{"id":1849,"date":"2018-08-13T12:35:22","date_gmt":"2018-08-13T07:05:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.idslogic.com\/blog\/?p=1849"},"modified":"2025-02-24T12:29:30","modified_gmt":"2025-02-24T06:59:30","slug":"can-small-business-owners-use-sharepoint-online-for-contract-management","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.idslogic.com\/blog\/can-small-business-owners-use-sharepoint-online-for-contract-management","title":{"rendered":"Can Small Business Owners Use SharePoint Online for Contract Management?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_72 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.idslogic.com\/blog\/can-small-business-owners-use-sharepoint-online-for-contract-management\/#Did_You_Know_That_You_can_Use_SharePoint_Even_for_Your_Small_Business\" title=\"Did You Know That You can Use SharePoint Even for Your Small Business?\">Did You Know That You can Use SharePoint Even for Your Small Business?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.idslogic.com\/blog\/can-small-business-owners-use-sharepoint-online-for-contract-management\/#SharePoint_Online_Contract_Management\" title=\"SharePoint Online Contract Management:\">SharePoint Online Contract Management:<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.idslogic.com\/blog\/can-small-business-owners-use-sharepoint-online-for-contract-management\/#Contract_Creation_Workflow\" title=\"Contract Creation Workflow:\">Contract Creation Workflow:<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.idslogic.com\/blog\/can-small-business-owners-use-sharepoint-online-for-contract-management\/#Templates\" title=\"Templates:\">Templates:<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/www.idslogic.com\/blog\/can-small-business-owners-use-sharepoint-online-for-contract-management\/#e-Signature\" title=\"e-Signature:\">e-Signature:<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/www.idslogic.com\/blog\/can-small-business-owners-use-sharepoint-online-for-contract-management\/#Alerts_and_Reminders\" title=\"Alerts and Reminders:\">Alerts and Reminders:<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-7\" href=\"https:\/\/www.idslogic.com\/blog\/can-small-business-owners-use-sharepoint-online-for-contract-management\/#Approval_Workflow\" title=\"Approval Workflow:\">Approval Workflow:<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-8\" href=\"https:\/\/www.idslogic.com\/blog\/can-small-business-owners-use-sharepoint-online-for-contract-management\/#Access_restrictions\" title=\"Access restrictions:\">Access restrictions:<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\">Whether you are the owner of a small business or a large enterprise, contracts are the lifeline of a company. And managing them is very important and can at times be a daunting task requiring careful considerations. Business owners should spend some time to evaluate proper contract management tools.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\">There are various vendors that are platform independent and there are some who depend more on Microsoft SharePoint to fulfill their task. Choosing a perfect solution that blends with your existing IT platform has its own advantages, and organizations are able to achieve greater cost efficiency by using it.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Did_You_Know_That_You_can_Use_SharePoint_Even_for_Your_Small_Business\"><\/span><span style=\"color: #003366; font-size: 18pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;\"><strong>Did You Know That You can Use SharePoint Even for Your Small Business?<\/strong><\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\">Contract management often becomes very complex with the growth of your business and there should be a scalable system to manage them. It should increase the efficiency of the business operations and ensure that compliance is met throughout the process.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: #000080; font-size: 18pt; font-family: tahoma, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\">&#8220;Now the question is, can a small business rely on SharePoint for managing its contracts?&#8221;<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\">The solutions offer a centralized storage and this helps to quickly approve, retrieve, and share the it and other related documents. This saves a lot of time and is crucial for small businesses having lots of work to manage but with limited resources. Contract management is a must for small businesses as it helps in the growth and expansion of the business itself.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"box-shadow: 0 0 16px #cccccc; padding: 10px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Also Read:\u00a0<\/strong><span style=\"color: #ff0000; font-size: 14pt; font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"\/blog\/use-of-sharepoint-some-advantages-and-disadvantages\">Use of SharePoint: Some Advantages and Disadvantages<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\">It is good for a small business to select a solution that can be deployed in the cloud as cloud based software is affordable even for small companies. The costs are reduced because they need to pay for a subscription without investing into the IT infrastructure.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"SharePoint_Online_Contract_Management\"><\/span><span style=\"color: #003366; font-size: 18pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;\"><strong>SharePoint Online Contract Management:<\/strong><\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\">Office 365 offers great opportunities for external and internal collaboration, file storage, analytics, emailing, project management and etc. that makes it universal for office jobs. Office 365 can automate the contract\u2019s lifecycle right from the creation to termination and retention and this is possible only because it has all the major component needed for an efficient management.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Contract_Creation_Workflow\"><\/span><span style=\"color: #003300; font-size: 16pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;\"><strong>Contract Creation Workflow:<\/strong><\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\">SharePoint offers an effective interaction between the financial staff or manager during the contract authoring through intranet discussion boards. It is easy to create and store them in SharePoint online as the platform is integrated with Word already.