The Forrester State of Systems of Agreement Study 2020, commissioned by Forrester on behalf of DocuSign, highlights some of the problems organisations face when they manage contracts and agreements, especially in the current climate. If an organisation can centralise its agreement storage and search as part of a flexible workflow, it saves users valuable time and ensures that the right people can access documents.
The Forrester State of Systems of Agreement Study 2020 also reports on the business benefits organisations gain when they take steps to automate, connect and digitise the contract process.
Here are some of the key findings related to managing contracts:
What challenges do organisations face when managing agreements?
950 global technology purchasing decision-makers responded to the Forrester survey. A large number of organisations reported that they face challenges when trying to manage their agreements and contracts. The areas they find challenging include:
59% of respondents said that they were unable to search the full text of their agreements or contracts effectively
51% said they had a lack of visibility into the status of agreements
47% said they faced risks from an inability to search or proactively detect problematic contract language
42% had difficulty maintaining security and confidentiality, and ensuring only the right people can access documents
While these numbers might initially appear to be alarming, organisations that are beginning to automate processes when they are managing agreements are starting to address the challenges of that phase. 53% of respondents said they were already implementing or planning to implement systems and processes to help digitally manage and analyse completed agreements.
How is digitisation helping companies to manage their agreements?
Organisations are starting to see many benefits from digitising their agreement processes. One respondent to the Forrester Survey says, “When we’re audited, it’s so much easier to find a contract on the computer as opposed to paper storage somewhere” and another says, “We have transparency of what is happening with contracts now. It’s mitigating the errors we were seeing with our manual process.”
55% of respondents said they were delivering a better service to customers as a result of implementing digital agreement processes.
Respondents to the survey stated many benefits of digital agreements:
48% of respondents said they saw error reduction
45% reported fewer manual steps
45% reported time savings
32% reported ease of information transfer
What digital technology can help organisations manage their system of agreements?
An agreement cloud is a suite of purpose-built cloud software for automating and connecting the entire agreement process. The DocuSign Agreement Cloud helps organisations digitally transform how they do business, and both DocuSign CLM and DocuSign Insight help teams improve the way they manage agreements.
DocuSign CLM can help you store, tag and organise contracts in a single, searchable place– reducing the time spent searching for contracts and accelerating your contract lifecycle. DocuSign Insight helps teams to understand what’s in their agreements. It uses AI to index, find and analyse clauses within your organisation’s agreements. It can help teams to understand risk, identify opportunities, pinpoint inconsistencies and identify familiar legal concepts.
Download the full Forrester State of Systems of Agreement Study 2020 to discover the findings on the challenges and advances in the digital transformation of agreements and agreement processes.
