Contract management challenges

Until about a year ago, Hanneke focused primarily on privacy. “Partly because there were quite a few challenges in the area of contract management, there was a need for a broader role,” she explains about her transition to Compliance and Legal Officer. For example, there were no procedures in place for handling contracts. “For example, managers would store contracts locally on their own devices. This wasn’t done centrally. So you could almost never find anything. If questions about a contract came up later, it was a huge search. Especially when there had been a staff change in the meantime.”

Angelique regularly ran into this in her work. “I’d see an invoice come in and have no idea if there was a contract attached to it. Then I’d have to go from office to office asking if anyone knew anything about it. That was definitely a sign that something needed to be done.”

Hanneke adds: “Because of that, we never really had a clear picture. How many contracts do we actually have? How many new contracts do we sign each year? We don’t know.”

Centralizing contract management

In short, reason enough to get serious about contract management. One of the first steps was to establish new procedures for how managers should handle contracts. “What do we expect when entering into a new contract? What checks do you need to perform in advance? And also: what do you need to consider when renewing or terminating a contract?” explains Hanneke.

In addition, they began looking for a registration tool where contracts could be centrally recorded. To that end, they turned to 4CEE. Prénatal has, in fact, been using Easy Invoice—the invoice processing software from the Ede-based IT company—for several years now. “Ideally, you want to work with the same system as much as possible. That way, you can be sure everything integrates seamlessly, and everyone is already somewhat familiar with how the program works,” says Angelique.

New procedures rolled out

The new procedures have now been rolled out, and 4CEE Contract, in combination with Stiply, is live. New service contracts with suppliers must be entered into this system. These are contracts under which Prénatal has a payment obligation, such as for coffee machine maintenance or marketing support.

Hanneke explains how they now go about their work: “The manager receives the contract and enters it into 4CEE Contract. Then he or she must fill out a checklist to verify that all necessary checks have been performed. After that, I receive a notification and check whether everything is correct and complete. I then send it via Stiply to management and the supplier for signature. Once everyone has digitally signed it, it is saved back in 4CEE Contract as ‘complete.’”

Organized and compliant

What results have they seen from this new way of working? “The most tangible result is that suddenly about fifty contracts are centrally recorded. We have insight and know exactly where they are and who they belong to. That alone is great.” Angelique adds: “Now, when I get a request from Controlling asking if I know more about an invoice and the corresponding contract, I can easily check that in the system. There’s no longer any need to search for a colleague who knows more about it.”

“Because the contracts used to be stored locally, there were sometimes multiple versions in circulation. Now you always have the latest version at your fingertips.”

Another major advantage is that an audit trail is now maintained. This is particularly important for the company from a compliance standpoint, Hanneke explains. “It’s precisely documented who did what with a contract and when. That way, you can always reach out to the right people if questions about the contract arise or if something goes wrong.”

Moreover, because contracts are stored in 4CEE Contract, there’s always clarity about the latest version. “Since everything used to be stored locally, there were sometimes multiple versions in circulation. Now you always have the latest version at your fingertips. That way, there’s never any confusion about it.”

Digitally signed by everyone

Along with 4CEE Contract, Prénatal also implemented the digital signing tool Stiply. “In the old system, we’d receive the contract from the supplier, sign it, send it back, and then never see it again,” Hanneke explains. “So the contract we’d stored somewhere here hadn’t actually been signed by the other party. Now the supplier must also digitally sign the contract before it is fully recorded in the system.”

Digital signing offers more advantages, as becomes clear from the conversation with the two women. “It’s much more efficient than signing everything by hand. It’s not uncommon for executives to be abroad, so it sometimes took quite a while before they could be on-site to sign something. Now that can be done online. Much more convenient and modern. In addition, it’s also a step forward from a CSR perspective. It’s no longer practical to print out all contracts and then scan them back in after they’ve been signed.”

Mindset on contracts

Hanneke notes that implementing the new systems and procedures goes hand in hand with a shift in mindset. “Ideally, everyone wants everything sorted out today. But you simply can’t finalize a contract in a few minutes. You have to follow the proper procedures and give it careful thought. There have been times when I sent a contract to the CFO for signature and then still received questions about the budget. All of that needs to be sorted out up front, before the contract is even drafted. That realization is now starting to sink in with all my colleagues.”

Regarding the collaboration with 4CEE, Angelique adds: “I find our interactions to be pleasant. We can always have open and transparent discussions and let them know what we still need. I also feel that they always listen to our feedback and take us seriously.”

Future plans

If it were up to these two, it wouldn’t stop at centrally recording and digitally signing service contracts. “The priority right now is to ensure that all service contracts are entered into the system according to the correct procedures and that everyone is accustomed to this new way of working. Then we can move on to the next step. For example, the ability to further integrate Stiply into 4CEE Contract, so that I don’t have to manually save the signed contract—it happens automatically. Or consider automatically matching invoices with contracts and adding contracts with product suppliers. We’re also already thinking about centralizing procurement management.”