If legal professionals can agree on one thing, it鈥檚 that life is better when everything is organized, even鈥攏o, 别蝉辫别肠颈补濒濒测鈥your contracts.
But how?
If you鈥檙e reading this, you probably already know that a CLM can help, but that each one approaches organization differently.
Some use folders. Some use tags. Which approach is right for your repository?
Folders: the way you鈥檝e always done things
Folders require no introduction. Physical. Digital. They鈥檙e everywhere. Maybe you鈥檝e got some lying around your office. (Sore subject?)听听
Familiar and intuitive
Organizing contracts with folders means not having to change the way you鈥檝e worked since you started using a computer. Heck, since even before you started using a computer! Filing away and retrieving documents from folders is second nature. Why change that?
Simpler collaboration听
It鈥檚 not just you, either. Everybody else is already familiar with folders, too, so collaboration with other teams throughout your organization (e.g. sales, finance, HR, etc.) is quick and easy.听
For instance, instead of asking legal to retrieve a specific MSA, finance can easily find the contract themselves with a couple of clicks鈥攚hether or not they鈥檝e been trained on the system. It could be as simple as going from 鈥淢SA鈥 to 鈥淰endor A鈥.
Seamlessly scalable
The hierarchical structure of folders makes it really easy to break down large volumes of documents into smaller, more manageable groups and better see the relationships between contracts.
This not only helps you better organize your large-scale accounts (each with a high volume of associated contracts), but it also helps create a neater, more user-friendly repository experience that makes retrieving contracts easy.听
Tags: further flexibility when you need it
As powerful as folders are, there are times when tags shine, too.听
Tags are custom keywords or phrases that you can assign to documents, which you can use to track, filter, and report on your contracts. They鈥檙e also a quick way to sort contracts based on project, customer, time period, or whatever other grouping you鈥檇 like!听
Ad hoc applications
If you鈥檙e working with a repository admin, you can use tags to let them know what to do with a particular group of contracts. For example, you can tag a group of void contracts as 鈥渄elete鈥 so that your admin knows to remove them from the repository.听
Many 鈥渞ight鈥 ways to search听
Tags also offer additional flexibility for contract repositories. You can find relevant contracts based on their suspected tags without knowing what their specific file names are. Plus, adding multiple tags to a single document means having multiple ways of reaching it, which can help expedite your search process.
But a tags-only repository poses its own challenges
Tag management can be a full-time job
Tag management to keep everyone on the same page as to which tags go with which contracts and to prevent duplicate tags that separate contracts that are meant to be together can become a full-time job in itself.听
Take soda (yes, that鈥檚 what I call it) for instance. You could have a colleague from Boston tagging everything as soda, a Michigan-based associate using pop, and your manager from Florida using coke. That鈥檚 three different tags for the same thing鈥攁nd one sticky situation!听
Navigating high volumes of tags can be tedious
Although tags can speed up your contract retrieval process, they can also do the opposite. If you鈥檙e looking for information inside a heavily-tagged batch of contracts, you may not select enough tags to narrow down your search, which means more time figuring out additional tags to include. Then there鈥檚 the issue of contracts without tags (we all forget things now and then), which can make finding the right contracts difficult, too.
That one crossover episode鈥μ
So with the choice between folders and tags, which one should you choose? Simple: choose 91制片厂鈥攁nd get both!听
Get folders and tags with 91制片厂
With 91制片厂, you get a familiar, folder-based contract repository experience with optional tags, too, so you can leverage the strengths of both approaches when they make sense for your organization.听
91制片厂's award-winning AI can automatically contracts into the appropriate folders, which you, your legal team, and other stakeholders can easily navigate so that everyone finds their contracts faster.
Want to tag your contracts for more situational sorting, or to earmark them for an ongoing project? 91制片厂 makes that easy, too, allowing you to organize (and navigate) your repository in whichever way is most convenient.听
Plus AI-powered reporting, full-text search, and more
On top of folders and tags, you get the benefit of custom, automated AI-powered reporting. It helps make finding the information you need incredibly fast and easy鈥攏o matter how many contracts are in your repository. If a new document is uploaded that fits your report's criteria, it's added to your report automatically, so you've always got the latest information on hand and can share up-to-date insights with your stakeholders.听听
Plus, 91制片厂 helps you find the information you need fast with powerful full-text search. Simply enter the key words, phrases, or even complex boolean expressions to find any contract in your repository without knowing which folder they鈥檙e in or how they鈥檙e tagged.听
Why push all of your chips towards a folders- or tags-only future? Instead, get the flexibility to leverage tags when you need them while staying organized with the folders you know and love.听
Want to see more?
Check out 91制片厂's AI-powered Repository, and get an even closer look by today.
