RFID Solutions, Inc. Selects Contract Guardian

Contract Guardian Selected by RFID Solutions, Inc. of Mexico 

Cincinnati, OH - October 27, 2014 - Contract Guardian was selected by RFID Solutions, Inc. to deliver a complete, never ending management process for their contracts.  RFID felt that it was a requirement for their organization to be more agile.  The answer for their client lifecycle process was the integration of Contract Guardian for management of their clients and ProspectStream for managing the sales process.

Some of the benefits they anticipate are as follows:

• Reducing the time and effort required to enter the contract in the system
• Reducing the time necessary to make changes
• Keeping a "journal" of anyone who accessed the contract and what changes are made
• Automatically send custom emails communicating the marketing message throughout the life of the contract
• Providing alerts to begin renegotiations of renewals prior to contract termination
• Reporting, at a glance and in real time, to see what contracts are in what stage through extensive reporting functions.
• Standard templates for recording a warranty or service contract
• Keep all contracts and critical accompanying documents in one secure central location
• Create workflows and assign tasks to users based on role, security level, contract value, or other key variables
• Never lose, forget, or miss critical data
• Automatically forward necessary warranty information on to the manufacturer 

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Learn more about Contract Guardian by calling 513.977.4544 or request a demonstration

Contract Guardian Featured at Technology Conference in New Orleans

Contract Guardian Featured at International Technology Conference in New Orleans

Cincinnati, OH - October 6, 2014 - Contract Guardian was thrilled with the opportunity and selection as the only Contract Management Software Offering to participate in this International Technology Conference provided by BlueStar.

Integration with ProspectStream, management of any document/contract type and DocuSign esignature and work flow were demonstrated at the booth.

Other major exhibitors included names like HP, Honeywell, Motorola, Zebra Technologies, Epson, Datalogic and 3M..

The VARTECH conference provided by BlueStar is a world class venue, designed to foster the collaboration between technology partners and unite the industry with their Value-Added Resellers and BlueStar team.  The conference included educational workshops, solutions sessions and hands on demonstration.  Contract Guardian was in the CodeZone Exhibitg Hall.  It was exciting to be included with some of the leading vendors in the world offering technological solutions for healthcare, manufacturing, logistics, point of sale, government, RFID and security.

The 1,700 attendees also had ample opportunity to enjoy Bourbon Street and a visit to the Super Dome.

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Learn more about Contract Guardian by calling 513.977.4544 or request a demonstration

Contract Guardian Partners with DocuSign to Help Companies Go Fully Digital

On September 16, 2014

Partnership with DocuSign Delivers Enhanced ROI, Increased Security and Compliance, and a Better Overall Customer Experience

Cincinnati, OH - September 16, 2014 - Contract Guardian (solution from Rippe & Kingston Systems, Inc.) today announced it has partnered with DocuSign, Inc. (DocuSign®), The Global Standard for Digital Transaction Management™ (DTM), to help enterprise customers go fully digital. DocuSign helps organizations of every size, industry and geography keep business digital – eliminating the hassles, costs, and lack of security in printing, faxing, scanning and shipping documents to complete transactions – to achieve faster speed to results, lower costs, and better customer experiences.

Read Press Release

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Learn more about Contract Guardian by calling 513.977.4544 or request a demonstration

Rapid Scan Module Released for Contract Guardian

Contract & Document Scanning Optimized for the Web!

Cincinnati, OH - September 12, 2014 - Contract Guardian (solution from Rippe & Kingston Systems, Inc.) today announced it has released a new module call "Rapid Scan".   Based on Dynamsoft's Dynamic Web TWAIN SDK,  Contract Guardian Rapid Scan Enables Web-Based Contract and Document Scanning, Archival and Retrieval which is ideal for industries like Healthcare, Legal, Government, Finance, etc.

Below is a screenshot from the user interface:

Read Press Release

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Learn more about Contract Guardian by calling 513.977.4544 or request a demonstration

Related articles

• Dynamsoft Adds OCR for Its Document Processing Tool

Contract Guardian Certified by DocuSign for e-Signature

Contract Guardian Integrates DocusSign Electronic Signature

Cincinnati, OH - July 15, 2014 - Contract Guardian, a leading solution for managing company contracts, commitments, and compliance is pleased to announce the native integration of DocuSign, the world's leading e-signature solution, into our web-based Contract Management application.

