Welcome back to the blog series on evaluating contract management solutions. We went over step one in the process yesterday, which is all about identifying your needs. Check it out here if you missed it. Now that you've identified the teams and individuals involved in your contract lifecycle, the worst mistake you can make is asking each of those stakeholders exactly what they want from a contract management system. Gathering a wishlist of features sets an unrealistic expectation for a fantasy solution. This brings us to the second step.
Step 2: Prioritize Your Contract Management Needs
The key is to focus on the one or two problems each stakeholder wants solved, rather than creating an endless “feature wishlist.” This approach identifies a list of pain points you must address to suggest must-have features, and will prioritize those features.
For example, if your sales team is constantly frustrated that contract data isn't available in their Salesforce workflow, it may look like Salesforce integration is a must-have feature. But if the reason the data isn't present in Salesforce is because you can't report on contract status and contract terms (like renewal dates), contract management reporting is actually your top priority, and Salesforce integration is a secondary consideration.
This prioritization will become more apparent when you identify problems, not features. To return to the example above, you may find that while your sales team most wants contract data in Salesforce, your finance team most wants contract data in NetSuite, and your tech support team most wants contract information available in Zendesk or Slack. At the heart of each request is a reporting problem. That's your top priority, and integrations -- while important -- are only useful if you're pushing good reports into those integrated tools.
The third and final step is coming your way on the blog this week. Stay tuned for that post or - if you’re feeling eager - feel free to download the full eBook for the entire process today.
