SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 26, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- To offer
companies insight into the latest trends and best practices for
handling contracts in the modern workplace—and to help them
optimize their processes as a result—DocuSign (NASDAQ: DOCU) today
released the fifth annual "State of Contract Management"
report.
The report—previously published by SpringCM (the company
acquired by DocuSign in September 2018)—analyzes the benefits and
pain points of various methods of contract management, and examines
employee attitudes towards the role of emerging technologies like
artificial intelligence (AI).
"Agreements and contracts are the very lifeblood of
organizations, enabling businesses to run efficiently. But the
process of preparing and managing them remains anything but
smooth," said Scott Olrich, chief
operating officer at DocuSign. "Inefficient tracking methods and
human errors are just a few of the ways that businesses are
hampering the contract lifecycle. And we intend for this report to
help them overcome some of those challenges."
The findings of this year's report indicate some improvement
over last year with respect to the efficiency of contract lifecycle
management (CLM) processes. For example, fewer respondents this
year (16%) view contract approvals as a "big problem" compared to
last year (21%). However, given that one of the most commonly
reported method for CLM consists of manual inputs into
spreadsheets, most companies are clearly still operating with
inefficient processes.
When asked about the biggest challenges faced in the contract
process, respondents cited the top three as: approvals (at 53%),
clause management (33%) and workflow (27%)—all of which could be
greatly mitigated by the use of digital CLM tools.
Other key findings include:
- Using the wrong tools paves the way for human error and
security breaches.
Almost 40% of respondents said that human
error impacts the contracting process often or very often. Eighty
percent of employees admit to sending a contract over email—a
platform that can be especially vulnerable to security breaches—and
more than 25% have shared contracts via fax or postal mail (34% and
29%, respectively). These methods are inefficient, hard to track
and increase the likelihood of a contract ending up in the wrong
hands—indeed, almost 30% of respondents have sent a contract to the
wrong party.
- Manual CLM processes are time consuming and
complex.
Thirty-three percent of respondents said a typical
contract takes 30+ hours to negotiate—likely due to versioning and
modifications, and 52% said contracts go through three to four
versions on average before getting signed. What's more, 39% said
they have been unable to locate contracts they were searching for,
and 84% said the approval process has caused deals to
stall.
- Process inefficiencies abound, largely due to tools that are
not purpose-built.
The most common way to manage contracts
remains Microsoft Excel or other spreadsheet software (31%), while
only 27% use a purpose-built CLM tool like SpringCM. Twenty-two
percent use a combination of spreadsheets and CLM tools, leaving
the door open for human error and inefficiency. Finally, 13% of
respondents rely on shared drives, and 7% simply use email.
The data from this year's "State of Contract Management" report
reveals a greater openness to emerging technologies. Sixty-one
percent say AI can help eliminate human error, and even more
believe the technology could help expedite approvals. But only 21%
would trust AI to redline a contract, indicating that people are
still a vital part of the process—CLM tools simply help make the
most of respondents' time and prevent errors.
"Manual remains synonymous with inefficient," added Olrich, "and
with the pace of business today, companies that don't embrace
modern CLM processes will fall behind. There's still a place for
the human touch in contract negotiations, though. And the winners
will be those companies that combine all these efforts to free
people up to make more strategic contributions."
To learn more about common practices in CLM and to assess where
your company falls on the path towards modernizing its systems of
agreement, download the full report here.
Methodology
The report consisted of a survey of 802
full-time employees who play a role in the contracting process. The
individuals surveyed came from a wide variety of industries,
departments and roles, and all were from companies with more than
250 employees. Participants were asked approximately 30 questions
about their experiences and perceptions around contract management
at their organizations.
Media Relations:
Adrian
Wainwright
Head of Communications
media@docusign.com
Investor Relations:
Annie
Leschin
VP Investor Relations
investors@docusign.com
About DocuSign
DocuSign helps organizations connect
and automate how they prepare, sign, act on, and manage agreements.
As part of the DocuSign Agreement Cloud, DocuSign offers
eSignature: the world's #1 way to sign electronically on
practically any device, from almost anywhere, at any time. Today,
more than 500,000 customers and hundreds of millions of users in
over 180 countries use DocuSign to accelerate the process of doing
business and to simplify people's lives.
For more information, visit www.docusign.com or call
+1-877-720-2040.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release may
contain "forward-looking" statements that are based on our
management's beliefs and assumptions and on information currently
available to management. Forward-looking statements include all
statements that are not historical facts and can be identified by
terms such as "believe," "could," "potential," "will," "would" or
similar expressions and the negatives of those terms.
Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks,
uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results,
performance or achievements to be materially different from any
future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by
the forward-looking statements. Our actual results could differ
materially from those predicted or implied and reported results
should not be considered as an indication of our future
performance. More information about factors that could affect our
performance are described in greater detail in our public filings
with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), copies of
which may be obtained by visiting our Investor Relations web site
at http://investor.docusign.com or the SEC's web site
at www.sec.gov. In addition, any forward-looking statements
contained in this release are based on assumptions that we believe
to be reasonable as of this date. Except as required by law, we
assume no obligation to update such statements.
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SOURCE DocuSign, Inc.