The State of Contract Management 2020/2021

Today’s organisations are going through a rapid shift in the way they manage contracts. The unexpected, rapid shift to remote work protocols in 2020 shook up traditional workflows and amplified existing inefficiencies. To explore the way modern businesses are handling these changes, DocuSign collected data from 1,300+ contracting professionals.

Our analysis breaks contract lifecycle management into five key stages. For each one, we dive into the people, tools and processes currently in place and discuss how that work could be improved with modern technology. Here’s a short overview of some of the key findings:

• Human error is at the heart of modern contracting problems, affecting 90+% of organisations

• Approvals are the biggest hurdle, commonly caused by workflows that take contracts out of an CLM platform

• Contract management tools are automating repetitive tasks and enhancing human impact