Keeping Track of Your Stuff is Easy with a Good CMS

D.C. Toedt over at On Technology Contracts posted a recent article about keeping track of Insurance Certificates.  He relays a great story about the importance of asking for them, but more importantly, being able to produce them when needed.

This is such a simple thing to do when you have a good Contract Management System.  It’s merely another document you’d upload and track.  Heck, Novatus Contracts even allows you to create event notifications for certificate renewals.  Need to remember to ask that it’s expiring?  No problem – the system will automatically send the alert to the vendor (you can get cc’d if you wish) asking for a new one.  It’ll even take it one step further.  If you don’t “close out” the event after a certain date (such as when you receive the new certificate), you can re-route the alert to you (or whomever is in charge of managing that vendor) for handling.

Of course, this is also available for any other supporting documents you want to include or for any other trackable metrics (milestone due dates, payment dates, etc).

But you have to have a system that can handle it.  What would you rather have: the mild expense of a good contract management system?  Or the exhorbitant expense of an unexpected and uncovered personal injury claim?  Yeah, I thought so.  Tell Novatus I sent you or request information here.

Novatus Contracts Summer 2009 Promotion

I just received notice that Novatus has created a promotional pricing offer valid from June 1 to September 30, 2009, which includes low-cost licensing options, rapid deployment and pay-as-you-go licensing – no commitments required.  Released in light of the current global economic condition and Novatus’ desire to address prospective client’s budgetary requirements, the best contract management system just became easier to adopt.  To learn more, contact me here (select Novatus from the drop-down menu).

About Novatus, Inc.
Novatus delivers contract, compliance and supplier management software via On-Demand SaaS delivery and On-Premises installation. With a focus on customer driven requirements, mobility and integration, Novatus provides the right fit for companies seeking a proven provider with superior technology who offers cost efficient applications and rapid deployment. Novatus was founded in 2008 by well-respected and globally recognized contract and supply chain industry leaders and is comprised of domain experts who have been top tier software and services providers since the contract management space formed and evolved into a recognized software category and formal discipline throughout the last decade.

Announcing a New Partnership with Novatus

I am very pleased to announce the creation of a new partnership with Novatus Contract Management Systems.  The simple truth is that contract management systems aren’t a fad – they’re a necessity.  If you’re going to get one, then, I would suggest getting one that meets your needs and exceeds your expectations.  I’ve been waiting several years to finally find a system (and a company) that I feel truly delivers on the promises they make regarding their system and provides a product that is best for managing my deals. [Disclosure:  I receive compensation for referrals who actually make a purchase.  Clicking on the links in this article are NOT revenue generating.]

CMS’s are currently enjoying a new life in the procurement and sales contract team arsenals these days.  I don’t think it’s a lack of understanding about their value – from being able to do internal metrics tracking to providing increased value to your clients, a contract management system is a must-have for anyone handling more than one contract per month.  The barriers to adoption have been any combination of installation, scalability, ease-of-use or, as usual, price.

Novatus solves all of them.  First, Novatus comes in different flavors to accommodate anyone’s IT infrastruture – offered both as an in-house and a SaaS solution.  For environments which mandate all in-house solutions (or even if you’re a bit skittish about your data living off-site), you can have a local installation of the Novatus system completed by their expert professional services staff.  On the other hand, if you don’t want to manage the perceived in-house headaches or ongoing system management tasks, the SaaS solution is right for you.

Scalability is equally simple.  You can start with a small number of users and ramp up based on need and on internal adoption without batting an eye.  What’s even better is that the system is at full-power from the first user on the system – no crippled versions or limits exist simply because you’re not a large installation.

Ease of Use sometimes seems like it should be a given in today’s software world.  But what most people discover with even long-time applications is that it’s not the basic functionality that’s hard to use, it’s everything else.  This is the reason why most people don’t use more than about 10 main functions of their word processing application and leave everything else undiscovered.  Wanting to not only be the “hairclub president, but also a client”, I asked for a full version of the system so that I could manage my own contracts.  From the point where I got the e-mail notification of my login credentials to the point where I had all of my contracts in the system and the various options configured the way I wanted them to look only took me about a day (I don’t have that many contracts, so most of the time was spent doing minor configuration tweaking).  Out of the box, this product just plain works – and it’s easy to customize to your specific needs.

Oh yeah… price.  In the many years that I’ve been advocating the implementation of contract management systems, the biggest barrier, especially for organizations with an underdeveloped contracting team, is ALWAYS price.  No one wants to risk buying a lot of access only to discover that the application has no value or that no one wants to use it.  Novatus solves this problem by simplifying the user access model (there are only 2 classes of user – the ones that can enter data and the ones who can just look).  You can start your system off with as few a number of users as you possibily could want (yes, just 1 full access user can get you going).  Combined with the SaaS model, there is virtually no risk to building your system and adding more users as you gain internal traction based on demonstrable evidence of the system’s value.

If you’re in the market for a new or replacement CMS, visit Novatus and tell ’em Jeff sent ya’.  Or contact me (or them) for more information.