CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive
July 26, 2007
Product News
Open Text Announces Next Generation Contract Management Offering
Open TextT Corporation,the largest independent provider of enterprise content management (ECM) software and solutions, today announced the latest version of Livelink ECM - Contract Lifecycle Management, the most comprehensive solution on the market for contract creation, negotiation, contract fulfillment and renewals. The solution is designed from the ground up to help businesses reduce operating costs and enable compliance with internal and external policies and regulations. Open Text will be demonstrating the solution at the 45th Annual Aerospace + Defense Contract Management Conference in Garden Grove, California, July 26 - 27.
With ongoing legal and regulatory concerns, including eDiscovery challenges, corporate and auditing scandals, and new internal governance rules, organizations now place a greater focus on the effective management of contracts. Livelink ECM - Contract Lifecycle Management offers organizations a comprehensive solution to automate and manage contract processes from creation of individual clauses to secure collaboration during the negotiation process; proactive alerts for contracts that require review and tracking of clauses, renewal dates and terms; and retention, archival and disposition of contracts to satisfy compliance, legal and business policy requirements. The solution also integrates with a variety of enterprises systems so that contract content can be made available in other environments.
"Open Text understands the mission-critical nature of contract lifecycle management for an organization's ability to comply with regulations, reduce costs and mitigate risk," said Brett Shellhammer, Vice President and General Manager of Open Text's Global 2000 and Government Solutions. "Livelink ECM - Contract Lifecycle Management allows contracts and related information to be generated and managed electronically, streamlining contract creation, reporting and administration, and helping organizations manage their risk, control costs and maximize revenues effectively."
The newest version of Livelink ECM - Contract Lifecycle Management includes:
• Template Driven Contract Creation: Livelink ECM - Contract Lifecycle Management features an intuitive, reusable template driven approach to enable companies to create contracts and construct complex agreements within pre-planned and pre-approved parameters, improving efficiencies and reducing costs. By automating repetitive tasks associated with contract creation, organizations minimize errors and streamline the approval processes. This enables resource-constrained groups, such as Legal and Procurement, to focus on the creation of approved contract templates and best practices.
• Integration with Back-Office Applications: When building contracts, users can pull information from a clause library maintained within Livelink ECM and can also interact with line-of-business systems, such as CRM and ERP applications, in particular SAP solutions, ensuring accurate, up-to-date data is selected.
• Proactive Report & Alert Management: Organizations can take advantage of proactive alerts and management reports in order to maximize the value of supplier relationships and to encourage compliance to committed contract terms and conditions. Proactive management of contract terms is one more way that the Open Text system can help organizations manage their risk exposure more effectively and extract greater value out of business transactions.
"With increasingly stringent legislation and regulations surrounding the disclosure of corporate information, it is no longer satisfactory to produce an archived paper contract to a regulator or auditor when requested," added Shellhammer. "Corporate governance legislation, such as the U.S. Sarbanes Oxley Act or the European Union's Directive on Corporate Governance, now requires that organizations provide evidence that they are in control of the entire contract process, including the contract creation, storage and ongoing management. Livelink ECM - Contract Lifecycle Management ensures complete transparency for all information affecting a business transaction."
More Information
To learn more about effective contract lifecycle management strategies, read the latest post in Open Text's ECM Briefs blog here:
http://www.opentext.com/blogs/ecm_briefs/.
To learn more about Livelink ECM - Contract Lifecycle Management, visit: http://www.opentext.com/2/sol-products/sol-pro-docmgmt-collaboration/pro-ll-contract-lifecycle-mgmt-dmc.htm.
For more information about the National Contract Management Association's 45th Annual Aerospace + Defense Contract Management Conference, visit:
http://www.ncmahq.org/meetings/ADC07/.
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