Better Contract Management for Dynamics 365

If your team is using Dynamics 365, contract management can get messy without a software solution in place. Especially as your business grows and scales, countless emails and spreadsheets won’t cut it to keep track of all your contractual obligations. 

When your team tries to go it alone managing contracts, things can quickly become chaotic and inefficient. Human error and a lack of communication with other components of your project management can put your projects in danger of going off rail, among other downsides...

The point? Sloppy contract management can kick you where it hurts. But the good news is that a contract management integration for Dynamics 365 can solve the problem. 

Plus, you have affordable options to choose from. These easy-to-use contract management platforms can help you with everything related to your contracts, including:

• Contract creation and templates
• Execution of terms
• Analysis
• And more.

So how do you pick the best one?

Let’s look at how certain software features can address common problems with contract management to help you get a better handle on what your viable options are.

Why do you need contract management with Dynamics 365?

At its heart, Microsoft Dynamics 365 is customer relationship management (CRM) software. While it offers expensive add-ons, the platform does not provide sufficient support for contract management with its native features. This is where adopting an integrated contract management solution comes in handy, particularly for SMBs.

Having contract management software integrated with your CRM will allow you to more effectively handle the manual part of creating, sending, tracking, and reporting on contracts. You’ll also be able to seamlessly pull data from Dynamics 365 without risking manual errors or wasting time on admin.

The thing is, finding a handful of contract management integrations for Dynamics 365 can be easy. However, it’s also easy to end up with an unwieldy tech stack with a ton of programs that don’t totally work together or only certain departments use. This can deliver a blow to your efficiency, and all those monthly licenses add up over time. Therefore, it’s helpful if you know a bit about what to look for before you commit to contract management software for your organization.

What should you look for when choosing contract management software for Dynamics 365?

Above all, features of adept contract management software should serve to make your life easier. The more seamless the experience for your team, the better. We’ll go through common issues you may be facing with your current contract management, followed by practical solutions that can help.

1. End-to-end solutions to prevent bottlenecks and silos 

Roadblocks will inevitably happen when moving information from one software or system to another; that is, if you’re using an unintegrated solution. Bottlenecks also can prevent getting work done, as doing contract management on spreadsheets or the like requires manual input to move info from one platform to another.

Another common problem? If all of your information is in one system only one department uses, you can create silos in your organization. These lead to a lack of information-sharing between departments, making it easy for info to get miscommunicated/lost.

It’s therefore imperative that whichever solution you choose for contract management integrates with Dynamics 365 because ultimately you want your CRM to be as effective as possible for you. 

Best path forward:

Get all-inclusive, streamlined workflows that take information from contract to execution. This ensures you’re covering the terms of the contract and resources align to estimates. Make sure you have implementation services and integration capabilities to avoid unnecessary additional software, i.e. a siloed tech stack. No matter what, your contract management software needs to integrate with Dynamics 365 to offer the most value.

2. Templates decrease contract creation time and errors

Creating contracts from scratch whenever you win a new project takes up a lot of time. That’s why contract templates have gone from a productivity hack to best practices among SMBs. 

Contract templates will enable you to save major time on contract creation and better yet, they safeguard against human error. Before adopting a contract management solution, many small businesses keep copying and pasting old documents. When using spreadsheets to manage your contracts and haphazardly creating new documents at every turn, errors abound that can cost your company.

Best path forward:

• Use contract templates to speed up contract creation time and prevent costly human error from manual entry. Multiple template options-- i.e. time-and-material, fixed price, etc-- should be able to be leveraged to fit the needs of each engagement. All in all, templates within contract management software lessen the burden of creating tons of contracts. 

3. Automated alerts = no more missed deadlines

Missing notifications for contract dates like completion, renewals etc, can hinder cash flow in a major way. Meanwhile, sending late invoices can damage your business’ reputation. Sometimes even just one missed deadline can put a client off forever.

Best path forward:

Get a contract management solution that allows you to leverage automation alerts. Automated alerts get you the reminders you need when you need them. This one feature can help you uphold promises and create strong relationships with clients. And importantly, you’ll stress less:  you no longer will have to worry about missing deadlines and renewals

4. Smart Generation of information from your CRM 

This goes back to the #1 thing to look for: contract management that integrates with Dynamics 365. Aka an end-to-end solution. Why? You may have already experienced the downsides of unintegrated contract data. For example, when important info is stuck in your CRM that you need for your contract. Instead of manually importing the information, you can easily use it for your contract if your solution allows for smart generation of the data from Dynamics 365. Again, this will save you and your team time and money.

Best path forward:

Remember the all-important CRM integration. Your contract management solution should be able to tie into Dynamics and pull in all the relevant CRM information, helping you keep it in one place. 

5. Visibility of all contracts 

Lack of visibility is one of the biggest downfalls of trying to manage your contracts without practical software in place. You may not be able to easily find certain contracts when you need to urgently check stipulations on budget. Also, usually more than one person needs to have access to view a contract. If this information is siloed, you can waste a lot of time and put deadlines and renewals in jeopardy.

Best path forward:

With robust contract management software for Dynamics 365, all your contracts are visible to you from a bird's-eye perspective. You should easily be able to find all your contracts in one place and grant permissions for who can view the information.

6. Analytics to identify resource usage and profitability 

Finally, one of the biggest reasons to get contract management software for Dynamics 365 is the analytics that it provides. If you’re not currently using some sort of intelligent solution, you won’t have clear data around which contracts are being won and which are at risk of being lost. 

When it comes to resource management as it relates to your contracts, it’s also hard to see what deals are profitable and how resources are being used on the team.

Best path forward:

Check the dash-- Dashboards and reporting are critical features to any contract management system. The most powerful analytics will be offered by an all-in-one project management solution. With this kind of platform, you can make sure your contracts align with time management, resources, profitability, most valuable clients, and top projects. If the solution offers predictive analysis, that’s even better.

PSOhub integrates with Dynamics 365!

Eventually, the best way to effectively manage all your contracts--sometimes across multiple teams and stakeholders across the world--  will involve selecting contract management software. What’s the most efficient and cost-effective option? An all-in-one project management solution that includes the contract management features and capabilities we discussed here.

When it’s all about efficiency and picking the right contract management software to integrate with Microsft Dynamics 365, we get it! PSOhub covers all the things mentioned above and more: 

• You can easily generate smart contracts.
• You’ll be able to manage rates and budgets to create more streamlined workflows within your team and prevent silos.
• You can leverage automation for recurring milestone-based invoicing and more!
• You can manage everything coming out of your contracts efficiently.
• You’ll get paid on time.
• You’ll be more efficient managing contracts in the same place you manage projects. 

Get the most out of Microsoft Dynamics 365 with integrations like PSOhub which can learn and adapt from the environments you’re already using.