What is Contract data

What is contract data?

Contract data comprises all the structured and unstructured information in a contract, such as stakeholder parties, dates, payment terms, deliverables, dollar value of contracts, contract type, and harder-to-find information. This data can be organized in various ways to track obligations and performance metrics that make the most sense to your organization.

Organizations increasingly acknowledge the need to maximize both the dollar value of contracts and the business value of managing more efficiently. They are looking for ways to organize, structure, track, and manage contract data, make them easily accessible and searchable, store them safely, analyze and interpret them easily, and make them accessible to business teams safely.

For instance, a company may extract contract data, like expiration dates and payment schedules from multiple agreements to ensure timely obligation fulfillment. Legal teams often analyze contract data to identify patterns in terms, such as commonly negotiated clauses or recurring contract risks.

Types of contract data

Contract data encompasses all the structured and unstructured information contained within a contract. This data can include a wide range of elements, but they may be best divided into two categories:

1. Structured data:

This includes core contract information already structured in contracts like parties involved (names, addresses, contact information), contract dates (effective date, expiration date), renewal terms, contract value and payment terms, specific terms and conditions, obligations and responsibilities, warranties and guarantees, intellectual property rights, and other key metadata.

2. Unstructured data

This data includes other information on the original contract documents, amendments and modifications, and supporting documents (e.g., schedules, exhibits, attachments). This helps understand where a contract originates, what kind of document it is, who created or last modified it, and when that happened.

Benefits of tracking contract data

Tracking contract data is essential for businesses to maintain visibility into key contract elements, such as obligations, milestones, and renewal dates. This data helps teams stay compliant, avoid missed deadlines, and identify opportunities for optimization. Accurate data tracking also provides valuable insights for improving workflows, reducing risks, and enhancing decision-making.

In a nutshell, contract data tracking:

1. Improves contract performance
2. Protect against legal risks
3. Enhances decision-making
4. Strengthens relationships
5. Recaptures revenue leaks
6. Saves costs
7. Identify past trends and predict future trends
8. Streamline contracting processes
9. Ensure compliance with contractual obligations and regulations

Extracting and analyzing contract data

Organizations often employ a combination of manual and automated methods. These may include:

1. Manual review: Contract information is manually read and identified. This process is time-consuming and prone to human error.
2. Automated extraction: Contract data is auto-extracted with technologies like:

Modern CLMs like HyperStart are usually bundled with technologies designed to extract, analyze, categorize, and manage contract data. They also provide advanced features like contract creation, approval workflow automation, AI-redlining, central repository, and dashboard analytics. Book a demo today.