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The licence of the Weagree Wizard is ‘user-based’, distinguishing three types of users and usage:
The email-invited guest-user accounts are included in the inviting user’s licence fee. However, Weagree reserves the right to introduce a separate licence model and licence fee for such guest users (after giving prior notice). The customer’s contract-approver-user accounts, in the context of approval workflows, are free of charge (we believe that they will find the Weagree Wizard so attractive to work with that they will spread the word).
All users, including guest users and approvers, can discuss and communicate with each other both alongside the contract-automation questionnaire and in the CLM.
No. Weagree has not adopted a modules-approach to availability of features: we develop the Weagree Wizard together with our customers, and all customers benefit.
CLM. Weagree’s integrated contract lifecycle management (CLM) functionality is not included for business-limited users and not for one-template or two-template users. However, for business-limited users there is a CLM add-on licence (read-and-write or read-only); and for one-template and two-template users there is an add-on read-only licence under the CLM. Furthermore, CLM can also be licensed ‘standalone’ (read-and-write or read-only – alongside a regular licence).
Apart from the Weagree CLM, no modules or add-ons are separated from the licence scope:
API-integrations. The Weagree Wizard can exchange data and documents with external applications such as SharePoint, Dynamics, Mendix, Salesforce, DocuSign, SAP, DMS and other applications that adopted more-or-less standard protocols for such purpose. The Weagree Wizard contains a user-friendly API (application programming interface) with which administrators can work almost intuitively. Data are exchanged fully automatically. Customers can implement single sign-on.
AI-driven functionalities. For automated contract review, automated risk assessment and AI-supported CLM-data extraction of signed contracts, the Weagree Wizard deploys an AI-engine (artificial intelligence) that is accessible for and included in the lawyer’s licence. Weagree reserves the right to introduce a separate licence model for using the AI-technology.
The Weagree Wizard can be configured for role-based access. The admin can define user-profiles determining which functionalities, user groups, and authorisation-level based matters can be used, seen or accessed by an individual end-user.
Almost every functionality and feature can be included on a user profile (subject to the end-user’s licence scope), providing an exceptionally high level of granular user-access rights.
The licence of the Weagree Wizard distinguishes two licence models:
The security of our customers’ data and contracts is of utmost importance to us. Weagree has certifications for ISO 27001, 27017 and 27018, with a scope essentially covering all of the Weagree Wizard, software development, technical support and functional support.
The Weagree Wizard is through a cloud hosting provider and datacentre meeting the highest IT-security standards (Tier 3+) all located in the Netherlands:
More about our security and how we work on yours is here.
Technical characteristics of the Weagree Wizard:
– Web-based (no local installations on laptop or PC)
– Built entirely on a database (SQL Server)
– Support of all languages (incl. Chinese, Cyrillic/Russian, Arabic)
– State-of-the-art technology: asp.NET, C#, JS, Ajax, Foundation webtechnology
The Weagree Wizard is a web-based solution hosted through Weagree. On premise is possible for eligible customers.
MS DOS vs. Windows. Many people will remember MS DOS, the text-oriented way of using a PC. When you made a typo, the PC did nothing or gave an error. In Windows (or iOS) you do not need to enter a command: when you click on something, it does what you expect it to do. This is how the Weagree Wizard compares to Word-integrated solutions.
If you make a typo in the Weagree Wizard, it will show up as a typo during the Q&A or in the generated contract. Instead, if you make a typo in a Word-integrated solution, hopefully a debugging and compiling process will bring up an error, otherwise neither the Q&A nor the contract will deliver any of the related text.
Object-based. Inserting a template in the Weagree Wizard is largely a ‘visual act’, see the screenshot below. The ‘rule-based’ inclusion of clauses, selection of options and insertion of data are dealt with outside the perception of the administrator. An administrator of the Weagree Wizard is not bothered with programming variables and commands, but works with a manageable, intuitive toolset of building blocks, the content of which are either contract clauses, contractual phrases or words to be inserted, or Q&A-elements that will become visible during the Q&A.
“Programming skills not required” That’s what many of Weagree’s competitors say. Reality is that if their document automation solution is Word-integrated, inserting programming language cannot be avoided. If the administrator tooling is not object-based, programming (or coding) is impossible to avoid. Some competitors say that for their solution “no coding skills are required” because there are also long-standing providers of document generation that are proud of their advanced programming language. Still, the no-programming training and skills are prohibitive for many. Not at Weagree: everyone can no-code their templates. It is intuitive.
This ‘object-based’ configuration may seem to limit the Weagree Wizard’s capabilities. However, with Weagree’s focus on user-friendliness, advanced features needed in any given contract are available, but introduced in a highly intuitive manner. The administrator role can therefore be assigned to several persons, one for copy-pasting the templates and one for formulating or adjusting questions, answer options and other elements of the Q&A. If a typo needs to be removed (or a Q&A element be changed), every person with Weagree administrator training can accomplish this.
Automation and contract know-how management. Working with a programming language makes maintenance of model contracts more burdensome. In an advanced Word-integrated application inserting ‘programming language’ in the contract text adds two extra steps (i.e. debugging, compiling and uploading). Because the Weagree Wizard is object-based, such ‘programming’ is almost absent. No burdensome debugging and compiling steps are necessary. You can verify your changes real time, in a parallel browser session.
