Contract Management Release Update 2014-01-26

On January 26, the development team for Contract Guardian released several updates to help enhance the Contract Management Software.

This most recent update of Contract Guardian contains two (2) new features and around a dozen performance tweaks and bug fixes. New Features Added:

'Notifications' tab to the Documents page that allows users with the appropriate permissions to toggle on/off various types of email notifications sent on a per document basis. Previously this functionality was possible through the 'Contract Info' tab on the Documents page, but we felt the implementation could be improved upon to create a more desirable user experience.



Added Account based announcements These are announcements will only be displayed for users under the account that created the announcement. This is in addition to the global announcements on the contract management dashboard.  A number of our healthcare contract management clients wanted additional granularity in the dashboard communication.

We have also added a dozen performance tweaks and some minor bug fixes.  Performance tweaks and bug fixes.

Feedback to Contract Guardian is available on every page of the application.  The requests are routed to the team.  They utilize Agile Development for Hosted Contract Management:  A few of the advantages for our clients include:

1. High degree of collaboration between our client and the development team
2. Predictable Delivery
3. Rapid Change
4. Focus on value for clients
5. Quality and Performance Improvement

Contact Contract Guardian to learn more. 

Related articles

• The Role of a Contract Manager: 2014 update

Contract Management - Choosing the Right Tool for the Job

Often people feel the best tool is the one they know.  That being said, it is not surprising that when it comes to Contract Management you see a number of tools being used that just don’t really match the needs of a true contract management system.  Some examples include:

1. File Cabinets - allow me to emphasize that yes, it is still very common to see contracts managed or should I say mismanaged by putting them in a file cabinet.

• Lost and misplaced documents
• Only one person can use it at a time
• No alert mechanism
• If you have a fire…good luck

2. Excel Spreadsheet – This is a nice place to start for an organization that has a central person that manages all contracts and only needs very limited functionality. However, they do have numerous limitations

• Don’t trigger important actions to be taken
• Very cumbersome and requires significant time and labor to keep current
• Prone to human error since this is not tied to a database that can be used for data integrity
• Sharing is a challenge and don’t count on using it effectively over the Internet
• Searching your data and the actual documents and attachments will be slow and exhausting

3. CRM Systems and tools like SharePoint are good examples of using the wrong tool for the job.  They are good products, but are not designed to address contract management requirements.  To paraphrase Abraham Maslow, "If all you have is a hammer, then everything looks like a nail".

4. Other Contract Management Systems

• There are a number of these and many have a price tag that is difficult to justify. Yes, they can deliver a great deal of functionality.  Finding the right balance can be a bit daunting.  A few items for your consideration Very challenging installation and long learning curve for the users
• Delivers numerous features that you will never use (It is a little like getting an elephant for free…you still have to feed it and clean up afterwards)
• Add on charges often occur for what other vendors might include:
• Extra when you add additional contracts and or users
• Fees to pull your own data out of the system
• Charges to use a Tablet or Smartphone with the system
• Ongoing consulting services that are often provided from other vendors as part of their support model

Feature Rich, Intuitive Contract Management at a Reasonable Price

Thankfully for you, a perfect balance now exists in contract management software  that delivers the features you need, intuitive to use and at a reasonable price.  Are you ready to get rid of your file cabinet?  Think it is time to stop wasting your time with Excel or your money with a very expensive solution?  Say hello to professional contract management software that works in the cloud or on premise.  Learn how you can make this happen with intuitive contract management software at http://www.contractguardian.com. 

Contract Guardian Search Receives Inter-Face Lift

Search Wikiquote (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Face-Lift for Search in Contract Guardian

The Inter-Face Lift (excuse the pun) change is in the delivery of the results.  The contract management search module in Contract Guardian now delivers the most effective results in addition to its reputation for arguably the best and certainly fastest search engine in the contract management industry.

Meta Data of Contract

Every search that has a hit on the Meta data of a contract delivers the following:

• Name of contract
• Link to the contract meta data and attachments
• Type of agreement
• Organization 
• Status of contract
• Name of the field(s) where the content matches.  It also highlights in yellow the search argument.
• Date contract was created
• Who (user) that created the agreement
• Date contract was modified
• Who (user) that last modified the agreement

Actual Contract and Attachments (PDF, Word, Excel, etc.)

Every search that has a hit on the content of the contract (primary attachment) and other attachments delivers the following:

• Name of agreement
• Link to the agreement and the document (contract / attachment)
• Expiration Date of attachment (if provided)
• Snippet of text surrounding the search phrase that is highlighted in yellow for each instance that it finds a match 

• Date contract was modified
• Who (user) that last modified the agreement

Learn More about Contract Management Capabilities

Contract Guardian will be shown at HCCA 2014 Compliance Institute

Be sure to come and visit the Contract Guardian team at the 18th Annual Compliance Institute

March 30- April 2, 2014 | San Diego

Join us in San Diego for the 2014 Compliance Institute, the most comprehensive conference specifically for today's healthcare compliance professional.

