Johannesburg, 12 Apr 2006
One of the key risks companies face is the internal processes of contract creation and approval. Our findings show that the creation and approval of contracts is often a lengthy process and internal legal departments struggle to provide the required services to the operations of the business timeously.
As a result, the operations of a business contract with suppliers or customers without engaging the legal team in the process. This results in significant risk as the contract is often negotiated without the inherent risks being understood and mitigated. Clauses which should be in the contract are omitted and the resulting signed contract does not adequately protect the organisation or adequately represent the nature of the relationship.
In addition, the approval processes are often manual and time-consuming. As a result, there is limited control of the various versions of the contract and no tracking of the approval process. While policies and delegations of authorities may exist in the business, a manual process often lacks the controls and efficiencies required. Contracts are thus signed without having been through the correct approval processes.
Realyst provides a contract creation and approval module that automates the creation of a contract using clause libraries and standard templates for each contract type. The different versions of the contract documents are stored and the changes tracked during the negotiation process. A checklist for each contract type guides the contract owner through the negotiation process and ensures critical and important clauses are not omitted and that the risks are understood, quantified and reported on. A library of `best practice` contracts is available for reference during negotiations thus reducing the potential for contracts that do not adequately protect the organisation.
The approval processes are automated through workflow ensuring all interested parties are alerted to the new contract and that the approval is in line with defined policies and authorities. The workflow process significantly improves efficiencies in the approval process.
Please contact us should you require further information on the Contract Creation and Approval module.
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