How many SaaS applications do you use, and how do you manage all the contracts and sensitive documents? CloudEagle’s SaaS spend report shows that an organization uses 300 to 500 applications on average.
And a majority of those organizations don’t use SaaS contract management software to keep the documents safe. They store them in shared folders, employee inboxes, email threads, etc.
This practice has led to contracts getting lost in the clutter, leading to contract breaches, renewal hassles, and increased spending.
But you’re already aware of this, so you’re looking for the best SaaS contract management software to centralize your contracts and streamline contract management.
This article will help you choose the ideal contract management software to centralize and organize your contracts effectively.
What is SaaS contract management?
It is the process of organizing, tracking, and managing SaaS contracts and other sensitive documents in one centralized location. It includes managing the entire contract lifecycle, from initial negotiation to ongoing compliance tracking and renewal.
Manual contract management is prone to errors and delays. Your contract might get lost in inboxes or your team will have difficulty finding it during renewals if they are decentralized.
Contract management software is meant to improve the efficiency of a company's contract management process. It helps teams manage, negotiate, sign, renew, and report on business contracts by automating the laborious work associated with contract management.
What is the purpose of contract management software?
Optimize costs
Effective contract management will give you a comprehensive view of pricing, terms, and usage data. Analyze usage patterns to identify underutilized features or redundant licenses and use this data to renegotiate contract terms with vendors and optimize costs.
Centralized management
Organize all your contracts in one centralized location and categorize them for effortless retrieval during audits or renewals. You can configure automated reminders for renewals, assign tasks, and track the progress in real time.
Contract review
Review is essential to the contract management process as it ensures adherence to quality standards, risk mitigation, and compliance with legal requirements, while also facilitating negotiation support and accurate performance monitoring. Contract management softwares like LegalOn can identify nuanced contract risks and can guide to better negotiations.
Reduced risk and better compliance management
Through efficient management using a SaaS contract management solution, you can mitigate the risks associated with manual processes, minimize errors, and ensure accuracy in contractual negotiations.
You can use the software to monitor access controls and user permissions to comply with compliance regulations. Easily identify contract errors and take proactive efforts to mitigate them.
Prevent auto-renewals
Auto-renewals can be frustrating, especially when you no longer want to use the software. Using contract lifecycle management software, you can efficiently track renewals and receive alerts via Slack 30, 60, or 90 days before the renewal date. This will give you enough time to analyze your contract, app usage and prepare a negotiation plan.
Here’s how renewals can be managed using Slack →
Best SaaS contract management softwares
1. CloudEagle
CloudEagle is a SaaS management and procurement platform with a contract management module that allows businesses to handle contracts, invoices, and related workflows in a single location.
You no longer need to manage contracts, track vendor renewals, or keep invoices in spreadsheets. This software will provide a comprehensive view of all your contracts on a single dashboard.
CloudEagle can integrate with your existing contract management systems, automatically extracting and organizing contract metadata on the platform.
If you have spreadsheets or manual documents, you can upload them to CloudEagle, and it’ll automatically populate the relevant data and display them on a single contract repository.
SaaS applications need to be managed effectively, and so do the contracts. Most organizations use separate software to manage their SaaS portfolios and contracts. But with CloudEagle, you can consolidate these use cases into one unified platform, saving money and improving your ROI.
Here’s how our customer, OysterHR, centralized contract management using CloudEagle.
Key Features
Efficient application discovery: CloudEagle can integrate with your internal SSO, finance, HRIS, and contract management systems. These integrations enable CloudEagle to provide complete visibility over your SaaS portfolio. You can accurately track app usage, vendor spend, contracts, and users from one centralized dashboard.
Maintaining a renewal calendar: This contract management software will help you stay ahead of renewals all the time. Receive renewal reminders via email and Slack and create a renegotiation plan to optimize your contracts.
Falkonry struggled with excessive spend and app interruptions due to overlooked contract deadlines. They integrated CloudEagle for automated contract renewals, phasing out their reliance on spreadsheets as their suite of applications grew. CloudEagle's proactive reminders improved financial management and operational flexibility.
Read the detailed success story here.
Optimize license management: Direct integrations will enable you to see individual licenses purchased for each application. You can configure license reclamation workflows to deprovision users for low usage. Harvest these licenses and assign them to new users or right-size them during renewals to save on spend.