"We are pleased to provide this valuable electronic signature service to Contract Guardian clients via native integration with DocuSign." Contract Guardian Services Team, Rippe & Kingston Systems, Inc.

The DocuSign electronic signature platform supports auditable electronic signatures that can be embedded in existing documents and accessed and signed via a Web browser. Features include: 

• e-Signature compliance 
• Automated reminders, expiration, and authentication 
• Workflow, routing, and audit trail capabilities 
• Fully integrated with Contract Guardian

Read Press Release

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Learn more about Contract Guardian by calling 513.977.4544 or request a demonstration

Contract Guardian Will Exhibit at HCCA Conference in Indianapolis, IN

Contract Guardian Plans Exhibition in Indianapolis, IN

Contract Guardian, a leading solution for managing company contracts, commitments, and compliance announced that its plans to attend the HCCA North Central Regional Conference in Indianapolis, IN on October 6th, 2014.  The event will be held at the Indianapolis Marriott North.

Topics being covered during this regional conference include: ICD-10, Meaningful Use, Auditing and Monitoring Appropriate Access by Workforce Members, Stark/Anti-kickback, Cloning and Correction of Medical Records and Conducting a Compliance Audit / Review.

"We are always excited to both attend and sponsor the great HCCA events," said, John Reuter, Director of Implementation Services of Contract Guardian.

 Read More

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Learn more about Contract Guardian by calling 513.977.4544 or request a demonstration

Contract Guardian Helps Deliver LIfecycle Management

Contract Management just might be one of the more overlooked tools for delivering pivotal components of Client Lifecycle Management.  Below are a couple of examples of how to leverage your contract management system:

1. Nurture clients through the automated contract notification system.  You can add your own customized emails to occur automatically with Contract Guardian.  It is not limited to contract renewals!  Example: Management of warranty renewals with literature that discusses the replacement product and or service.  This can help attract the attention of an existing customer, create additional awareness about your company and engage the client through a new product and or service dialogue.
2. Research your Contract Management System for other opportunities.  Leverage the reporting & search capabilities to perform analysis on your base of clients.  You can identify factors (common thread) that will make existing clients ideal for other products and services.  Perhaps it is also time to add them to a call list for your sales representatives.

Learn more about Client Lifecycle Management

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Learn more about Contract Guardian by calling 513.977.4544 or request a demonstration

Contract Guardian To Attend HCCA Mid Central Regional Compliance Conference in Louisiville

Contract Guardian Plans Exhibition in Louisville, KY

Contract Guardian, a leading solution for managing company contracts, commitments, and compliance announced that its plans to attend the HCCA Mid Central Regional Conference in Louisville, KY on November 7, 2014.  The event will be held at the Marriott Louisville East on 11/7/2014.

Topics being covered during this regional conference include: Top 10 Security Concerns for Healthcare IT, Federal & State Criminal Healthcare Fraud Investigations, Security, The London CIA, OIG Update, Show ME the Money, and Round Table Discussion - Hospital/Privacy & Security/Compliance Hot Topics.

"We are always excited to attend one of the many great HCCA events and meet with regional leaders in the healthcare industry.  I am particularly excited about the focus on IT and Security," said, John Reuter, Director of Implementation Services of Contract Guardian. Read More

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Learn more about Contract Guardian by calling 513.977.4544 or request a demonstration

Non-Profit Acute Care Hospital Goes Live with Contract Guardian

On July 15, 2014

California Based Hospital to Deploy Gold Cloud Edition of Contract Guardian

Cincinnati, OH - July 15, 2014 - Contract Guardian, a leading solution for managing company contracts, commitments, and compliance announced that a leading non-profit acute care hospital in California has gone live with Contract Guardian the 'Intuitive Contract Management' solution, to effectively manage contracts, improve visibility, manage access, and evaluate performance.

