Introducing Dynamic Contract Repository

Remember the Dewey Decimal System? Sitting through training, sorting through index cards, wandering the aisles, and then finally finding the book you need? (Or, just as likely, giving up to ask the librarian for help?) Today, that’s all a thing of the past. Card catalogs are gone, replaced by computers with flexible search tools. Librarians have more time on their hands, and kids will never know how easy they’ve got it.

(Moment of silence for a bygone era.) 

Companies, meanwhile, have made similar improvements to record management, with one glaring exception: contracts. 

When it comes to contracts, most of us still live in a world of old-fashioned classification systems, manual lookups, and asking experts for help. It can make end users feel like students, scouring aisle after aisle for the right document, while contract managers field an endless stream of ad hoc requests.

This needs to change. And that’s why we’ve built Dynamic Repository. [Video]

Like legacy contract management systems, Ironclad captures all your agreements and metadata in one place. Unlike our predecessors, Ironclad is a joy to actually use.

If you can use Spotify, you can use Ironclad’s repository.

— Ashlee Best, Legal Ops Manager, Asana

Today, with the release of three major new features, Ironclad is proud to announce the world’s most efficient and intuitive enterprise contract repository.

Here are the new features.

Metapanel

Let’s face it: contract language isn’t meant to be read. It’s meant to be deciphered and interpreted by people with a great deal of experience. 

The metapanel, on the other hand, is meant to be read. It’s designed to let all Ironclad users — contract rookies and pros alike — understand quickly and precisely what a contract contains. 

When you click on a record, the metapanel opens right on top of your current view. It tells you everything that’s known about a contract: counterparty, dates, values, contact information, or, for example, whether it includes provisions for an opt-out or auto-renewal. 

If you’ve searched for a particular word or phrase, the metapanel will tell you how many matches were found in the contract. And if you’re browsing multiple agreements at once, you can scroll through, quick as an Instagram feed.

Advanced filtering

Any repository worth its salt contains all your company’s contracts. But there’s a drawback: all your contracts are a lot of contracts, and it can be tough to find the ones you need.

That’s why, with the new filter panel, we’re making it faster and more intuitive to focus on precisely the contracts that interest you.

With filter panel, each and every metadata property you track can be used as a filter parameter. So it takes 10 seconds to pull up, say, all contracts valued greater or equal to $5,000, effective October 28 – December 9, with a Snap influencer named Zsa Zsa.

As is the case with most Ironclad functionality, the filter panel is usable with no training. If you’ve filtered listings on AirBnb, you’ll have no problem filtering contracts in Ironclad. 

Custom views

Contract repositories are most often used reactively. As in, “Oh shoot, something went wrong with the Voiello engagement! What did we agree to, exactly?”

But more and more, companies are leveraging contracts proactively. As in, “Let’s look at vendor agreements that are renewing next month and decide if we still need them all.”

Custom views enable a proactive approach to contract management. They let you save and report on specific sets of contracts, and, with a click, return to them at any time.

Of course, setting up a new custom view is fast and intuitive. Custom view settings pull directly from search and filter parameters. So once you’ve found a set of contracts to keep tabs on, it takes about three seconds to create the new view.

So, now what?

These three features mark a new beginning for contract management. Business users can answer questions all on their own, quicker than ever. Legal and contract teams can get more done and avoid countless ad hoc information requests. Users across an organization can engage with their agreements dynamically, efficiently, and intuitively — just as they do with any other type of mission-critical information. 

At this rate, we’ll all get together a few years from now and reminisce about how back in the day we had to literally read contracts. Read a contract! Can you imagine that? Kids these days, they have no idea how easy they’ve got it.

Meanwhile, our favorite part: hearing what Ironclad customers do with the extra time and leverage at their disposal. (Beach vacation, anyone?) If you have any feedback, questions, success stories or trip pics, please do share: product@ironcladapp.com.