Custom reports: CloudEagle provides 43 types of reports across 5 different categories, including users, vendor spend, applications, department, and changes in stack. You will get tailored insights into budget planning, cost optimization, M&A, etc.
Assisted buying: Negotiation is a critical part of SaaS contract management. You can outsource the process to our expert SaaS buyers if your procurement team lacks negotiation time and bandwidth.
This will analyze your usage, leverage the latest pricing benchmarks, and handle all your negotiations, ensuring you spend the right price for the right software.
Here’s Sophie Wang from Wefunder, recalling her experience working with CloudEagle’s negotiation experts:
Automated workflows: Flexible contract terms require a world-class procurement process. You can use CloudEagle’s procurement workflows to streamline SaaS purchasing. Customizable intake forms are available to purchase both SaaS and hardware products.
Here’s why our customers chose CloudEagle to streamline procurement for flexible contracts.
Slack integration for procurement: Slack integration is not just for receiving notifications. You can raise purchase requests and manage renewals on Slack. CloudEagle’s Slackbot is built to help you manage complex processes easily.
Vendor research: You don’t have to visit external websites to perform vendor research. You can search for vendors within CloudEagle, which will provide reviews from G2, Capterra, etc. It’ll provide side-by-side pricing and feature comparisons to help you make the right decision.
Cost optimization: CloudEagle will automatically identify redundant, duplicate, and unused applications. You can analyze the usage insights and make the right cost optimization decisions.
Pricing
CloudEagle has a free plan(trial) and three cost-effective pricing plans with no hidden charges.
1. Starter - $2000/month
2. Growth - $3000/month
3. Enterprise - $4000/month.
2. Pandadoc
PandaDoc provides an all-in-one document software system that helps you digitally create, approve, and sign contracts.
It has a distinctive drag-and-drop editor that makes it simple to write proposals and contracts. It also includes approval procedures, redlining, version history, comments, and general chat ability for internal and external reviewers.
Its centralized, cloud-based contracts have intelligent search functionality. Contract templates and a collection of pre-approved conditions make it an excellent alternative for users.
It has been noted, however, that writing documents from scratch can be time-consuming. Furthermore, several users have expressed concerns regarding the limitations of template formats.
Pricing
Free version is available. Pricing plans start at $19 per month.
3. ContractWorks
ContractWorks is one of the best contract management software approachable to enterprises and teams of all sizes thanks to its quick deployment and simple interface.
It's AI-powered OCR and powerful search capabilities allow you to swiftly locate specific words and sentences. Furthermore, the integrated cloud-based repository with comprehensive security features assists in keeping your data safe, controlled, and accessible.
The user-friendly interface makes it simple to onboard new employees and get them up and running quickly. Ultimately, personalized reporting provides important insight into your agreements by creating tag-based reports you can keep and share with your stakeholders.
Unfortunately, it lacks built-in collaborative features, making real-time contract negotiation challenging. Users have also discovered that the AI functionality does not always function, requiring manual data entry.
Pricing
Plans start at $700 per month.
4. Gatekeeper
This system offers a centralized information center where users can properly keep and manage SaaS contracts and vendor details.
The AI-powered cloud-based contract management software automates workflows in order to manage and optimize contract procedures while also providing an auditable record of operations. It also includes a redlining solution that is compatible with MS Word for quick and effective contract talks.
Perhaps the most significant benefit of this application is that it has an integrated electronic signature solution that is compliant with international standards such as ESIGN, UETA, and European eIDAS.
Overall, Gatekeeper's AI is the most reliable, quick, and well-trained AI system on the market today. Unfortunately, because of the immense price, it is out of reach for smaller firms with limited resources.
Pricing
Plans start at $995 per month.
5. Trackado
Trackado is yet another cloud-based tool aimed to assist enterprises in streamlining the entire contract lifecycle. It allows users to search, find, and collect contracts by category, sector, or business partner.
The business partner section organizes all your strategic contacts, sends emails to one location, and tracks any contract activities. Users will also be immediately notified of essential dates and gain insights into the financial health of their contracts.
The platform's simplicity allows teams to utilize it immediately without extensive training. Furthermore, installing any other complex apps is unnecessary because cloud-based technology is used.
What this program needs is the ability to create e-signature documents. And it lacks a template library, which would make it a complete end-to-end contract management software.
