Introducing Ironclad Editor

A few weeks ago, Ironclad Product Designer Veena Ramachandran walked us through the design process that went into building the ideal solution for legal collaboration and negotiation. Today, we’re proud to unveil that solution: Ironclad Editor.

Email inboxes and Microsoft Word weren’t designed to handle contracting back-and-forth. That’s why it’s traditionally been frustrating to manage contract revisions internally or with a counterparty.

Where can I find the latest version of this MSA? Are we sure we tracked all the changes in this contract version? Did Finance take a look at the payment terms clause we flagged for them? 

With Ironclad Editor, you’ll never find yourself asking those questions again.

Unlike other contract management systems, Ironclad gives you the usability and communications features of modern document editing, while also allowing your counterparties to continue using email and Microsoft Word. The result is faster document editing, commenting, and review—for both sides of a negotiation.

In-app contract redlining 

Let’s say you’ve generated a sales contract and sent it to a counterparty. After the counterparty makes suggestions as tracked changes and sends the document back to you, you’ll likely want to redline it. In the past, that’s meant accepting all changes and comparing the clean version with the document you sent out to make sure you’re not missing anything. 

Generating redlines from Ironclad

With Ironclad, this entire process can be managed in-app, with a few clicks, and you can begin accepting/rejecting counterparty changes immediately afterwards. 

Accept/reject tracked changes

The most time-consuming part of contract review is evaluating the changes suggested by counterparties. With Ironclad Editor’s new accept/reject change capability, you can move right from redlines to contract review and make changes to contract text in the application. 

Accepting counterparty changes in Ironclad

Being able to accept and reject changes from within Ironclad isn’t just faster, it reduces your compliance risk by giving you a central record of all the changes that have been made to a contract, and when they were accepted or rejected. That historical knowledge is often impossible to piece together from disparate email threads or DOCX files saved on desktops. 

In-app comments and @mentions

What we’re most excited about is being able to @mention colleagues from within Ironclad comments. Gone are the days of having to wait for a colleague to respond to your email before being able to move forward with a contract, or looping in another party for review. @mentions within Ironclad comments let you leverage internal expertise throughout the contracting process without missing a beat. You can ensure that counterparties never see your internal conversations by choosing whether your document comments are internal or external. 

Looping in colleagues for contract review with @mentions

What about counterparties?

One of the things that separates Ironclad from every other contracting solution on the market is that every one of the features we’ve described operates on top of the same DOCX file that counterparties receive or send over. There’s no need for counterparties to enter an online portal, for example, to view a contract version or reply to your changes. You get to bring your colleagues into a single shared working space online, but your counterparties can continue to use whatever tools they’re used to, including email and Microsoft Word. 

What’s next?

Ironclad Editor will help legal teams collaborate and negotiate more effectively and more efficiently than they’ve been able to with their traditional tools, but we’re not done yet. In 2020, we’ll roll out technology to help legal teams improve negotiation outcomes and make data-driven decisions. Be sure to keep an eye out for updates moving forward!