Once upon a time, in pre-pandemic times, I was heading to a concert with my sister and dad. I was absolutely pumped because we were going to see a true legend: John Fogerty. My shoes were tied, my Creedence Clearwater Revival shirt was on, and I was prepped and primed to head to the venue. Then, from my sister, I heard the dreaded words:
“Wait, I'm not ready!”
And twenty minutes later, after yelling "Come on! Get a move on! Who needs a phone anyways?" about 100 times, I was even more annoyed when I nearly missed the opening song because she was too slow.
Waiting around for one person is never fun. It's a waste of time that is, more often than not, avoidable. The same goes for waiting for approvals for contracts. If you are waiting for Susie Q to approve a contract, and she is taking forever, you can face all sorts of serious consequences, especially when it comes to time and money.
Bad Moon Rising
Slow approval times for contracts can do a lot of damage, especially to your contract cycle. Slow approval times bog things down and lengthen the contract cycle time unnecessarily. Keeping cycle times short is important as, according to a WCC study, it can help "increase speed to cash" and can reduce "exposure to competitive challenges or changes in market requirements."
Usually, slow contract cycle times are blamed on Legal even if that is unfair. In a world where legal departments are being asked to do more with less, requiring every contract to go through Legal can significantly slow the process down. It can also eat up valuable time and resources that would be better applied to more strategic, value-added initiatives.
Who Will Stop the Rain
One of the best ways to speed up slow approval processes is to let users approve from anywhere! With a modern CLM solution, like Malbek, you can approve a contract on the go. Boat, plane, train, hovercraft, in the office, at home, at a concert. Literally anywhere! That's because you can approve contracts right on your mobile device. Straight from your email, you can see what has been submitted to you, and approve it with a click of a button (or the tap of a finger).
There is no need to run through the jungle to find out who is supposed to be approving the contract either. You can keep tabs on your contract with Malbek at any time and know exactly where it is, who has it for approval, and how long it's been there. So if Susie Q is the hold-up, you can reach out to her and find out why. We also have integrations to popular communication apps, like Slack, so you can reach out and get that contract approval easily.
Additionally, having pre-approved contract language or a legal playbook can help alleviate the approval lag and keep your cycle times rollin' down the river. This can reduce the need for Legal to review every contract, which in turn reduces the work burden that Legal faces. When you eliminate the backlog of approvals in the first place, the whole approval process speeds up and saves your company time and money.
Slow approval times are not only annoying but costly. Much like how my sister's poor planning and forgetful habits cost me precious concert time, slow approvals can cost your organization time and money that they might not be able to get back. But good golly Miss Molly, there are CLM solutions that can help alleviate slow contract approvals. And if you're interested, schedule a demo with us today.
