Most general counsel and procurement officers would probably agree that collaboration in contract negotiations is a challenge even when all parties are in the same room. So what happens in our virtual world where the new normal is that people are spread across multiple locations and time zones? What does virtual collaboration look like?

Wired

A track changes tool with the following features:

1. Tracks changes without requiring you to remember to turn track changes on;
2. Provides a format for viewing changes that is easily decipherable;
3. Properly formats and paginates documents which incorporate changes;
4. Automatically mark-ups all changes made by external parties even when those parties have taken the document offline and made changes to it without using the “track changes” function i.e. no document comparison is required.
5. Allows for multiple external parties to make changes to a document at the same time and properly incorporates and tracks these changes upon their return.

Tired

Using track changes with a word processor

Where only one or two people are involved this process is workable. However, track changes is clunky and requires an in depth knowledge of word to properly use all the features available in this outdated tool.

Expired

Using track changes with multiple parties

Deciphering changes that have been made becomes even more difficult when external parties (i.e., counterparties) are involved. They may take your version of the document, make their corrections and send the document back with their changes purportedly marked. But they also may fail to properly mark-up all corrections.

The only way of knowing for sure what changes have been made is to run a document comparison. However, formatting and pagination errors generated in this process can be headache inducing and not all word processor software (e.g. Mac Pages) allows you to do this.  Also, having to do so each time a version is sent back to you is burdensome. This is particularly so when multiple external parties are sending back different marked-up versions of the same original simultaneously. It is also easy to lose important data such as details of which changes were made by whom at which times.  

This process is expired!

It may be a slight exaggeration to claim e-Discovery could ever really be easy. The tremendous amount of information created and stored electronically makes complying with rules of discovery in civil litigation a challenge. And that is never easy. But avoiding court sanctions and penalties for non-compliance — not to mention the staggering cost of collecting and reviewing the data — is the goal of any legal team, and with the right technology tools, managing the e-Discovery process is as easy as it can be.

Compliance is expensive and time consuming—keep abreast of regulations can be a full-time job in and of itself, let alone ensuring your company is in compliance. Can automated systems keep your firm in compliance? Absolutely. Whether you work in a highly regulated industry or simply want to ensure your team is using the most up-to-date and legally solid contracts, automated tools can eliminate errors and breaches.

Manage and Capture Your Unstructured Data!

In 2012, IDC conducted research on the digital universe in 2020. Based on the outcomes of that research, IDC estimates the world’s information is doubling every two years. By 2020, the world will generate 40 exabytes of data, a 40-fold increase from 2010! However, almost all of the current (approx. 90%) data is considered unstructured.

There is a trend we’ve seen building over the last few years, and we think it’s one whose time has come. It’s the rise of operations within in-house legal departments. It’s an understanding that applying sound business practices to legal operations not only increases efficiency, it helps the company’s bottom line.

If you have some concerns about your business’ contracting practices, you are not alone. Huron Consulting Group, conducted a survey with legal technology professionals, and more than half (57%) of the respondents said they are concerned about their company’s contract management procedures.

Most general counsel and procurement officers would probably agree that collaboration in contract negotiations is a challenge even when all parties are in the same room. So what happens in our virtual world where the new normal is that people are spread across multiple locations and time zones? What does virtual collaboration look like?

At ContractRoom, our mission is to make contracting easy and efficient. I recently came across an article by Cindy Cox in Inside Counsel about making the contracting process more efficient. The article, Contracting efficiency for your legal department in 3 easy steps, is a good read. And Cox’s advice dovetails perfectly with what ContractRoom offers.

Compliance simply isn’t fun for most people. Time consuming, tedious, confusing? YES… Fun? NO.