Thinking of getting a contract management software from Dock 365

jennifer.123

I am done using excel and outlook to do our own version of CMS and, really failing our customers. We have 20000+ customers to manage and we are not able do a good enough job. We sell heavy equipment. So, we need to stay relevant to our customers without being annoying. So they remember to use us when the right job comes.  

I have never used CMS so I don’t really know what I don’t know. But I am thinking of getting a contract management software from Dock 365 suggested by one of my friends. So, I’d like to get some insights and suggestions on the brand and the other contract management system based on your experiences. I’d like to explore my options before moving forward. 

My goals include: 

Integrations with other tools such as Zapier (Handwrytten, etc) 

Quote Generation- we get lots of part orders 

Customer Management -we talk to our customer on our own. Seeing who is doing what with who would be amazing. 

Automation - Anything that works so that our small company doesn't have to remember small things.  

 

I would appreciate any advice you could give me. 

Thanks in advance 

scottygee

Hhmmm this is a tough one. I got to try DocuSign but it's mad expensive for us so ended our subscription. I'm trialing a tool called juro so lets see how that goes.

antoinolachtnai

You need to write some sort of requirements document and then assess around 5 systems to see what matches your needs best.

There are a lot of things that do things like this, but they all take different approaches with different starting points. Some are based around the contracts, managing the stock, some around accountancy, some around sales.

From reading your description, it sounds like sales is a key consideration for you, so I'd suggest you find a package that is oriented in that direction.

I'd try to get one package that will do as much as possible for you.

This is not going to be cheap, but neither is the alternative.

banie01

You definitely need to perform a scoping exercise and define what you need CMS to do for you.

So many options and levels of integration out there and finding what works really will need plenty of legwork on your side. You need to map current workflow and software usage along with the processes involved in quote generation, warranty and so many other aspects of your sales and CMS process that you take for granted. Then get vendors to pitch a system that can integrate as much as possible.

The big players in this space, Salesforce and the like will have the capability to very quickly get you up and running. But it really does come down to requirements v expectation v price.

With the caveat, that any implementation is only going to be as good as the scoping it's based on. Be ruthless when assessing current work practices to ensure as much as possible can be automated and added to your CMS solution.

scottygee

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118094931#Comment_118094931

Heya, so a little update on my end. I haven't really used Dock 365 but as mentioned, I have experience using docusign and Juro. Both have Zapier integrations, a robust CMS, and nifty automation tools. I'm not really sure about Quota generation because that's not really a feature I've explored before(?).

Honestly, given the scale of your company, docusign might be a fit for your budget! We're a small team of 20 people so we're really cutting our costs when it comes to software and apps. We're a legal contracting business so we just really need the automation for the sheer amount of contracts we make (average of 1k per month). Otherwise, you can look at this list of DocuSign alternatives–quite a lot out there!

andreacarpenter

Contract management tools are awesome.

They help a lot to carry out transactions without mistakes, excluding, also, the human factor, which is a very big problem.

There are lots of CMS solutions out there, no need to just list one.

The Gloomster!