Contractual data is rarely perceived for its true worth. However, they are a reflection of legal and economic relationships a company has with its clients, suppliers and partners.
This business data is essential. Their protection is quite simply a strategic issue... Theft or loss of these shall diminish, depending on their importance, the balance and competitiveness of the company.
Though, what are we actually talking about? How is contractual data at risk? But most of all, how to protect these?
Why are contracts contractual data?
Contracts involve major data challenges for companies
When you digitize your contracting processes, you store information on your commitments and those of your contacts.
Therefore, an agreement which is rounded off with a supplier will give details on: the name of the parties, the obligations of each party, the price, the future deadlines, late penalties, etc..
All these elements fall within contractual data. As a general rule, this valuable information, once the agreements have been signed, are transcribed and grouped together in an internal Excel-type file or, for the most digitalized companies, with a database.
In both cases, you want to make the best use of these elements for controlled contract management.
This is even more important when the projects are complex and include many interlocutors, for example in the field of construction, or when the contract negotiations have been long and laborious.
At the end of the day, the performance of companies is closely related to the conscientious monitoring of contractual data. Moreover, most legal experts who have a business vision of their work, now seek to establish statistics (or KPIs).
The desired goal? Correct dysfunctions and benefit through levers which trigger wealth.
Risks related to the loss, error, or theft of contractual data
You would have understood that rigorous contract management de facto involves the storage and management of contract data.
But it’s only human to make mistakes (or “errare humanum est”, as the Latins used to say). It is quite common for data to get lost, in its entirety or in part, or worse, destroyed or stolen. This weakens the business and exposes it to quite a few risks:
- contractual risks which are expensive, and which complicate the mission of operational staff in the field;
- litigation risks which reflect the failure of a project and commercial relations.
- regulatory risks which can slow down or even terminate an activity, subject to authorization by the public authorities;
- the risks associated with assets, which we do not spontaneously think of, which lean on business development in a major way, such as intellectual property.
At the end of the day, contract data makes an impact on people, the operation’s stability, and the business relationships. Moreover, you must establish a culture which is based on contract management with the teams.
How to protect your contractual data? Hyperlex, the suitable solution
The challenges of contractual data: competitiveness and security
The more a business expands, the more contractual data multiplies. Monitoring contracts and ensuring respective obligations then turns into a real headache.
This requires collaborative work with the field. Operational staff need to communicate with the legal department on the progress and difficulties of the project.
Just like financial resources, data is the sinews of war. A loss, error, or theft would be detrimental from a financial, legal and organizational viewpoint.
Contract management software perfectly responds to all these issues. Their role is to facilitate the management of contractual information and to protect it.
Hyperlex, an ISO ISO/IEC 27001: 2013 certified solution
Hyperlex is one of the only start-ups who has managed to obtain ISO/IEC 27001: 2013 and its privacy extension ISO 27701: 2019 . This international certification is widely recognized in the field of information security.
Given the high security standards, it is going to become a real concern for all buyers and suppliers of the SaaS software. Right from the moment software imports and stores data, the question of storage is omnipresent. At a time when companies are dematerializing their contractual management, security must be one of the main criteria when one is looking to choose an external solution.
A Contract Analytics unit to deploy the Hyperlex solution in secure manner
At Hyperlex, the role of the pole namely Contract Analytics is to support companies in the management of their contractual data so that they can identify and extract key data and better manage risks. The real benefit of contractual data is to carry out a proper monitoring, but also to structure the information in order to be able to analyze it!
However, it is not easy for companies to process such a volume of information, especially when there are hundreds or thousands of contracts.
The first goal for the Contract Analytics division is to migrate contract data from companies in complete security. This is a priority so that the solution can be quickly used by customers.
The other step is to carry out analyzes of regulatory compliance or compliance with standards. This means, drawing up a precise and statistical picture of the existing one, to analyze the structure of a certain number of contracts, or even highlight the most recurring clauses.
Last but not least, the Contract Analytics division can be assigned for audit or due diligence to ensure whether a batch of contracts does contain certain mentions or not. 👉 See the interview with our Lead Contract Analytics to find out more.
Example of an analytical dashboard, Hyperlex's flagship feature, which allows companies to monitor and evaluate their contract activity
Do you want to adopt a solution that is concerned with information security?
We also recommend:
- What is compliance?
- How to protect your contractual data in the age of the cloud?
- [LIVE STREAM] Securing corporate legal data in the cloud
- How to secure corporate legal data in the cloud?
- Checklist: ISO/IEC 27001:2013 for dummies