SAP Ariba is a leading supply chain management solution provider with a powerfully broad range of capabilities. Ariba’s contract management solutions form an integral part of its broader services, which is why understanding contract compliance and standardization with SAP Ariba Contracts is vital for any business looking to utilize this tool.
Contract Compliance
In simple terms, contract compliance refers to managing how and when contracts are enforced. Critically, it allows for business logic to control how users are able to create contracts. This facilitates the simple enforcement of internal rules and government regulations based on contract type or region, users involved, amount of money the contract deals with, and other additional options.
SAP Ariba Contracts is a contract management solutions system with many features to support contract compliance and enforcement. Along with native integrations to other SAP Ariba components, SAP Ariba Contracts helps to manage and govern contract creation, negotiation, and enforcement.
Since contracts are often repetitive and highly derivative of previous contracts, the Ariba software for contract management allows for standardized templates to be created, providing a starting point for contracts that can be reused for future projects.
Contract Standardization
Another feature of Ariba Contracts is the optional Clause Library, a central repository which stores clauses, which are individual parts of a contract, to be used and reused among different documents. This ties back into contract compliances because metadata added to these saved clauses would enable them to be allowed/disallowed in the particular circumstances.
For instance, adding specifications in the metadata of the clauses regarding EU regulations would allow this condition to be present in the necessary contracts applicable to these regions.
The Clause Library has many features to intelligently re-use clauses. Once a clause is approved, it can easily be used elsewhere as much as needed. The Clause Library also provides one space from which documents are pulled. They can be updated and managed, and since the Clause Library comes with native version control, previous versions can also be easily restored. Ultimately, the Clause Library allows for standard clauses to be easily pulled into many contracts, easing enforcement issues.
The Clause Library limits the amount of custom work that needs to be done to create new clauses, ensuring standard language is used between contracts.
Contract compliance can also be ensured with compliance documents. To optimize the uses of SAP Ariba contract management solutions, contact the Aptimized team.