The hospital is leveraging Contract Guardian to simplify and update all aspects of healthcare contract management and compliance within their organization. The hospital will utilize the Cloud Based version of Contract Guardian over the web, thus requiring no capital expenditure. All aspects of a hospital's contract management lifecycle, including contract creation, monitoring of key milestones, and compliance can be managed via a computer or any popular mobile device. Contract Guardian offers Contract Data Conversion as part of the overall service offering for organizations migrating from their existing solution. Read More

ProspectStream Sales Process Management Software Goes Live with Contract Guardian

CINCINNATI, Ohio (July 2, 2014) - Rippe & Kingston Systems, Inc. a diversified information technology services firm, just announced that Ohio based ProspectStream, a Cloud Based Sales Process Management Software Firm, has gone live with Contract Guardian “Intuitive Contract Management”,  to effectively manage contracts, improve visibility, manage access, and evaluate performance.

ProspectStream is leveraging Contract Guardian to simplify and update all aspects of healthcare contract management and compliance within the firm.   In addition, they are utilizing Contract Guardian APIs to connect with their product.  ProspectStream will deploy the Gold Edition of Contract Guardian over the web, thus requiring no capital expenditure.  All aspects of a firm’s contract management lifecycle, including contract creation, monitoring of key milestones, and compliance can be managed via a computer or any popular mobile device.  “We’re extremely excited about what we have already seen in Contract Guardian and thrilled that they can easily integrate with our software” says Steve Farfsing, President of ProspectStream, LLC.

About ProspectStream

ProspectStream is a Sales Process Management Software firm that has been in business since 2008.  They developed a purpose built prospecting tool in the form of sales automation software.  In other words they apply a systematic approach to qualifying new opportunities while increasing the effectiveness of sales initiatives in every way. They are known for their systematic approach of putting the science in sales.  Their cloud based offering leverages best practices and with their breakthrough technology they:

• Organize and optimize the sales process
• Prompt your next move
• Track your success.

To learn more, visit www.prospectstream.com 

Read Complete Press Release

Learn more about Contract Guardian by calling 513.977.4544 or request a demonstration.

Healthcare Contract Management and the Impact of Hospital Mergers

Mergers in Healthcare are becoming very common.  Healthcare consolidation has been on the rise lately with little sign of slowing down. The industry's merger and acquisition activity increased by almost 20 percent in the third quarter of 2013 compared with the same quarter a year ago, with 267 deals announced in the past three months, according to Irving Levin Associates. (Source: Becker’s Hospital Review)

While a merger can make great financial sense, it often results in a loss of institutional memory that walks away with the reduction in staff.  A merger may also result in some promotions of existing contract managers and promote them.  Again, an organization can experience loss of knowledge and expertise.

One way to mitigate pain and loss in the transition is the effective use of a strong healthcare contract management system.   Our experience tells us that having the following components will make the transition rewarding and retention of the hospital contract management knowledge successful:

• Well defined healthcare contract management contract types.  Each type should clearly specify the unique data to be captured, what is required, optional and default values.
• Strong journal of all transactions and the history of any change, comment and notification regarding an agreement.
• Defined alert system as well as a work flow and signing approval  for each contract type.
• Ability to transfer “in mass” responsibility of a group of contracts from one person to another.  (Note:  one should perform a check on all alerts to identify any email addresses that are no longer valid due to reduction/change in staff or change to email addresses)
• Reporting system to review, report and identify any potential concerns.
• If you have a hosted contract management system (sometimes called SaaS or Cloud), you will eliminate one of the many challenges that the IT team often faces.

You will still experience pain with almost any merger or acquisition.  However, having the above in place for your contract management system will minimize the loss and ease the transition.

Learn more about Contract Guardian by calling 513.977.4544 or request a demo

Related articles

• Why Medical Practice Mergers Fail (or Fail to Get Off the Ground)
• $3.8B Beaumont, Botsford, Oakwood merger a done deal following hospital boards' approval

How Do You Manage Your Business Agreements

If you're like many companies, you keep a growing list of hard copies and electronic files plus a nifty spreadsheet to track key dates and details. Yet it can still take hours, even days, to track down the data you need when you need it.

Not having an effective system to manage your contracts is almost as bad as not having a contract! Organizations have invested significant time and money to reach the point of a signed contract. Unfortunately, it is incorrectly believed that this is the last time anyone needs to look at the agreement.

