Quo Vadis Contract Management?

Abstract

Abstract The progressive automation of management and production processes is increasingly affecting the way contracts are handled. Although for contract automation more concepts are currently being discussed than actually applied, the outlines of what will be possible in the future have become apparent. They raise the questions of what challenges contract handling will have to cope with in the future and whether the concept of contract lifecycle management (CLM) provides a suitable framework for this task. To give answers to these questions, the present article analyses the impact of the pull-effects of new forms of business and the push-effects of technology on the function, content, representation and usage of contracts. The results indicate that these developments entail major changes in the way contracts are handled and that the CLM concept will only be able to address them with considerable adjustments.