This is HCCA's largest event. Over the course of four days, more than 146 sessions and 246 speakers will cover topics such as healthcare reform, hospital physician alignment, compliance effectiveness, and HIPAA privacy/data breach. Sessions are organized into tracks as linked below. Focus on a single track or mix and match sessions to meet your needs. Specialists? Check out the pre-conference Industry Immersion sessions. Let the institute help you bring order to seeming chaos.

Contract Guardian will be in Booth 317.

Search, Filter and Report on any Contact and Contract Attachment

Contract Guardian Delivers Extensive Capacities in the Searching, Filtering and Reporting of Agreements.

Searching for Contracts and Contract Related Data

Simply enter a keyword or phrase in the search box and Contract Guardian will prepare the items that match your criteria.  Additional options include:

• Terms - Search terms without double quotes will be treated as single terms. Ex: Search Terms.  This will be treated as "Search" "Terms" and both words will be found in your meta data, contracts and contract attachments.
• Phrases - A group of words surrounded by double quotes.  Ex: "Search Terms"  This will be treated as one word and will only be found when both words are found in that order.
• Fields - You can search any field by typing the field name followed by a colon ":" and the term you are searching for.  Ex: title:"Search Terms"  This will search for something with the title of "Search Terms".  Since Contract Guardian provides you the option to create unlimited contract types and unlimited user defined fields; you can define very refined searches.
• Wildcard Searches - Contract Guardian supports single and multiple character wildcard searches within single terms.  To perform a single character wildcard contract search use the "?" symbol.  To perform a multiple character wildcard search use the “*” symbol.  The single character wildcard search looks for terms that match that with the single character replaced.  For example, to search for “contract” you can use the search c?ntract.  Multiple character wildcard searches look for 0 or more characters.  For example, to search for sign, signature and signs you can use sign*.  You can also search your contract management repository by using the wildcard search in the middle of a term.

Filtering Contract Information

Contract Filtering is a great way to organize and search your contracts on ad-hoc basis.  For example: In a healthcare environment you could select the Contract Type field to include “Physician” so that you can see all of your Physician Employment Agreements.  You can combine multiple column heading filters as well.  All of the contract grids provide the ability to sort each column in ascending or descending order.   Once you identify the contract or group of contracts, you can immediately:

• View the contract
• Create a task for the contract
• Create a journal entry for the contract
• Send the contract via email

The filtering is provided in the following contract support grids:  Contracts, Contract Types, Contract Statuses, Other Parties for a Contract, Contract Attachment Types, Task Types, Custom Contract Fields,  and Custom Contract Fieldsets.  The Contract Administrator has these features as well as system administration filtering on Contract Management Users, Roles, Permissions, Organizations and Departments. 

Note: All of the contract management grids provide the client the ability to export their data to Excel or a PDF document.

Contract Management Reporting

Contract Guardian enables you to construct a report using criteria from any of the contract management field including user defined.  Filtering (selecting) data is performed by a drop down menu of all the fields available in the system.  Based on the field, it will present various options like (equals, greater than, less than), date from a pop up calendar, contains (example would be a drop down list of users).   You can then add additional condition via the AND/OR inclusion.  For example: You might want all contracts that are of the type LEASE and have a contract value greater than $1,000.

Once you submit your results you can see your results almost instantaneously.  The grid presentation allows you to scroll left and right.  It also allows you to sort on any column as well as drag and drop a column into the sequence you desire.  You can name and save the report definitions for future use.  

Like all of the contract management grids, you can export the report to either Excel or PDF.   One can also link directly to the document from the report results.

Contract Guardian was designed with ease of use, simple administration and online training packaged into a powerful and flexible contract management system that delivers the perfect pairing for our clients in any industry.  Learn more by Scheduling a contract management demonstration or contacting sales at 513.977.4544

Consolidate Email Notifications for Executives

Consolidate Email Notifications for Executives

Most users receive a specific email that is related to each contract. However, executives often wish to receive one consolidated email.

This is easily provided in Contract Guardian by performing the following in the Contract Guardian 3.0 Email Notification System:

1. Check the Executive Email Notice box
2. Select the individuals that will receive one and only one notice.

Contract Guardian Expands the Custom Field Types

Contract Management User Defined Fields

We are proud to announce the addition of some new types of user defined fields.  The contract management system has the following user defined types of fields for any contract type:

• Auto increment: Start at any number and automatically increment each time it is created. (NEW)
• Check box: Select your option.
• Date: A calendar will automatically appear for you to select a date
• Email: A formatted email address
• MultiPicker: Select multiple options from a drop down list.  (You can define your own options)
• Numeric: Allows only the entry of a number
• Paragraph: Unlimited text box for all your notes/comments
• Phone Number: Formatted for phone numbers (NEW)
• SinglePicker: Select a single option from a drop down list.  (You can define your own options)
• Text: A simple text box
• Url: Entry for a web address (NEW)

Note: A user can create unlimited user defined fields.  The above are just the types of fields.

Learn more by requesting a demonstration or contact sales at 513.977.4544.