Explore how a Contract Management System Addresses your Needs.  Read Complete Article by Thom Davidson

How to Preserve Institutional Knowledge with Contract Management Software

I read a blog posting with the title “How to Preserve Institutional Knowledge” by Ron Askenas.  He has some excellent points that are definitely worth sharing.

• The core knowledge of an institution often leaves when individuals are promoted, transferred or depart
• Knowledge disappears even more rapidly when a firm reorganizes or merges with another (We have seen this occur with our healthcare contract management clients)

He suggests that there are a couple of ways to overcome loss of institutional knowledge:

• First, build an explicit strategy for maintaining institutional memory, even in your own team. Don’t assume that it will happen by itself.
• Second, as part of your strategy, identify the few key things that you want every member of your team to know or be able to do — and figure out how to turn this from an implicit assumption to an explicit expectation.
• Finally, use technology to create a process by which your team continually captures and curates institutional knowledge

I had a little epiphany when I realized Contract Guardian Contract Management delivers the capability for capturing the Institutional Knowledge of any organization.  As a result I have written some examples of how to leverage Contract Guardian to satisfy this pressing need.  Read Complete Article.

Learn more about Contract Guardian by calling 513.977.4544 or request a demo

Press Release | June 2014 - Contract Guardian Releases Enterprise Search API

New Contract Guardian Search API

Contract Guardian can be integrated with almost any existing system to further extend the power and level of unification of various systems.  "The API is easy to use and yet powerful!" - Thom Davidson

The search API can be initiated with or without predefined parameters.  Typically, clients will have an icon that will initiate the search.  It will open a new window and execute the full text search.  The search addresses all security concerns and constraints associated with the client / user.

Read Complete Release

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Learn more about Contract Guardian by calling 513.977.4544 or request a demonstration.

New Contract Guardian Website

Rippe & Kingston is pleased to announce the release of our new Contract Guardian website, designed with a fresh new look and user-friendly navigation, updated with the latest information about contract management and our services.

Some of the new changes include:

• Search across all content from top of page 
• Social Media Links
• Easy Navigation
• Responsive Site for Smartphone and Tablets
• Links on every page for:
• Demo 
• Contact Us
• Support
• Login to Production Site

Learn more about Contract Guardian by calling 513.977.4544 or request a demo.

Attending HCCA Regional Conference in Columbus, Ohio

We are attending the HCCA Conference in Columbus today.  Presenting Contract Guardian.   Other topics include:

• Health Care Enforcement from the Defense Perspective
• Addressing Insider Threats
• Fraud and Abuse Issues
• Top Seven  Research Compliance Issues

Learn more about Contract Guardian by calling 513.977.4544 or request a demo.

Heartbleed: What You Need to Know

News broke this last week of a wide-reaching security vulnerability known as the Heartbleed bug. Heartbleed affects OpenSSL, used by a majority of the web to securely send data.  In short, we want you to know that we performed penetration tests on Contract Guardian and it is Safe from Heartbleed.

Visit our Booth at the HCCA Conference

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About Contract Guardian

Contract Guardian – Contract Management software has been a key part of our overall success. Hospitals and healthcare were the first clients to leverage this powerful product and then it spread to other industries (Finance, Technology, Legal, Government, Manufacturing, etc.)

Contract Guardian – Contract Management has established an exceptional reputation for client service and quality of solution.  Client satisfaction is fundamental to Contract Guardian and is our top priority.

Learn more about Contract Guardian by calling 513.977.4544 or request a demo.

Contract Management Conversion Tip with Contract Guardian

Contract Management Conversion Tip with Contract Guardian

Notifications via email is certainly the default approach for most contract management systems.  However, it is not very effective if the email is undeliverable.  On a day to day basis, Contract Guardian automatically monitors delivery, bounces, click through, etc.  Obviously, those checks are performed after the delivery attempt is made.

