The top 5 contract management trends of 2023

Creating, managing and negotiating contracts can be a lengthy process which can be greatly accelerated with contract management software. Contract management solutions make the process of tracking pending and executed contracts more efficient. This article shares the top contract management trends of 2023 and the new technologies which are helping more and more businesses streamline their contracting workflows.

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Commoditisation of electronic signatures

The pandemic has accelerated many trends including remote work and the adoption of e-signatures and digital contracts. Whilst this digital transformation has streamlined the signing of documents, it does not solve the bigger bottleneck in contracting workflows which is contract drafting. As a result, e-signatures have been commoditised and businesses are now seeking contract management solutions which cover the full contract lifecycle ranging from contract drafting to e-signing.

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Democratisation of contract creation and automation

Contract management system providers have traditionally focused on enterprise use cases with procurement and legal teams as the main users. Contract management tools are now moving out of legal departments to empower business users to create and manage contracts themselves. This helps avoid delays in processing simple template agreements like NDAs or employment contracts which ensures smooth business operations and frees up time for the legal teams to focus on more valuable and strategic tasks. This current trend also opens the door for small businesses without legal departments or retained legal support to create lawyer-approved contracts use contract automation and management tools.

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Connected documents

Contracts are often connected to other documents but contract management systems do not always know how they are connected and what should be transferred over. Modern contract management software in 2023 will make the process of transferring data from the contract to and from these documents a smooth process which will help businesses save time and reduce errors in the preparation of these contract bundles.

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Shift in the application of machine learning from contract review to contract data insights

Historically, artificial intelligence and machine learning applied to contracts have mainly focused on contract review use cases and finding key clauses and terms in contract pdfs. As contract templates offered by contract management software become popular and standardised, machine learning algorithms will no longer need to extract key terms from contract and can instead focus on finding patterns across contracts. Contract patterns can help businesses extrapolate contract data to make better business decisions.

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Traditional contract lifecycle management  streamlined

The use of contract templates provided by contract management platforms will make contract lifecycle management (CLM) more efficient and predictable. As a result, CLM software will focus less on negotiation and more on tracking key contract dates and reminders. This means that the contract management process will become much more strategic as stakeholders will have more visibility of renewals, break clauses and the triggers of these events. This visibility will give a competitive advantage to business leaders with contract management technology.

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The pandemic and the commoditisation of electronic signatures has led to increased adoption of contract management software which will only accelerate in 2023. As contract management moves out of legal departments to business users, contract templates will become standardised to enable more efficient processing without the input of legal teams. This trend will democratise contract management platforms by allowing small businesses without retained legal support to create lawyer-approved contract templates which are tailored to their requirements thanks to contract builders. The standardisation of contract templates and terms will allow machine learning to shift from contract review to contract analytics which will allow businesses to make better decisions and focus on their contract lifecycle management strategy.

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About Legislate

Legislate is a contract management platform that empowers businesses to take control of their legal agreements. Our platform allows you to create bespoke contracts tailored to your specific needs, all without breaking the bank. With Legislate, you can also sign, and manage contracts electronically, making the process more efficient and allowing you to make informed decisions faster. Book a demo or sign up today to put the confidence back into contracting.

The opinions on this page are for general information purposes only and do not constitute legal advice on which you should rely.