A quick comparison
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Transparent pricing | ||||||
Free trial | ||||||
Native document editor | ||||||
Approval workflows | ||||||
Online redlining | ||||||
Native e-signature tool | ||||||
Obligation management | ||||||
Renewal reminders | ||||||
Analytics and reports | ||||||
Bulk import | ||||||
Sell-side integrations | ||||||
Buy-side integrations | ||||||
Mobile apps | ||||||
Own data center | ||||||
APIs | ||||||
AI capabilities | ||||||
Average user rating | 4.5 | 4.4 | 4.5 | 4.4 | 4.4 | 4.6 |
Zoho Contracts is a comprehensive AI-powered contract management software. It streamlines the entire contract lifecycle and comes with a native document editor and built-in e-signature capability. Its end-to-end CLM approach eliminates the need for multiple applications, making the process more efficient. With transparent pricing, an easy setup, and a simple learning curve, Zoho Contracts stands out as a solid choice.
Strengths
- AI-powered contract management: The AI assistant in Zoho Contracts, powered by ChatGPT, suggests missing clauses, identifies risks and obligations, and answers specific queries. Additionally, it translates key contract elements, summarizes contracts, and highlights metadata for quick reference. Leveraging AI throughout the contract lifecycle reduces legal dependency, accelerates contract cycles, and enhances compliance.
- Obligation management: Zoho Contracts with a contextual obligation module allows users to add, assign, and manage obligations at an individual contract level. Automated alerts, reminders, and detailed obligation-based reports ensure that you stay on top of your contractual obligations.
- Lite user licenses: Another unique strength of Zoho Contracts is that they have two types of licenses. Apart from the traditional user license, they have a lite user license for users who only need to approve or reject a contract, collaborate on a contract, fulfill the contractual obligations, or sign contracts.
- Zoho ecosystem: For existing Zoho users, Zoho Contracts provides a seamless way to integrate contract management with their core business processes, simplifying workflows and supporting growth.
Limitations
- Limited third-party integrations.
- Lacks bulk contract import/send for execution.
- No conditional workflows.
- No customizable modules.
"Zoho Contracts is a powerful tool for contract management and improving the efficiency of legal operations thanks to a number of features. It has a centralized contract repository, automated workflows, and also integrates with other Zoho products. The tool has limited customization options and limited integration with third-party applications."
Pricing:
Zoho Contracts pricing starts at $25/user/month (billed annually). A 15-day free trial lets you explore the platform before your purchase. Contact sales for specific pricing inquiries and assistance in choosing the right plan.
Zoho Contracts is best suited for
- Fast-growing startups and medium-sized businesses seeking a feature-rich, easy-to-use CLM solution.
- Businesses prioritizing data security and privacy (Zoho has it's own global data centers and encrypt data exchanges).
- Businesses in the Zoho ecosystem.
"Zoho Contracts has met our expectations and significantly transformed our contract management process. It has enabled our team to create, collaborate, review, and approve contracts seamlessly in one place. This integration has streamlined our workflows and minimized errors, leading to a noticeable boost in productivity. The automated reminders and notifications ensure that we never miss a deadline. We highly recommend Zoho Contracts to any business looking to enhance their contract management capabilities."
Disclaimer:
Why modern businesses are adopting contract management software
Modern businesses are increasingly adopting contract management software that aligns with their specific needs to streamline their processes and increase efficiency. The driving factors for implementing this software can differ based on business objectives, requirements, and industry.
Common reasons for adopting contract management software include:
- Centralizing all contracts within a unified platform.
- Authoring contracts with pre-defined templates and clauses.
- Configuring workflows for contract reviews.
- Negotiating contracts online with redlining capabilities.
- Enabling seamless and secure digital contract signing.
- Collaborating in real time for co-authoring and contract negotiations.
- Setting up auto-reminders for contract milestones (contract renewals, expiries).
- Improving governance with granular activity tracking and detailed logs.
- Reducing contract cycle times and operational costs.
- Ensuring compliance with legal and regulatory requirements.
Businesses adopt a contract management tool primarily to address the operational challenges of their contract management process. However, other broader factors also drive contract management tool adoption.
Key factors driving contract management tool adoption:
In today's rapidly evolving business landscape, companies with complex supply chains face distinct challenges. Managing relationships with suppliers, partners, and distributors goes beyond ensuring smooth operations. It involves navigating the complexities of ever-changing technologies and geopolitical uncertainties, which add new layers of volatility and unpredictability to global supply chains.
Regulations are cropping up more than ever across all industries. In these situations, businesses make organization-wide policy changes to align with industry-specific or government regulations affecting their contracts. CLM tools simplify this with clause-based reports and contract amendment capabilities.
Most businesses today offer flexible sales or pricing models to meet evolving customer demands and gain a competitive advantage. Businesses opt for a contract management tool to streamline and optimize their contract management process to accommodate this flexibility.
Risk is an inevitable aspect of any business, regardless of industry. With recent challenges like the global pandemic and evolving data protection regulations, the emphasis on risk management is at an all-time high. Contracts containing critical terms and obligations are key in mitigating these risks. By automating contract creation, tracking, and compliance, contract management tools empower businesses to manage emerging risks proactively, ensuring compliance and enhancing resilience in a rapidly changing environment.
The trend of mergers and acquisitions is making headlines across industries. During these consolidations, businesses need a forensic analysis of their existing contracts to understand their revenue and compliance standpoints. This trend has become a key driver for businesses to adopt contract management systems.
Why is it important to choose the best contract management software?
- To ensure the tool's capabilities align with your industry needs, meet business-specific contracting requirements, and address pain points effectively.
- To safeguard your company's reputation and win the trust of your clients or partners by utilizing a CLM tool with proper risk management features.
- To track and optimize your financial outcomes using analytics to glean valuable insights into contract performance, cost savings, and revenue growth.
- To confirm the scalability and adaptability of the tool to suit your evolving contract management needs. This eliminates the hassle of switching to a new system in the future.
- To prioritize security and compliance with features such as role-based access controls, data encryption, audit trails, and adherence to industry and regulatory standards (e.g., GDPR, HIPAA).
The benefits of investing in the best contract management software
Minimized risks
- Minimize errors during contract authoring with a clause library of approved and up-to-date clause languages.
- Reduce contractual errors through collaboration, peer review, and structured approval workflows.
- Manage obligations granularly to reduce risks from unfulfilled commitments.
- Improve visibility and accountability with individual user and contract-level activity tracking.
- Enhance compliance with data protection regulations through advanced data protection settings and detailed logs.
Maximized value
- Maximize returns and reduce costs by consistently evaluating and adjusting contract terms throughout the lifecycle.
- Prevent missed deadlines and factors impacting profitability by proactively managing contract milestones.
- Unlock a contract's full potential with strategic insights derived from contract data and metadata.
Improved efficiency
- Enable faster contract authoring with pre-defined templates and collaborative capabilities.
- Shorten approval cycles with automated workflows and reminders.
- Reduce turnaround times through online negotiation features.
- Complete contract execution within minutes using digital signatures.
- Streamline amendments and renewals with automated document creation in post-execution stages.
- Save time by eliminating tool-switching with an all-in-one contract management solution.
Wrapping up
Choosing the best contract management software is a strategic decision that can significantly impact your business's efficiency, risk management, and bottom line. By carefully evaluating your needs and exploring the options available, you can find a solution that empowers your team to manage contracts effectively and drive business growth.