Here is a proactive tip that can be incorporated into one of your conversion steps and annual house cleaning chores for contract management.  I will use a healthcare contract management environment for my example:

Steps

1. One time step: Create email notification in Contract Guardian that is sent to all parties in the system.  This will include internal hospital employees as well outside vendors, etc.  Identify the email as a test and tell the recipient no action is required.
2. One time step: Create agreement.  Link all parties in the system to the agreement.  Select only the email notification that was created in step 1.  Define the agreement as auto renewal with an increment of 1 year per renewal.  Trigger the notification 1 day prior to expiration.
3. Automatic: Contract Guardian will automatically monitor for any undeliverable "hard bounce" emails that indicate  that either the hospital / vendor employee is no longer with the organization or it was entered incorrectly. 
4. Annual: Make your corrections/additions/deletions and Contract Guardian is set to automatically do your annual checkup going forward..

Example of Rejected Emails

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About Contract Guardian

Contract Guardian – Contract Management software has been a key part of our overall success. Hospitals and healthcare were the first clients to leverage this powerful product and then it spread to other industries (Finance, Technology, Legal, Government, Manufacturing, etc.)

Contract Guardian – Contract Management has established an exceptional reputation for client service and quality of solution.  Client satisfaction is fundamental to Contract Guardian and is our top priority.

Learn more about Contract Guardian by calling 513.977.4544 or request a demo.

Contract Management – What to do next?

Contract Management - What to do next?

Contracts and their associated tasks change constantly. How do contract managers know what to do next? The Contract Guardian solution offers easy-to-use ways to manage, track, remind and notify you at every turn in the life-cycle of a contract.

Contract Management Dashboard

The first place is on the Contract Guardian dashboard that is configured specifically to the user profile.  As a contract manager, several important information streams are immediately available:

• Announcements – This is both internal and external contract management update announcements
• Contract Journal Feed – You will see a stream of the most recent activities where you have responsibility.
• Recent Contracts – The five (5) most recent contracts that you have visited are shown with an immediate link to the agreement.
• Upcoming Contract Deadlines – Seeing a graphical representation of deadlines for the next 6 months can be very informative.  Example: A hospital contract manager might see the upcoming physician employee agreement renewals for which they are responsible.
• Contract Profile Chart – All of the contract types are summarized into a pie chart with the number of each type being displayed.

Contract Guardian Primary Contracts Tab

Contract Managers usually spend a majority of their day on the main page.  Here is where they can filter, search, sort and organize all of their agreements.  One quick and easy tool to keep you up to speed is your favorites.  Simply click on the star next to any agreement and it will become one of your favorites.  Now, a punch list of work is available without even searching.

Contract Notifications

Contract Notifications – Contract Guardian has some of the most comprehensive capabilities in the contract management industry.

• Unlimited Email notifications with mail merge capabilities triggered by  core and user defined fields
• Task email notifications
• Work Flow assignments & notifications
• Delivery monitoring of contract email alerts – read article Contract Management Software – After the Email Alerts

Documents with Tasks

Documents with Tasks Tab shows you all of the contracts that have outstanding tasks.  Click on the task(s) associated with the agreement and you will see all of the details.  Not sure which contract has an outstanding task, simply click on the tab for Documents with Task.  One can sort and filter the task by fields such as due date, assigned to, task type, title, etc. read article Contract Management Software – After the Email Alerts

My Tasks

My Tasks – Provides a detailed breakdown of tasks that are specifically for you.  You can see the unique grid views that divided into Outstanding, Closed and a Calendar View. You can also create a new task from here as well.  (A task email can optionally be sent upon creation) 

Contract Task Tab

Contract Task Tab –This pull out tab is accessed from any page in the system.  It will pull out and you can see any of your tasks.  In addition, you can select and close the tasks directly from the tab as well access complete task management.  

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About Contract Guardian

Contract Guardian – Contract Management software has been a key part of our overall success. Hospitals and healthcare were the first clients to leverage this powerful product and then it spread to other industries (Finance, Technology, Legal, Government, Manufacturing, etc.)

Contract Guardian – Contract Management has established an exceptional reputation for client service and quality of solution.  Client satisfaction is fundamental to Contract Guardian and is our top priority.

Learn more about Contract Guardian by calling 513.977.4544 or request a demo.

Contract Guardian Delivers Integrated Support

The Integrated Support for Contract Guardian is designed to put the user in control.  We offer three (3) integrated tools for support/communication for your contract management system.

