Explore Contract Management Pro

Release version: Xanadu

Updated August 1, 2024

8 minutes to read

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Summary of Contract Management Pro

Contract Management Pro is a user-friendly contract management solution within ServiceNow that streamlines the entire contract lifecycle. It enables customers to create contract document templates, manage clauses and clause variations, and initiate contract requests. The application supports advanced features such as Now Assist for contract analysis and metadata extraction, electronic and wet signatures, and integration with external storage systems.

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The solution includes key components like Contracts Core, a Microsoft Word add-in for document generation, and workflows for both self-served and non-self-served contract requests, designed to help teams collaborate efficiently on contract creation, review, approval, and storage.

Key Features

Clause Management: Manage a comprehensive library of clause variations using the Contract configurator to ensure consistency and compliance.
Word Document Templates: Create contract templates and standard letters with placeholders (content controls) that populate dynamically with request data, supported via a Microsoft Word add-in on Windows and macOS.
Contract Requests: Support for initiating and managing both self-served and non-self-served contract requests, offering flexibility in user roles and workflows.
Internal Review and Collaboration: Facilitate internal reviews with parallel review tasks for different groups, enabling feedback, redline acceptance or rejection, and real-time collaboration on revisions.
Contract Workspace and Dashboard: Use actionable widgets and dashboards to prioritize, categorize, and track contract requests and obligations effectively.
Obligation Management: Track and manage contract obligations to ensure compliance and reduce risk exposure.
Now Assist Integration: Leverage AI-driven contract analysis to identify non-standard or missing clauses and extract metadata to populate the contract repository.
Signatures and Storage: Enable electronic and wet signatures with configurable providers and store signed contracts either within ServiceNow or connected external storage systems.

How Contract Management Pro Works

Configuration and Setup

A Contract Management Pro configurator sets up the system by defining contract types, models, clauses, templates, signatory placeholders, and repository mappings. They also configure rules for template selection, signatory mapping, contract reminders, external storage, and electronic signature providers to enable seamless contract processing.

Self-served Contract Request Workflow

Contract requester initiates a contract request which generates a contract document from templates and dynamically added metadata and clauses.
The requester can edit, regenerate, or sync the document before sending it for signature or submitting a change request.
Contract fulfillers manage internal reviews with reviewers providing feedback and possible document revisions.
After internal approval, the document is finalized and sent for signature. Signed contracts are stored and accessible via the contract repository.
If a signatory declines, the contract is revised and resubmitted as necessary.

Non-self-served Contract Request Workflow

Contract requester uploads contracts and supporting documents for classification and review.
Contract fulfillers handle classification, initiate internal reviews, and manage iterations with reviewers and third-party contacts.
Following approvals and revisions, contracts are prepared for signature with options to specify signing order and add electronic signature fields.
Signatories review and either sign or decline the document; declined documents are revised and returned for signature again.
Signed contracts are stored securely and made accessible to authorized users through the contract repository.

Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

Improved Efficiency: Automates contract creation and review processes, reducing manual effort and errors.
Enhanced Collaboration: Supports parallel reviews and real-time document revisions, ensuring thorough feedback and approval cycles.
Risk Mitigation: Tracks obligations and uses AI-powered analysis to identify contract risks and non-standard terms.
Compliance and Control: Centralized repository and configurable reminders aid in managing contract lifecycles and compliance obligations.
Flexible Storage and Signature Options: Integrates with external storage and supports multiple signature methods to meet organizational needs.

Learn more about the Contract Management Pro application through a sample workflow and review the benefits that it can provide.

Contract Management Pro overview

Contract Management Pro is a contract management solution that's easy to use and adopt. You can use it to set up contract document templates, clauses, clause variations, and to initiate contract requests. It also supports Now Assist driven contract analysis and metadata extraction, e-signatures, wet signatures, and external storage systems.

The components of Contract Management Pro are:

Contract Management Pro benefits

Table 1. Benefits of the Contract Management Pro
Benefit	Key feature	Role
Effectively manage a library of clause variations.	Clause Management	Contract configurator
Create contract templates or standard letters that are used to generate contracts or documents based on the values in the submitted request.	Word Document Templates	Contract configurator
Add content controls that act as placeholders for the content in Microsoft Word documents on macOS systems and on Windows systems by using an add-in. Content controls can be added manually only on a Windows system.	Microsoft Word add-in for ServiceNow Contracts	Contract configurator
Initiate self-served or non-self-served contract requests.	Self-served and non-self-served contract requests	Contract user
Service a self-served contract request.	Use a self-served contract request	Contract user or Contract fulfiller
Revise, approve, and provide a signature for a non-self-served contract request.	Use non-self-served contract request	Contract user or Contract fulfiller
Get review and feedback from the internal subject matter experts on contract documents.	Internal review overview	Contract fulfiller or Contract reviewer
Get an insight on the volume of contract requests that are handled by your team.	Using the Contracts Dashboard	Contract fulfiller
Work with actionable widgets to categorize, prioritize, and efficiently work on contract requests.	Contract Workspace	Contract user or Contract fulfiller
Track and manage contract obligations to help ensure compliance and minimize risks.	Obligation Management	Obligation user or Obligation fulfiller
Use Now Assist in Contract Management to analyze contracts for non-standard and missing clauses, and to extract information from signed contracts to add in the contract repository.	Now Assist in Contract Management	Now Assist contract fulfiller

Contract Management Pro workflow

The following sample end-to-end workflow shows how different users can work together to configure the foundation data and submit, review, and finalize contract requests.

