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Without adequate contract automation (aka contract assembly or document automation), creating a contract can be an uphill battle. Contracting processes are typically full of complications – the road is not always paved. And ‘legal’ the cyclist everyone has to wait for. Many in-house counsels worry that business transactions are not even agreed in a contract (so no limitations liability or no adequate remedies are agreed upon).
Here is your contract automation business case!
Sometimes deal momentum is lost, due to slow contracting or a transaction even fails to reach the finish. Most parts of contract creation are fact-finding, can be delegated, and allow process optimisation and risk management to be automated. With contract automation, response times turn to zero, you will sprint at deal momentum.
As indicated in the introduction, Weagree’s USP is its user-friendliness for both users and administrators (as you can see in the admin tutorial videos). We know what ‘user-friendly’ means:
User-friendliness implies (a) fewer change management challenges, and (b) ease of implementation (scalability of inserting or modifying templates and questionnaires). The insertion of templates is – considering Weagree’s competitors – often a hidden, but considerable cost factor.
Because drafting routine contracts and more complex contracts requires much less time, the response time of the legal department minimises (or even disappears). Business performance improves. There is an efficient involvement of stakeholders (whether that is a law firm servicing Company or ‘the business’ providing input). Providing a ‘simple’ (first draft) agreement of the most recent template version does not take weeks.
The Weagree Wizard can automate all types of contracts and documentation. It can create both routine contracts (e.g. NDA’s, closing documents, powers of attorney, shareholder resolutions, notarial deeds, as well as employment contracts), and large, complex contracts (e.g. credit facilities, deeds of pledge or mortgage, prospectuses, SPA’s, subscription agreements, shareholders agreements, and all kinds of procurement-related contracts, including IP and ICT licenses).
In most contexts, the time required to create a first draft contract can be reduced by up to 70 to 90 (!) percent. Accordingly, the productivity of legal counsel improves significantly. Time saving may be 180 to 320 hours per lawyer per year. External support can thus be minimised (e.g. interim lawyers, local counsel).
The time required to create the large, complex agreements referred to above may well be 120 times shorter than in a ‘traditional’ way of contract creation. Weagree has developed a spreadsheet calculation model, permitting it to assess the total potential productivity improvement, and express such time-saving in a monetary amount.
If desired, Weagree can make such productivity-improvement assessment in collaboration with you.
Introducing the Weagree Wizard serves as a catalyst for upgrading model contracts (so, top-class model contracts are not a precondition to introducing legal document automation or contract assembly). With the Weagree Wizard, all model contracts and contract building blocks and clauses are managed from one central location. This contributes to a higher quality of all contracts.
A contract that is circulated promptly, contributes to the momentum of a transaction. As a result of a smart Q&A, a first draft contract will not contain superfluous contract clauses.
Also, because the productivity of legal counsel improves, the response time of the legal department minimises, and the quality of a first draft contract improves, the finalisation of a business transaction requires less drafting time and fewer negotiation cycles. Negotiation issues are clear from the outset. A shortened transaction cycle is the result.
Because the Weagree Wizard is much faster than copy-paste and search-replace drafting and because contracts will be more to the point, people are inclined to create their contracts via the Wizard.
Moreover, if a legal department’s response time and performance level are excellent, business managers will be inclined to adhere to contracting requirements. In other words, if legal counsel performs professionally, business managers would less often seek to avoid the legal department.
Furthermore, routine contract drafting work can be delegated to the business (where desired, subject to prior legal approval before releasing of the contract). Finally, risks of errors or omissions in a contract are minimised.
The Weagree Wizard is a powerful solution for managing contract know-how. Thanks to the database technology on which it is built, all model contracts, contract building blocks, and the clause library are not only managed centrally, but they are also better searchable and accessible (through categorisation, keywords, and assignment of ‘know-how ownership’ of clauses). Moreover, the Weagree Wizard facilitates an effective handing over of model contracts from generation to generation of lawyers.
The Weagree Wizard contains reporting overviews, which keep track of contract approval status, prevent business opportunities fade out because of a lack of responsiveness in the business process, and structures standard processes in a standardised manner. The contract overviews (contract creation stage, approval stage, and post-signing stage) show the actual status of all contracting work-in-progress.
Senior management gains real-time insight into all transactions (and other activities) by their business groups and units. Separate reporting by business managers can be reduced.
The Weagree Wizard is simple and very easy to use (no training is required). The questionnaire is intuitive. All cross-references are correct. All schedules and annexes are attached and correctly referenced.
With advanced contract automation software, processes are streamlined, and contract content is consistent and controlled: users answer a user-friendly questionnaire and generate a tailor-made first draft agreement, based on their own models and templates.
Control contract creation by integrating Weagree with SharePoint, CRM, and other applications, with advanced approval workflows and plug-in e-signing. Cycling is fun. Try it yourself.
For detailed information, including as regards technology, see the frequently asked questions (FAQ) section or contact us. We have created a demo video, which gives you a first impression of Weagree’s contract creation application.