Report an Issue is accessed via the Tab at the top center of every page in Contract Guardian.  The screen capture below shows you that once you click report an issue, you will be presented with the opportunity to describe the situation as well as sending a screen captures if available.  In addition, name and email is requested so that we can respond accordingly.  The  submission goes directly to our support team and developers for resolution.

Support Button provides you with the details of how to reach support via phone and video conference support (Share screen and application).  It also describes the other support mechanisms available.  An ever growing inventory of contract management videos can be accessed directly from here as well.

Feedback Button delivers a generic way to communicate with everyone on the Contract Guardian Team.  Send us a compliment, request, complaint or any other type of message.  Everything is reviewed by Management, Marketing, Sales, Development & Support.

Learn more about Contract Guardian by calling 513.977.4544 or request a demo.

Contract Management Software - After the Email Alerts

Contract Guardian features a simple and elegant feature for Email Alerts. Contract Guardian monitors emails to check if emails are bouncing and if emails are opened. The average Contract Management Software does not include these features. They typically describe their Email alerts with a description similar to the following:

Receive timely email alerts of expiry dates and any other contract deliverable deadlines.
Adding workflows to your system will then automatically inform the user of the next step in the process.  Include digital signatures to your contract workflow and you have a very through cycle.   

Unfortunately, there are still several holes in the previous process where the information falls through without important monitoring.

One of these holes is monitoring emails that bounce.  Here is a real world scenario where Contract Guardian allowed us to react to a bad email address in the system.  A healthcare organization was sending alerts from their account to a single responsible party on a contract.  Contract Guardian monitoring flagged the email when it received a bounce notification from the system.  A quick call determined that the email address belonged to a former employee.  The tracking of this situation allowed the Contract Guardian Administrator to update the contract and remove the user email from the system.  Tracking and notifying the administrator of Out of Office or On Vacation “soft bounces” will help the compliance people know that no activity is taking place at the moment.

Another one of these holes is that there is no way to tell if the email was opened or if the user clicked on any links in the email to take an appropriate action on a contract.  Your contract management system needs to monitor all of this and make the appropriate alerts/notifications.  Here is a typical account showing the Opens vs. Clicks.

The next contract management software email alert chart reflects overall activity for a snapshot of time.  You will notice that for this account, 110 emails were delivered and 2 were bounced.  Filtering by the bounce provide you with the problem email addresses.

Here is a summary of items you should monitor from your contract management software system after the email alert is sent:

Filter Data by:

• Delivered
• Rejected
• Spam Complaints
• Unsubscribed
• Hard Bounces
• Soft Bounces
• Deferred

United States (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Analysis Reporting to Consider

• Compare opens clicks and delivery stats between different groups of emails, based on your own custom search filters.
• Demographic analysis:
• Locations – Country, State, City, etc.
• Email Clients: Chrome, Outlook, Mobile Safari, etc
• Operating System: Windows 7, Windows 8, Android, IOS, etc.

Learn more about Contract Guardian by calling 513.977.4544 or request a demo.

Contract Management email notifications with mail merge available in Contract Guardian

Use mail merge to create email notifications for Contract Managements

You use mail merge when you want to create a more professional and personal email notification within Contract Guardian.  For example: If you are a hospital that wishes to create a personalized notification of a physician agreement that will lapse, you could include within the body of the notification all core fields and user defined fields for that contract type.

The mail merge process for contract management email notifications uses the following overall steps:

1. Set up the main contract notification document. The main document contains the text and graphics that are the same for each version of the merged document — for example, the name of the other party.  (Physician, Vendor, Company, etc.).
2. Insert the fields into the notification template.   Using the email notification system, select the field you wish to show in the email and insert it into the body of the document.   For example, the names and addresses of the vendor.
3. Contract Guardian does the rest.  It will automatically trigger the notifications and deliver it to the appropriate individuals based on the rules of the notification.  
4. Note: This is a onetime process.  Once you setup an email notification and provide the merged fields, you can set it and forget it.  

Below is an illustration of the merge field integration process:

Learn more about Contract Guardian by calling 513.977.4544 or request a demo.