Pricing
A free version is available. The starter plan is priced at $39 per month.
6. Concord
Concord provides a number of tools to help automate and integrate the complete contract administration process.
It includes pre-approved templates for easier contract writing and the ability to keep pre-approved terms for certain circumstances. Custom approval workflows allow you to distribute contracts to the appropriate individuals in the correct order for quick approval and signing.
The version-control feature ensures that all users have access to the most recent versions of the document. Furthermore, consumers can view the status of all contracts to shorten the purchasing cycle.
Users may invite as many coworkers or guests as they need to sign a document. The only issue with this software is that users have experienced trouble with document formatting after uploading documents.
Pricing
The plans start at $17 per month
7. Contractbook
This solution allows you to write contracts directly in their machine-friendly format in order to benefit from the stored data and plan for future circumstances.
The collaborative tool allows you to work with multiple teams to better understand your legal position. You can also invite outside guests and conduct seamless negotiations with third parties.
Users can choose to build contracts from scratch, get them recorded and stored, and send them to recipients with a few mouse clicks. Smart task management is reported on the Activity Dashboard to help you stay on top of contract updates.
Pricing
It is priced at $999 per month.
What are the benefits of SaaS contract management?
Ineffective contract administration might result in a slew of problems. And, as more companies recognize the value of cloud-based contract management tools, you simply can't afford to fall behind.
So, do you need any more reasons to adopt SaaS contract management software? Managing lengthy, complex contracts can be time-consuming. If you'd rather spend your time doing something productive, such software is a terrific option.
Contract management software is also economical. Even if you decide to use a premium software solution to organize your contracts, your company can still save money.
It can help avoid costly human errors by eliminating the need for manual intervention.
Aside from cost savings and time efficiency, SaaS contract management software is also advantageous in terms of security. Contract data can be everywhere and nowhere simultaneously if different offline storage techniques are used.
By handling your contracts through a cloud-based SaaS solution, you can always have a comprehensive insight into your assets, regardless of how extensive they become.
What is the difference between CRM and contract management?
CRM and contract management are completely different. CRM refers to managing customer relationships to prevent customer churn and retain customers.
Contract management refers to contract creation, management, negotiating, and safekeeping of software contracts after the agreement is signed.
To learn how to optimize SaaS costs in your organization, listen to Sophie Wang, Head of Finance at Wefunder. She offers valuable insights for new finance managers, highlighting the importance of understanding SaaS usage metrics, mastering Excel, and building strong relationships with account managers and vendors.
Conclusion
It's good to have contract management software to give your teams substantial advantages over more traditional methods. This is especially true for start-ups and fast-growing businesses with understaffed legal and financial departments.
Saving on SaaS spend has become a priority for businesses in the upcoming year. To achieve that, businesses must start with effective contract management. Have complete control over your existing contracts, and then it’ll be easier to venture into new ideas.
Whatever platform or tool you use to handle your contracts, start with a deep assessment of your team's needs. It will be much easier to find the best SaaS contract management software because you can objectively evaluate each one.
The list of the best software for contract management discussed here has been used by businesses worldwide to automate their contract renewals and manage SaaS contracts effectively.
One among them is CloudEagle, as it is one of the comprehensive tools in the list with SaaS management, procurement, and contract management capabilities.
So, what’s it going to be for you?
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What Does Contract Management Software Cost?
The cost varies from software to software. Most software will have monthly and annual subscriptions, so you can choose the one that fits your business. A recommended practice is to use the free trial option before you purchase a plan.
Also, contract management platforms have started offering usage-based pricing, so understand your requirements and pay only for what you use. The prices vary from $25 per month to $500 per month.
2. Why Use Contract Management Software?
Managing SaaS contracts manually is a tedious job. Finance teams used to do it using spreadsheets and documents, which weren't scalable in the long run. Manual contract management made data retrieval and auditing harder. That is why it is essential to use Contract management software, as it simplifies the process.
3. What is a good contract management system?
With plenty of options on the market, you've got to choose the right one based on your requirements. If you want a one-solution-that-fits-all kind of software, then look no further than CloudEagle. However, here are some good contract management systems,
- CloudEagle
- PandaDoc
- ContractWorks
- GateKeeper
- Trackado
- Concord
- Contractbook