Sustainability is what people are currently talking about in their businesses. And the theme is far from being a fashion trend in the corporate world, but rather a sense of obligation and urgency, for both businesses themselves and Planet Earth.

It’s a fact that, nowadays, the search for methods that can positively impact the environment, promote conscious consumption habits and contribute to society’s well-being can make a company raise not only its market potential, but also its value and its image to customers.

More than a trend, however, this is a consequence of increasingly demanding and less alienated consumers, who prefer to choose brands that, like them, have a holistic view of the market.

Sustainability x Profitability

On the other hand, process performance and profitability are aspects that cannot be overlooked in the race for sustainability.

Questions such as “Is it possible to be more sustainable without impacting business results?”, “Is there a way to balance needs?”, and “How to be more sustainable without decreasing performance?” are still being asked, but they are moving toward nearly organic and intuitive solutions, with the help of technology.

In the near future, profit and sustainability will go abreast, without arousing so many doubts and conflicts of interest.

Contract management opportunities

In the B2B universe, and in procurement particularly, Contract Management is one of the practices that challenge the sustainability issue.

Some say it’s difficult to be sustainable, due to the huge volume of contracts and papers that are handled daily. Additionally, document disposal isn’t often done correctly, and materials aren’t reused, along with so many other hurdles.

And while these problems still exist, others – even older ones – still persist.

According to a survey by Aberdeen, 44% of companies want greater visibility into their contracts and 40% want to reduce risk with their suppliers. Additionally, 37% of organizations want to be more compliant with supplier contracts, and 34% would like to access supplier performance in their agreements.

Now here’s the question: How to solve these problems?

It’s always in the face of difficulties that great solutions arise. This is what you will see below!

CLM: technology for performance and sustainability

CLM or Contract Lifecycle Management is a contract management tool – the first step to gain more control and governance, as well as to solve several common management and (of course) sustainability issues.

This solution involves managing the whole contract life cycle, in compliance with the agreed bonds with suppliers, partners, customers or employees – in order to avoid inconvenience, and monitor and organize the company’s agreements.

An efficient contract control enables full understanding of each process step, thus allowing to manage the creation, use and analysis of documents – all actions that maximize the operational and financial performance of an organization.

CLM to avoid corporate risks

A good CLM solution assists in meeting renewal/expiration times and traded quantities, and provides a 360-degree view of all agreements – which helps your organization to identify potential deviations and decrease contractual risks during the life cycle of contracts.

And as we already know – and we have seen many recent examples in the newspapers – contractual risks go far beyond fines, shortages and brand image. They are also the factors that can impair ethics, along with the natural and social areas.

With terms, conditions and clauses consolidated on the same platform, you can shorten sales cycles, reduce costs, generate risk management analysis and increase performance.

Contract management is an important step towards simple, smart and – above all – sustainable B2B trade.

Finally, by using a digital platform, you can also eliminate the huge volumes of paper and waste of materials, thus helping the company save and value even the most basic attitudes.

 

Are you interested in learning more about how Contract Management can transform your business? Click here and read the post!