Contract Insights

Learn how leveraging CobbleStone’s contract management software modules can help you and your organization work smarter when it comes to contract, purchasing, and sourcing processes. 

6 Steps to Leveraging Contract Insight^® Modules

Below are six steps to help you get the most out of CobbleStone Software modules.  The prerequisite for the items below assumes that your organization has leveraged the following modules with Cobblestone Software.  If you have not, contact a CobbleStone Software team member today to license these features.

Enable these CobbleStone Software Contract Insight® modules:

• Contract Management
• Vendor-Client Collaboration Gateway
• Data Integration
• Document Collaboration
• eSourcing
• Purchase Order Management
• and Electronic Signatures

Many contract and procurement professionals utilize our robust Contract Insight Software for managing vendors, customers, contracts, requests, workflows, risk management, and task alerts.  Once you have the core software, enable (or license) the other features and turn your contract repository into a full supplier/customer management, contract management, and procurement/sourcing platform.

1. Contract Requests

This module is included in all Contract Insight editions.  To begin, leverage contract request forms.  Contract request forms are easy to use and provide a simple method of optimization for your team.  Contract requests enable your team to extend a contract request input form for external departments to easily request new contracts, changes, and term end/renewals via a contract request form (intake form).  Contract request forms reduce a significant amount of the data-entry needed from your legal team, enabling your contract and legal staff to focus on legal review and workload optimization.  Contract requests include configurable workflows, task alerts, document storage, and easy conversion of the contract request data to the contract, vendor, or other main modules of CobbleStone Software.

2. Data Integration for Vendor/Customer Fields

Your legal and procurement staff is very busy reviewing new customer/vendor contracts and related business.  Their time is limited, and business is growing, so their workload is increasing.  Why are these highly valued legal, sales, and procurement professionals still tasked with routine data entry?  To reduce data entry and optimize legal, sales, and procurement teams, many of our clients connect the vendor and customer data entry to upstream systems like CRM and vendor systems so your team does not have to key in counterparty information.  The data integration module offers integration with many popular platforms and helps reduce data entry for your team.  Data integration takes minimal planning with your IT team, but many of our clients find it very beneficial.

3. Vendor Registration

If data integration is not an option or is scheduled for a future phase, consider implementing Vendor Registration.  This add-on permits your new vendors and clients to register with your organization via an online collaboration portal.  It can provide a significant ROI and transfers many of the data entry tasks from your sales, procurement, or legal staff to an online intake form.  It enables vendors and customers to easily register online, offering online collaboration and connecting your internal business units with vendors and customers.  It includes workflows to alert your business teams and staff members of a new vendor or customer and is commonly leveraged to review new suppliers and management customers. 

4. E-Sourcing and Online Bidding

Easily optimize the workload of the busy procurement and supplier management professional by investing in the eProcurement and online bidding software module.  This module provides vendor registration, bid management, sourcing enablement, RFP/bid document preparation, task approvals, workflow management, online bidding advertisements to potential suppliers, online bid questionnaires, bidder ratings, award management, pricing line items and better sourcing management.  As a bonus, this software module is built in CobbleStone Software, so the data collected in this module flows to the contracts, purchasing, and vendor management areas very easily.

5. Requisition & Purchase Order Management

CobbleStone's Requisition and Purchase Order Management module is meant to work with your current PO software as a requisition management and purchase/fulfillment module.  Here is what is included in the Requisition and Purchase Order Management Software module:

• requisition management
• vendor management
• supplier ratings
• service/goods items and catalogs
• e-approvals
• employee/team budget and spend management
• workflow approvals
• task alerts
• document processing
• purchase order management
• fulfillment from stock or purchase orders
• inventory tracking
• and robust reporting

Consolidate procedures for your procurement and supplier team and offset many data entry tasks to your employees via requisition forms that help your employees request new items, alert your procurement team, leverage existing inventory for fulfillment, and provide your staff with an easy way to order more items via purchase orders.  To obtain the best price on purchases, enable the e-Sourcing and Online Bidding module discussed above.

6. Electronic Signatures

Many organizations utilize the benefits of CobbleStone’s electronic signatures.  Choose from Cobblestone’s user-friendly eSigning tool or integrate with leading e-Signing tools such as Adobe Sign.  eSignatures help automate the signing process and allow contract and legal professionals to sign in the office or on the go.  Often, using electronic signatures for internal policies and approvals is a great time saver.

Get started today with CobbleStone Software modules to make you and your team’s process simplified and easier to control.  Contact a CobbleStone Representative today to discuss options to best meet your team’s specific needs, or sign up for a free demo of Contract Insight today.