<\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Templates\"><\/span><span style=\"color: #003300; font-size: 14pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;\"><strong>Templates: <\/strong><\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\">There is no need of creating contracts from the scratch in Office 365 as SharePoint online allows creating, storing and then reusing the templates for different types of contracts. For example, the non-disclosure of agreements can easily be created within seconds and they don\u2019t require modifications from a relevant template. SharePoint also makes it easy to store and reuse the fields and the clauses. This helps to maintain the consistency in business and also improves risk management.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.idslogic.com\/dedicated-sharepoint-developer\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-3386 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.idslogic.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Hire-Sharepoint-Developers.jpg\" alt=\"Dedicated SharePoint Developer\" width=\"823\" height=\"100\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.idslogic.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Hire-Sharepoint-Developers.jpg 823w, https:\/\/www.idslogic.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Hire-Sharepoint-Developers-300x36.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.idslogic.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Hire-Sharepoint-Developers-768x93.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.idslogic.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Hire-Sharepoint-Developers-560x68.jpg 560w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 823px) 100vw, 823px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"e-Signature\"><\/span><span style=\"color: #003300; font-size: 14pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;\"><strong>e-Signature: <\/strong><\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\">SharePoint can easily be integrated with e-signature software like DocuSign and etc. The integration helps to eliminate the need for any wet signatures or in-person meetings. The process becomes digital, but the contract remains legally binding. This makes closing any deal faster than before.<\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Alerts_and_Reminders\"><\/span><span style=\"color: #003300; font-size: 14pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;\"><strong>Alerts and Reminders: <\/strong><\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\">SharePoint allows the users to pre-schedule some automatic reminders related to the agreement\u2019s status and its milestones. When an important date approaches, the users will receive an email notification and this helps the users to avoid any unwanted automatic renewal, which is usually quite common in purchasing process.<\/span><\/p>\n<div style=\"margin: 40px auto; border: 2px solid #065beb; padding: 20px 25px; border-radius: 6px; background: 0;\">\n<div style=\"display: inline-block; vertical-align: middle; width: 62%;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><strong>Are You Looking for SharePoint Migration and Upgrade?<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n<div style=\"display: inline-block; vertical-align: middle; width: 36%;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\"><a style=\"padding: 10px 22px; margin-bottom: 0; line-height: 1.3em; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: middle; cursor: pointer; color: #ffffff; background-color: #065beb; -moz-border-radius: 3px; -webkit-border-radius: 3px; border-radius: 3px; display: block;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.idslogic.com\/sharepoint-migration-and-upgradation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Call us today!<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Approval_Workflow\"><\/span><span style=\"color: #003300; font-size: 14pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;\"><strong>Approval Workflow: <\/strong><\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\">It supports horizontal and vertical approval workflows of various stages and complexity. The approval workflows are usually rule based and it automatically routes a contract to a specific person for approval and the dashboards reflect the present status as new, pending or approved.<\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Access_restrictions\"><\/span><span style=\"color: #003300; font-size: 14pt; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;\"><strong>Access restrictions:<\/strong><\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\"><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"\/sharepoint-support-services\/\">SharePoint supports<\/a> <\/span>the access control and ensures high security of the data. The access depends on various permission levels that are granted to individual users or groups. It protects the agreements and all the related documents against any unauthorized access, viewing, sharing, editing or deleting.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: #000080; font-size: 18pt; font-family: georgia, palatino, serif;\">&#8220;Thus to conclude, the SharePoint Online contract management is inexpensive, easy to use and also integrated well with other software and that is crucial for small businesses. The platform also ensures effective management for authoring, negotiating and reviewing and scalability, thereby making it a perfect solution for small business owners.&#8221;<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Whether you are the owner of a small business or a large enterprise, contracts are the lifeline of a company. And managing them is very important and can at times be a daunting task requiring careful considerations. Business owners should&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1850,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[643],"tags":[278,280,900],"class_list":["post-1849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sharepoint","tag-sharepoint-development","tag-sharepoint-development-company","tag-sharepoint-development-india"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idslogic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idslogic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idslogic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idslogic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idslogic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1849"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.idslogic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10444,"href":"https:\/\/www.idslogic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1849\/revisions\/10444"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idslogic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idslogic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idslogic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idslogic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}