Education contract management software: a guide for 2024

Discover how contract management software enables schools, colleges and higher education bodies to manage contracts faster and more efficiently in 2024.

What is education contract management?

Education contract management describes the process used by schools, colleges and higher education bodies to manage legal agreements. It covers everything from how they agree terms with new suppliers, to how they hire and onboard new staff. 

With educational institutions under constant pressure to do more with less, and take fewer risks, contract management should be a focal point in for 2024, especially with the following stats in mind:

• Organizations spend $870 billion resolving contractual disputes each year 
• Teams lose up to two hours searching for specific terms and data within a contract
• 75 per cent of businesses are facing demands for greater visibility into contracts 

These costs, hours and risks stack up quickly over time, so it’s important for educational institutions to get their affairs in order before it’s too late. 

Why is effective contract management important for schools and colleges?

Constant pressure to cut costs

Schools and colleges are no stranger to frequent budget cuts. Effective contract management processes enable institutions to allocate resources more strategically, meet strict budgets, and cut unnecessary spending.

It also reduces operational costs by reducing the time spent managing contracts manually. 

Lots of vendor relationships

Schools and colleges rely on a lot of different suppliers for goods and services, from textbook publishers to technology providers and apprenticeship partners.

Maintaining these relationships, and the contracts that govern them, is crucial for  obtaining quality products and services, timely delivery, and favorable terms.

Visibility and transparency are paramount 

Since many schools and colleges are part of the public sector, it’s important for procurement and decision-making processes to be fair and accountable.

The best way to deliver this is through a more transparent contract management process, which can be achieved by simply tracking metrics like renewals, performance and contract value better. 

How can education contract management software help? 

1. Greater visibility into contracts

Juro’s data-rich contract repository makes it quick and easy to find, track and query contracts, providing real-time visibility into terms and data.

Users can even build custom contract dashboards in Juro, unlocking key insights into how contracts are performing and progressing.

This is powerful functionality for schools, colleges and universities with large contract volumes and a need to report back to stakeholders on their success. 

With a tool like Juro, you’ll never spend hours searching high and low in storage cabinets for contracts again. You’ll have the right data at your fingertips, at the right time. 

2. Negotiation made simple

Every penny counts for cash-strapped schools and colleges. With budgets tightening, contract negotiations are the perfect opportunity to free up some extra cash. 

Implementing education contract management software simplifies this process by enabling parties to negotiate in real-time, live in their browser. 

No more jumping between email chains and Word files to track changes and discuss amendments.

A platform like Juro centralizes contract negotiations, with browser-based redlining, detailed audit trails, and split internal and external versions.

This removes friction from negotiations, and users can even speed up the time spent in negotiations by using generative AI to propose new terms that align with the guardrails they’ve set up. 

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3. No more missed renewals 

The more contracts you manage, the harder it is to track renewals.

Contract management for higher education is a prime example of this. Due to their size, universities have thousands of contracts on the go at any given time. Getting them agreed is only half the battle.

Each and every one of these contracts will end at some point. Whether that’s an automated renewal you didn’t budget for, or termination date that passed you by and left you without a supplier, you need to get a handle on these contract deadlines before it’s too late.

Luckily, Juro’s automated contract reminders empower you to do just that. 

Adopting an education contract management system like Juro enables you to track contract deadlines and manage upcoming renewals at scale. 

No more adding and updating deadlines in a spreadsheet every time you agree a contract. This data is captured by default, giving you instant visibility into which contracts are ending, and when.  

4. Enhanced security

Contracts are a hive of sensitive information. From employment contracts to apprenticeship agreements, protecting the data within them should be a priority.

Are printed copies in physical filing cabinets really the best way to do that? Probably not. You want a central source of truth for contracts, with stringent measures and access controls to keep them secure.

Juro's contract management software for higher education institutions delivers on this, with robust data security, powerful encryption and advanced electronic signatures as standard.

Want to find out more about Juro's lawyer-grade security? Check out our trust centre.

Which education contract management software is best?

Juro is the preferred contract management software for higher education institutions and colleges, with organizations like Colorado State University, BPP University, and Kahoot already using the tool to manage contracts 10x faster.

Here's why:

• Juro brings all of your contract processes together in one collaborative, browser-based platform, replacing up to five tools with one
• Juro is the only contract management solution designed for both legal and business teams, making adoption across instituions simple
• Juro is a global Leader for CLM, with the highest user adoption and best support of any platform, according to G2

To join the 6000+ companies already using Juro to manage their contracts, fill in the form below.