Unlocking value with digital contract management
Designing a customisable contract repository for a shipping company to easily store and access data from their financial agreements.
The challenge
Global organisations need to keep on top of a huge volume of contracts. They need to understand, and act on, the risks, obligations and opportunities within them and be aware of any amendments. Also, as contracts contain sensitive information, access needs to be tightly controlled.
However, siloed departments often mean contracts are not stored centrally and securely and manual data extraction is time consuming, so limited data is captured, which hinders proactive obligation management. This means finding information, tracking contractual requirements and proactively preventing risks is difficult.
One of our clients, a shipping company, was determined to tackle this problem. The company had a range of financial agreements relating to the sale, purchase and chartering of their vessel fleet. These agreements were long, complex and contained substantial, important information. Specifically, these contracts imposed financial and reporting obligations which they were concerned about tracking and maintaining compliance with.
The company wanted a solution that allowed them to easily access, and search across, their finance agreements. They also wanted to be able to view their financial and reporting obligations alongside the underlying clauses for context, and be notified of deadlines ahead of time.
The solution
We worked with our client to map their requirements and co-design a central digital repository to store the client’s financial agreements. The platform was built on the Microsoft Power Platform to leverage its robust user access controls and security.
Via the platform, all transaction documents were grouped together, including amendments, to create a central source of truth. To cater for the range of agreements we also allowed for different pieces of information to be extracted from different types of agreements. By capturing structured data, the client could search and filter across their contracts quickly to identify and access information. It also allowed the client to view their key information next to the contractual clause for context.
To ensure reporting obligation deadlines weren’t missed, the platform was configured to generate automated notifications, reminding relevant stakeholders when deadlines were approaching. Additionally, an intuitive dashboard provided analytics across their contract portfolio, offering valuable, tailored insights at a glance.
Importantly, the repository could be customised by the client so they could add agreement types, data points and analytics, to meet their future business needs. Once the platform was configured, our Legal Services Team input the client contracts, removing the burden from our client.
Results and benefits
This secure, centralized contract repository enabled our client to find, analyze, and manage their financial agreements with ease. Key benefits include:
- Improved information access: Locate accurate, up-to-date contract information quickly.
- Data-driven insights: Gain valuable intelligence from powerful analytics.
- Proactively prepare for deadlines: Automated notifications ensure timely action on contractual obligations.
- Customisable to business needs: Customize the platform to fit specific business requirements.
- Enhanced security: Built on the Microsoft Power Platform for robust security and user access controls.