User-friendliness. What distinguishes Weagree from competitors is its highly user-friendly interface: the application looks simple and is easy to use for both lawyers and business people. This applies to both the creation of a contract and to tweaking the underlying contract templates and Q&A-options. You don’t need an administrator with both computer programming skills and insight into legal practicalities. Although knowledge of the practical aspects of contracting is helpful, Weagree will assist in this as well.
WYSIWYG editor. Not a preview functionality for during the questionnaire – but an under-water-screen editor enabling to tweak to your first-draft contract while answering the contract creation questionnaire.
True clause library. Not a folder managed through an interface. No, a powerful, searchable and taggable library of clauses, which automatically inserts the definitions used in the clause into the definitions article (alphabetically ordered). Maximum reuse of model clauses. Accessible during the contract’s questionnaire (to insert a transaction-specific clause that was not anticipated in the template).
Extensive experience. Weagree was one of the first contract assembly providers worldwide. We have extensive experience with ordinary-course-of-business commercial contracts. Our customers will not only benefit from our experience, but also be safeguarded from experimenting with relatively new players (e.g. law firms, software providers).
High quality templates included. In contrast with most competitors, various templates are already included in the Weagree Wizard – free of charge. This makes it easy to re-use components for your own templates or even to amend templates provided by Weagree. You are free to add, amend and delete these templates as you deem fit your own business.
Word-integrated vs. database-based. In assessing competitive solutions, it is crucial to understand the fundamental difference between the possible platforms and the underlying technology. The choices for the platform and the technology determine whether a contract assembly solution can be both successful and sustainable.
Selecting a Word-integrated solution may seem to provide a familiar working environment but it considerably limits contract know-how management capabilities and introduces the need to use computer language in a model contract. There are two conceivable platforms:
1. Word-integrated. The vast majority of (inferior) solutions is integrated in MS Word. Central to the functioning of these contract assembly applications is the model contract as reflected in one single Word-document. A characteristic of this platform is that an administrator must insert some sort of programming language into or underneath the contract text[1]. This means that you need an administrator with both computer programming skills and insight in the relevant legal issues.
Word-integrated solutions provide no contract knowhow management functionality, make the maintenance of model contracts more complicated and burdensome, do not reuse recurring contract building blocks, do not have a clause library (or at best one with poor functionality), and have limited contract house style flexibility.
Future development of a Word-integrated solution critically depends on Word (e.g. what will future cloud solutions of Word permit?). Moreover, many features of Word-integrated platforms remain problematic: document corruption, clause numbering and indentation, cross-reference functionalities, section breaks, tables, bookmarks, user comments and positioning of pictures.
2. Weagree’s technology: database-based. Superior contract assembly platforms are built on a database. A database setup permits the reuse of contract building blocks, the use of a clause library, centralised contract-house-style management, superior interfacing with external applications (DMS, CRM, ERP, CLM, workflow). A characteristic of this platform is that an administrator must insert the contract clauses into the database and tag the spots where Q&A-questions are triggered or plain language is to be inserted.
Inherent to a database-based solution is that it offers the most powerful tooling for contract know-how management: a maximum reuse of contract clauses, a searchable clause library, and inherent filtering, categorisation and search functionality.
[1] Understandably, because until 2003, Microsoft kept its Word-document format secret. All Word-documents had to be created from within Word; creating a proper Word-document from a database was impossible. After approx. 2005, Word-documents could be created from outside MS Office by calling the Word ‘DLL-libraries’. Only since the open-document format was adopted, external platforms became eligible as a contract assembly platform.
Weaknesses in competitive products. Competitors’ contract assembly products of the Weagree Wizard often contain considerable weaknesses:
1. Failing contract know-how management. If the model contracts are not inserted into a database, very limited or no knowhow-management functionality exists. Also, no consistency amongst model contracts is reinforced by the system (poor model contracts work equally well). A database permits countless search, filter, categorisation and other data management features: it is know-how management by its very nature. The Weagree Wizard is built on a database.
2. No reuse of contract building blocks. Not to be underestimated: if a particular clause appears in several model contracts, it must be inserted (i.e. typed in repeatedly) into each of the automated Word-documents. Also related Q&A-elements must be repeated each time. This is highly labour intensive, a cause for incomplete template updates or corrections and error-sensitive. The Weagree Wizard contains a powerful clause library that avoids all this ‘double work’.
3. Costly implementation:
– Computer-programming skills desirable
– Extensive admin-training required
– Poor admin-training materials
4. No (or poor) clause library. This is inherent to a Word-integrated platform: a clause library, if any, would consist of individual documents containing one clause; the Weagree Wizard contains a database of clauses with powerful search, filter and categorisation functionality. Obviously, you can add your own.
5. Dependence on MS Word (and on future Word-versions.)
6. Insufficient user-friendliness. The user interfaces of many competitive solutions are poorly developed. Poor user-friendliness frustrates the change management required for implementing contract assembly in the work processes. In the Weagree Wizard, you can modify all text labels, but not the ‘user interaction design’: we engaged professional designers for this, and do not allow lawyers to redo their work (but you may apply your own ‘look & feel’).
7. Poor under-water-screen. A ‘WYSIWYG underwater screen’, in which during the Q&A the resulting contract text appears, gives a user a strong sense of being ‘in control’ of the contract creation process. Experienced Weagree Wizard users indicate that absence or limited performance is a disadvantage.
8. Contract house-style managed per-template, not from one location in the database. This means that even a minor change of your house style (e.g. font size, indentations or numbering style) requires that all templates must be updated individually. In the Weagree Wizard this is managed on one place, and takes only one or two minutes.
