Cegeka closes deals 2X faster with Docfield

Introduction 

Cegeka is a European IT family company that operates in 11 countries and offers an extensive portfolio of services and solutions, including applications, infrastructure, data solutions and consulting. Cegeka started in 1992 with 30 people. Through close collaboration with customers, the company has grown to an impressive 9000+ employees.

Situation

In 2020, Cegeka's CEO, Stijn Bijnens, introduced the 'Trinity of Innovation'. This concept was a strategic move aimed at achieving powerful synergy by combining AI, 5G and cloud computing. This resulted in greatly improved productivity and operational efficiency. Cegeka's bid management group then also wanted to transform and modernize the contract management process by standardizing it and making contract documents consistent across the entire bid/proposal life cycle. 

Challenge

The bid management group reviewed existing contract workflows and identified some challenges:

• A fragmented process, from proposal preparation to contract execution
• An absence of document control, audit trail, and branding consistency
• A lack of contract data analytics

After contracts were drafted, a time-consuming and error-prone process followed with multiple document versions or modifications tracked with track changes. In addition, new contracts sometimes included clauses from previous agreements, which regularly caused confusion and undesirable results.

In its search for a modern contract management platform, the bid management group came across solutions that work with templates. While templates provide some structure and guidance, they also provide too much flexibility, the possibility of removing things and unintentionally disrupting the layout of contracts. The lawyer involved then has to keep checking the entire document carefully each time which is very time consuming.

When multiple people collaborate on contracts drafted in, for example, Word and knowledge and content management systems, additional problems were added, such as content disappearing, text sections that are not editable and complicated versioning.

Solution

Cegeka found in Docfield the solution for a systematic approach to drafting, collaborating, negotiating, approving and signing contracts. As a result, deals can be closed faster, while the user experience is greatly improved. Implementation followed through a pilot project for the entire contract lifecycle of commonly used documents such as RFP templates, quotes, SLAs, NDAs and sales contracts.

Contract creation

Editable contract templates and a clear workflow for a streamlined bid and proposal management process provides a solid foundation for consistent, error-free agreements.
The organization began by importing documents into Docfield, incorporating text elements into each template as static or editable blocks. With the Smart Fields feature, static text can be easily substituted for variables and metadata (e.g., contract start date, contract type, invoice interval, consulting hours, etc.).

Approvals and e-signing

After implementing the desired approval workflow (To Do - In Progress - Review - Under Review - Ready for Signing - Signed), Cegeka's clients and internal stakeholders can accept and electronically sign contracts.

Storage and archiving of contracts

With data storage in the cloud, data export options, actionable insights and a robust audit trail, a solid foundation is in place for consistent, error-free agreements.

Collaboration

With features such as responses, a revision and progress tracker, and user rights and access management, Cegeka users can easily comment, track changes and progress, manage permissions and collaborate in real-time with stakeholders on the same document. This eliminates misinterpreted feedback and process frustration.

‍

"We strive to incorporate updates to regulations, legislation, our portfolio offerings and pricing into these templates. This robust foundation enables efficient contracting for each new order, minimizes errors and ensures a consistent, uniform set of documents." - Edwin Reijnders, Bid Manager Cegeka

‍

Benefits

Switching to Docfield resulted in major time savings in contracting.By starting with a well-defined basic template, the procurement team does not have to copy and adapt texts and clauses for each client. Since contracts often run for three to five years or longer, Cegeka's procurement team can manage contracts more effectively and efficiently than with the previous CLM approach. The bid management team plans to expand the use of Docfield within the organization to improve contract renewal rates, cost per executed contract and number of new contracts executed.

Compliance and trust

With Docfield, the organization can effortlessly create, review, electronically sign and verify contracts.Cegeka's internal contract and document workflows are now consistent with contract management best practices, preventing costly errors.
The organization is able to enforce compliance across the board through regular contract updates, including regulatory and pricing changes and currency changes. With document history, Cekega also has time-bound snapshots of contracts, including all edits and transfers.

Standardization

Standardized templates ensure consistent formatting and styling and ensure legal and internal compliance across all contracts.

Better collaboration

Misinterpreted feedback and process frustration among internal stakeholders is now a thing of the past. Everyone collaborates in real time on the latest updates and comments.

Intuitive interface

Docfield's user-friendly interface simplifies tasks and makes managing different versions of contracts across multiple platforms easy. Smart fields and conditional logic make contract creation a simple fill-in-the-blank exercise.

Efficiency

Using Docfield significantly reduces time spent by bid managers searching through old documents and contracts.

Error reduction

Cegeka's team uses features such as review cycles to protect sections from being edited by others while updates are being made. The option to categorize text blocks as static or editable helps prevent inadvertent changes or addition of irrelevant details, effectively minimizing errors and associated risks.