Tackling the Complexities of Contract Lifecycle Management for Better Supplier Relationships

Contracts can be both a blessing and a curse. They’re essential for making relationships run smoothly and protecting a business and, of course, create revenue opportunities. Yet when they aren’t managed properly, a domino effect can cause problems and risk to roll across the company. Deadlines can get missed, penalties follow, time and resources are wasted, and a reputation can take a significant hit with costly repercussions — not to mention the time taken up by reviews and redlines, as well as overwhelming requests from commercial teams.

What’s needed to help turn contracts into strategic assets is contract lifecycle management. CLM takes a contract from creation through close, with particular emphasis on execution, ongoing monitoring and renewal. This is critical when it comes to selecting and working with vendors and suppliers of all stripes. CLM is meant to drive greater efficiency, but it can get complex, causing the speed and quality of supplier decisions to be negatively impacted. 

From the outset, bottlenecks in onboarding suppliers can arise because you’re dealing with three distinct departments …