Managing the contract lifecycle is a multi-faceted process that – if not done correctly – can result in contract management bottlenecks, increased risk exposure, and a diminished bottom line for your organization.
CobbleStone Software’s enterprise CLM solution – CobbleStone Contract Insight®– offers robust and AI-powered contract management software functionality to tackle contract management challenges.
Featuring for The Enterprise World’s issue of The Best Contract Management Solution Providers To Watch In 2023 is CobbleStone Software.
The Company: CobbleStone
Founded in 1995 by Mark Nastasi, CobbleStone Software was among the first companies to offer a contract management product. Today, CobbleStone® continues to lead the way in contract lifecycle management (CLM) and E-Procurement software.
Challenges at the beginning:
Even though CobbleStone had recognized the need for contract management software, they faced one initial challenge: pioneering the tools to successfully address the need for contract management automation.
Even though The Company was a contract management pioneer, they still needed to help clients automate the full contract lifecycle. With constant innovation to their award-winning CobbleStone Contract Insight, CobbleStone continues to meet this challenge effectively.
Points of growth in 2022:
CobbleStone has continued to experience significant growth since the start of 2022.
The Company hosted its contract management masterclass series as an entirely virtual event – as well as its in-person CobbleStone Conference in Austin, TX.
Both of these events proved to be tremendous learning opportunities for CobbleStone clients and prospective clients alike to learn more about contract management software features, best practices, and legal ops industry news.
Additionally, The Company began its million-clause initiative to enhance and nurture its proprietary contract artificial intelligence engine with machine learning – VISDOM AI®. It aims to enter a humongous 1,000,000 real-life clauses into VISDOM AI for a never-seen-before strong repository of clauses for machine learning.
VISDOM AI’s knowledge base will include over 140 standard clauses, along with many uncommon clause categories tailored to industry-specific contract management software needs.
The secret behind long-standing success:
CobbleStone’s service speaks for itself. They have managed to retain over 90% of their clients by consistently delivering high-quality products and services for contracting success.
Not only do they modernize and maintain their current features, but they are also continuously introducing new contract management features based on industry demand and newly available technology.
Another reason for The Company’s success is its top-tier customer service. They have consistently been acclaimed by users and third-party analysts alike for their strong customer support, training opportunities, and easily-navigable resources.
Products & services:
CobbleStone Software offers a contract lifecycle management system called CobbleStone Contract Insight. The solution has tools for contract lifecycle management from requests to renewals.
Currently, The Company offers CobbleStone Contract Insight as 3 different editions with a variety of features to fit organizations’ needs. As such, organizations can choose the edition that fits their unique requirements and then scale as contract complexity and contract volume grow and evolve.
In addition to contract lifecycle management software, The Company Contract Insight is seamlessly integrated as a one-stop contract management, vendor management, eProcurement, and eSourcing platform.
For streamlined contract signing, The Company offers its proprietary IntelliSign® electronic signatures as well as a myriad of eSign module integrations for maximized convenience. Organizations can ensure their contract signing process is secure and legitimate with digital signatures.
Advancing ahead with products & services:
With the million-clause initiative, CobbleStone is already over 700,000 clauses deep. The users of CobbleStone will soon gain access to a VISDOM contract AI engine with machine learning that has learned from 1,000,000+ real-life clauses. VISDOM AI will be an automated legal expert at clients’ disposal.
CobbleStone is also excited to introduce its new clause management tool – The Company Auto-Redline. This tool can automate the inclusion of clauses from organizations’ approved clause libraries – virtually ensuring that favorable clause language is included.
To make things extra easy and streamlined, The Company Auto-Redline users can:
- Auto-redline documents ad-hoc or upon upload.
- Quickly see and manage automated redlines and comments with thorough audit trails.
- Work within both CobbleStone’s native online document editor and MS Word.
Disrupting the traditional way of working:
Contract management traditionally has been a paper-based system (one which many organizations still use). CobbleStone Contract Insight offers a streamlined version of contract lifecycle management that is drastically different from old, manual processes.
By integrating CobbleStone Contract Insight, organizations can replace tedious, paper-based practices with contract lifecycle automation and digital transformation.
How the software helped companies scale?
CobbleStone offers 3 versions of CobbleStone Contract Insight with a variety of features offered in each – allowing organizations to choose the one that fits their unique needs. The solution is scalable and evolves with organization’s growth.
CobbleStone Contract Insight Enterprise Edition provides an end-to-end enterprise-level, user-friendly, and web-enabled contract management system with in-demand features.
The Company Contract Insight Express Edition is an end-to-end entry-level, SaaS contract management system that delivers the features and functionality organizations require with a seamless migration path for expanded features and functionality.
The Company Contract Insight WorkGroup Edition is a cost-effective, on-premise (deployed) contract management system that delivers the features and functionality organizations need to get started for better contract management. This edition is available both as a deployed solution on-premise and on an organization’s corporate cloud.
Leadership:
What are the responsibilities of an entrepreneur?
Mark Nastasi, CEO of CobbleStone, says that “Being an innovative entrepreneur requires offering services that have never been provided before while consistently enhancing products and offerings within the context of a competitive market space.”
“Entrepreneurship requires a willingness to fail in the interest of learning – also known as ‘failing forward.’ An entrepreneur needs to perform market research and product analysis while keeping their ear to the street regarding what customers need and why they need it,” said Mark.
“Entrepreneurs and business leaders need to determine business objectives and purposes while promoting a workplace that allows employees to see their contributions. Procuring the materials and resources needed to fulfill their business idea while facing risk serves the interest of being a game-changer in their industry,” Mark explained further.
Building the Team:
Mark says, “Keeping employees happy and motivated is key. It is very important to work with great people who share your vision and want to help expand it.
“For managers, it is essential that they encourage the staff to do their best work and challenge them to focus on innovating with the purpose to provide the best solution for the end customer.”
“Working together is so important, and so is making sure that every employee knows that they are contributing to something big and that they are appreciated for their work toward our common goals,” said Mark Nastasi.
Mark’s Advice to the Budding Entrepreneurs:
Mark’s advice for budding entrepreneurs is “That they (budding entrepreneurs) should realize the broader need for something before there is a solution for it. That way, you can create that solution. You can pioneer it. You will always be ahead of the curve with a solution to succeed.”
Mark and his Professional Journey:
To start off, Mark Nastasi, CEO of CobbleStone Software, owned a consulting business. That business is the driving force behind much of what is used today.
Mark attended the University of Rutgers School of Business and graduated with a Bachelor’s in Finance and MIS. He then went on to graduate from Drexel University with an MBA. Now, he is a Microsoft-certified developer and holds a number of SQL and developer certifications.
