I have a funny feeling that this clunky term resembles more a bird on the wing than a bird in hand. It “involves applying technology to the contract process from letter of intent through negotiation and execution to performance, amendment and contract renewal (Law Tech. News, Vol. 12, Dec. 2005 at 22 renholm@fensterstock.com). Cradle to grave contract software; but swaddled in words, and no killer applications cited.
My unease stems from the absence in this article of any products or users or vendors. It’s so easy to write, for example, “that ’document assembly software’ is coming to be seen as merely one link in the chain of the contract management process,” and in the next breath “that ’contract process software’ is perhaps an apt label for the products that bridge document assembly and contract management.”
If software is “coming to be seen,” then give a couple of examples to prove the trend. If there are “products,” why not give some credibility to a large claim by listing one or two examples?
When I asked one of the article’s authors, Michael Kraft, about the last paragraph he replied: “Cisco is using this type of product to deal with NDAs and has recently started using it for their sales contracts. Microsoft is using it for enterprise licensing in about 35 languages. “