On-demand Redline Support to Debottleneck and
Accelerate the Draft-to-Execution Contracting Process
As companies strive to be agile and seize opportunities in real time, transactions with new clients and vendors invariably hit a roadblock: the need to have a contract in place before they can do business. And just as invariably the contract negotiating process lags far behind business needs and creates a bottleneck.
The advent of new digital tools, such as e-signature and contract lifecycle management software (CLM), has reduced some of the factors contributing to a lengthy contract process. However, draft contracts must still be reviewed and revised at each negotiation round, by negotiators and legal counsels who are managing an ever-increasing portfolio of responsibilities and projects.
To reduce the lag time between opportunities/needs and the required contract execution, companies must find ways to accelerate the draft-to-execution process.
Procurium has developed Contract Process Acceleration (CPA), a service specifically designed to address this business need. CPA supports and supplements your Procurement/Sales contract negotiators and your Legal Department to shorten the draft-to-execution contracting process.
CPA reduces the contract workload and backlog for both your negotiators and your legal counsel by inserting on-demand, rapid and expert contract redlining and review services at the handover point between them. CPA frees up your negotiators from arcane legal terms which exceed their competency, and your legal counsel from reviewing redlines that should have been better developed before reaching them.
Causes of bottlenecks in the contracting process
While not all bottlenecks can be mitigated, these systemic causes are prime targets for process improvement:
Sales and Procurement staff have broad responsibilities extending well beyond contract drafting and redlining. As a result:
They have competing, more immediate priorities, causing backlogs in contract drafting and redlining
Contract drafting and redlining may not be their core competency, leading to sub-optimal redlining, which in turn leads to slower and more frequent rounds of negotiations than can otherwise be achieved.
Legal counsels either support a large sales and procurement staff, or a broad range of functions that may take precedence.
They generally operate with a systemic backlog, with contract review turnaround measured in weeks, not days.
Sub-optimal redlines received for review further strain their ability to timely review a large volume of contracts.
What CPA is not
CPA is not an outside counsel service, nor is it legal advice.
CPA is not an outsourced service. Rather it is a supplemental service to both accelerate your contracting process and free up your internal resources to focus on competing priorities.
Benefits of CPA over outside counsel
Faster turnaround of draft/redline review.
Addresses both legal terms and commercial terms; balances the trade-offs between them in accordance with your company's mapped requirements, leading to better negotiated outcomes.
Significantly lower cost.
How CPA Reduces the Draft-to-Execution Contracting Time
Lag time in contract negotiation is reduced by targeting the two main factors contributing to a lengthy contracting process:
The quality of the redlines. Poor quality redlining increases the number of rounds of required negotiations.
Substantial contract backlogs in negotiators' and legal counsels' inboxes.
Typical Contract Process
How CPA Targets Bottlenecks
How CPA is implemented
We understand that each company has its own contractual risk mitigation principles and expectations, its own contracting culture, and that no standard approach applies to all.
We work with your Legal Counsel to:
Understand their needs, pain points and bottlenecks
Review legal terms and clauses and rank them by the importance that Legal Counsel accords them
Document acceptable ranges of settlement for each prioritized term
Document counsel-approved fallback language
Document relevant business cases, context and tradeoffs for each acceptable range of settlement and each fallback language
Establish parameters for items that require referral to Legal Counsel
Define Legal Counsel’s preferred modes of communications
Tailor the process to seamlessly integrate with Legal Counsel’s workflow
We work with your Sales/Procurement staff to:
Understand their needs, pain points and bottlenecks
Review legal terms and clauses which they typically struggle with or lack an in-depth familiarity with
Document acceptable ranges of settlement and fallback positions for the most important commercial terms
Document relevant business cases, context and tradeoffs for each acceptable range of settlement and each fallback position
Define their preferred modes of communications
Tailor the process to seamlessly integrate within your organization's workflow
To inquire about Contract Process Acceleration, email cpa@procurium.net