It’s surely happened to you, particularly since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and (for many people) the inconvenience of lockdowns and forced remote working: collaborative problems, leading to a loss of efficiency and of momentum for your business.

These inefficiencies are well-known to anyone who has collaborated on legally binding documents. You know how it goes: a grinding wait, while the lawyer produces a draft contract, which is then reviewed by the CEO, and sent for negotiation, only for the other party to suggest amendments. If all this is done by email, with a flurry of attachments, all carrying a subtly different version of the same contract, it can make for disastrous results. It’s too messy and fractured, whether working on-site or remotely, and we all deserve better.

Working remotely, despite what many worried CEOs might think when surveying the “new normal”, does not need to be inefficient or unproductive. With collaboration tools such as those offered by Avokaado, you can digitalise your business dealings, speed up contractual agreements with digital signing, and keep everyone aligned, with a smooth workflow and unimpeachable version control.

How can your business get on the right track in collaboration?

When it comes to the execution of a contract digitally, it’s much easier than you think.

Collaboration should speed up, not delay your business. This is why document collaboration and online document signing makes perfect sense between corporate partners, as well as between you and your clients.

Contracts are serious, but they should be there to reassure you about your processes, not weigh you down in legal turmoil. 

There are many reasons why a deal can be sunk by poor collaboration:

• Managers “too busy to read emails” slow down a negotiation process
• Lost emails mean a loss of a vital audit trail
• The constant referral to the legal team of basic questions leads to legal specialists bogged down in bureaucracy
• Every delay means money down the drain

Want to avoid these pitfalls? Here are some tips to get collaborating in the time it takes to add a digital signature in Word.

Being able to execute the document quickly

There’s an old saying – that you can get something done fast, or that you can get it done right. The idea behind this is that there’s no way to properly check something, if you don’t take your time on it – which is true.

What’s no longer true is that execution of a contract needs to be a lengthy exercise. Document collaboration means that you can co-edit templates with other collaborators, negotiate, approve  and add their legal electronic signature to a document – all from one shared environment.

Avokaado’s collaborative environment allows corporate collaborators to answer key contractual questions without delaying the signing process, giving you both the peace of mind and the confidence to move forward quickly.

Online document signing means you can do due diligence at the same time that your partners sign contracts digitally, with solutions like Avokaado’s contract templates and automation services.

Avokaado’s automated templates for contracts are built to eliminate all possible errors, avoiding the dangers of repetitive drafting, and to empower legal teams to build something that is efficient and works first-time for all parties. When you create a document using one of our templates, you can rest assured that every HR document or prospective merger is watertight before other parties view it.

Removing technological barriers

Businesses no longer expect to have to wait through weeks of meetings to work with someone now, when collaboration can be no further away than a quick digital signature. Getting a solution that meets all parties’ legal needs is important, but it should be an easy step, not another barrier to partnership.

Avokaado integrates with Dokobit and SignNow, which means electronic signatures can be collected easily, whatever the requirements of your collaborators. Using an integrating solution means you can get the right online document signing formats without having to change your systems. Whatever type of eID is needed, you can build it in from the start, with contracts downloadable in multiple formats.

Working together shouldn’t be a case of having to ask “your format or mine?”, so long as you use secure solutions that execute every document to the same standard.

Confidence in your own platform

Many companies can be reluctant about document collaboration and online document signing, believing it will ultimately create more problems or risk down the line.

In reality, document collaboration environment gives you full oversight of agreements through the same system that you made them in. Keeping documents secure is important and keeping them organized is essential. Getting the contract out of your way is one thing, but it shouldn’t be out of your sight or unavailable to you.

Contract workflow automation puts your processes in plain sight: from the moment you propose a contract, comments can be raised and resolved within the same system. Having those integrations we mentioned with Dokobit and SignNow means that Avokaado can offer verified, legal signing, where both parties are able to collaboratively review. Using standard systems, you can execute a document in Office 365 and know that it’s been done right.

👉 Ready to create your first document and sign digitally with Avokaado? Get started for free now.

Making the contract the easy part

Collaboration should be about working together to make the most of your expertise and skills, so you want to move to the work itself, not be held up before you even get to it. You work with other companies in order to get more done, with a specific goal in mind, which you want to get to as fast as possible.

Here’s how Avokaado makes collaboration, whether it’s mergers and acquisitions, or a contract for the new hire, something to look forward to, not to dread:

• End-to-end contractual process within one application
• In-app electronic signature support
• Frees up legal specialists to focus on core business
• Makes the long email thread a thing of the past
• A 24/7 legal team from any location

Let Avokaado make your next collaboration your easiest. Get to “yes” on important legal decisions, faster than ever.

👉 Draft and collaborate on your documents from Avokaado: Get started for free now.

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