A Contract Management Pro configurator takes the following actions to set up the end-to-end workflow:

Creates the contract type and associates it with a contract model.
Creates the clauses and their variations to be used in the document templates.
Creates the document templates that are used to generate the contract document.
Configures the placeholders for signatories.
Completes the template mapping to automatically fill in information that is used in the contract template.
Publishes the document template to make it available to generate contracts while submitting the contract request.
Creates a template selection rule to identify the contract template to be used to generate the contract document for the contract request.
Creates an internal signatory rule to map the signatory to a template by using signatory mappings.
Defines the contract repository where contracts are stored and maps the data that was added to the contract document.
Creates a contract repository rule to configure the reminders for expiring contracts.
Configures the external storage to store the signed contract documents and their revisions.
Configures the electronic signature providers to enable signers to sign the contract documents electronically.

Self-served contract request workflow

A workflow for a self-served contract request might progress as shown in this process:

The Contract requester initiates a contract request. For more information, see Initiating a contract request.
- If there are no validation errors, a contract request is created in the Work in progress state.
- If there are any signatory validation errors, the contract requester resolves them and resubmits the contract request.
A contract document is generated from a contract template and the metadata, clauses, signatories, and tables are added dynamically according to predefined conditions.
The contract requester edits the requests for any changes and creates a version of the contract document by using the Regenerate or Sync document option.
The contract requester views the contract document and does one of the following actions:
1. If no changes are required, the document is sent for signature.
2. If any changes are required, the contract requester submits a change request.
Based on the change request, the contract fulfiller can take the following actions:
1. Initiates an internal review process:
  1. The contract fulfiller submits a review task for an internal review.
    Note:
    The contract fulfiller can create parallel review tasks for the same contract document for different reviewer groups. However, the contract fulfiller can't create a review task for the same document with the same reviewer group if another active task exists.
  2. A contract reviewer group manager can assign the review task, or a contract reviewer can self-assign it.
  3. The assigned contract reviewer starts working on the contract document.
  4. If the information is incomplete, the contract reviewer requests more information from the contract fulfiller.
  5. If a request for more information was submitted, the contract fulfiller shares the information.
  6. The contract reviewer reviews the document, accepts or rejects redlines, proposes edits, and adds comments.
  7. The contract reviewer completes the review and shares the updated contract document if available.
  8. The contract fulfiller receives the updated document and makes the necessary changes based on the feedback:
    - For internal storage: If any changes are required, a new document version is created after finalizing the document.
    - For external storage: Reviewers collaborate on the contract document revision online in real time. After the review is complete, the fulfiller can finalize the contract document that is available online or create an offline version with the changes.
2. The contract fulfiller initiates an ad-hoc approval from the stakeholders. If the review reveals any required changes, the changes are made and a new document revision is created.
3. After the document is finalized, the fulfiller sends the document to the requester.
The contract requester previews the generated contract and, if no changes are required, sends it to the signatories. If changes are required, the review and revision process continues.
If external storage is configured, contract documents are stored in it. Otherwise, they’re stored in the ServiceNow instance.
If any signatory declines the document, it’s sent back to the requester to be reworked and the revision is sent for signature.
The signed contract is attached to the contract request record.
The signed contract is stored on the ServiceNow instance or an external storage system and referenced in the contract repository. The requester and department members can access the signed contract document from the Contracts repository.

Non-self-served contract request workflow

A workflow for non-self-served contract request might progress as follows:

The Contract requester initiates a contract request from the workspace. For more information, see Initiating a contract request.
A contract request is created in the Draft state.
The Contract requester uploads a single contract or multiple contracts and their supporting documents and classifies them.
The contract fulfiller views the contract document attached to the contract request.
If necessary, the contract fulfiller reclassifies the contract and supporting documents.
If an expert review or feedback is required from internal teams, the contract fulfiller initiates an internal review process.
1. The contract fulfiller submits a review task for internal review.
  Note:
  Parallel review tasks for the same contract document can be created for different reviewer groups. However, a review task for the same document with the same reviewer group can't be created if another active task exists.
2. The contract reviewer is assigned the review task
3. If the information is incomplete, the contract reviewer requests more information from the contract fulfiller.
4. If a request for more information was submitted, the contract fulfiller shares the information.
5. The contract reviewer reviews the document, accepts, rejects, or proposes edits, and adds comments.
6. The contract reviewer reviews the contract and provides feedback. If a revised document is available, it’s also shared with the contract fulfiller.
7. The contract fulfiller receives an updated document and makes the necessary changes based on the feedback:
  - For internal storage: If any changes are required, a new document version is created after finalizing the document.
  - For external storage: Reviewers collaborate on the contract document revision online in real time. After the review is complete, the fulfiller can finalize the contract document that is available online or create an offline version with the changes.
The contract fulfiller uploads the revised contract to the contract request.
The contract fulfiller emails the revised contract document to third-party contacts.
The contract fulfiller views the responses from the third-party contacts in the activity stream of the contract request.
Multiple iterations of revisions between your company and the third party might be necessary before the contract document is finalized by all parties. The review process may be conducted again with different reviewer groups.
The contract fulfiller initiates an ad-hoc approval from the stakeholders. If the review reveals any required changes, the changes are made and a new document revision is created. The contract document can be sent for signature only when it has been approved.
If there are multiple contract documents, the contract fulfiller prepares for signatures by specifying the order. If there’s an e-signature, the contract fulfiller adds the required fields and sends the contract document for signature.
Signatories review the contract document:
- If no change is required, the contract document is signed by all the signatories.
- If any changes are required, the signature is declined, and the user who is working on the contract request generates a new document and resends it for signature.
The signed contract is stored on the ServiceNow instance or an external storage system and referenced in the contract repository. The requester and department members can access the signed contract document from the contracts repository.