Intelligence)
- Intake to Procure
- Includes contract management, as well as intake automation, workflow, approval management, audit logs, and more
- Supplier Intelligence
- Includes access to software supplier insights, unlimited price benchmarks, and negotiation playbooks.
If you’re ready to take control of your contracts and maximize your ROI, schedule a demo and discover what Tropic can do for you.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is contract management software?
Contract management software is designed to help businesses manage contracts throughout their lifecycle, from creation and negotiation to execution and renewal.
How does contract management software improve efficiency?
It automates repetitive tasks, provides a centralized location for all contracts, and streamlines workflows, reducing the time spent on manual processes.
What features should I look for in contract management software?
Key features include a centralized contract repository, automated workflows, customizable templates, compliance management, and integration with existing systems.
How does Tropic’s contract management software help with compliance?
Tropic’s software collects and stores critical vendor compliance information and documentation within the contract record. This ensures relevant security approvals are obtained during the purchasing process, while automated alerts are implemented to update security documentation at time of contract renewals.
Can Tropic’s contract management software integrate with my existing systems?
Yes, Tropic’s software is designed to integrate seamlessly with your existing procurement and ERP systems, making the transition and visibility of disparate data sources from multiple systems into Tropic smooth and efficient.
Is Tropic’s contract management software suitable for small businesses?
Yes, Tropic’s software is scalable and can be tailored to meet the needs of businesses of all sizes, including small businesses.
Is Tropic’s contract management software equipped to handle the complex needs of enterprise-level organizations?
Yes, Tropic’s platform is built to support enterprise-level requirements, with advanced features like detailed spend insights, vendor and contract management tools and analytics, and customized workflows to maximize visibility and control over contracts.
What is contract lifecycle management?
Contract lifecycle management (CLM) refers to the process of managing a contract from its initial creation through negotiation, execution, performance, and renewal or expiration.
How secure is my data with Tropic’s contract management software?
Tropic employs industry-standard security measures to ensure that your contract data is protected from unauthorized access and breaches.
Can I customize the contract templates in Tropic’s software?
Yes, Tropic’s contract management software allows for the customization of templates to meet your specific business needs.
What support options are available for Tropic’s contract management software?
Tropic offers comprehensive support, including customer service, onboarding assistance, and training resources to ensure you get the most out of the software.
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