#mergingcontractrecords

When you merge or migrate your contract records, you may find that you end up with duplicate records in the process. Duplicate records are better for your business than missing records. But they can cause problems for your business, especially when you're trying to generate or analyze specific data records. You may also have duplicate records due to employee error: an employee who, for example, creates a new contract or new file for a client, rather than saving data in an existing file. Fortunately, you can analyze and identify duplicate records, get to the bottom of any challenges, and ensure that you have an accurate account of your business's contracts following your data migration. 

Step One: Define Unique Records

What elements define your unique contract records? Clearly define how you identify unique records in your system. You may, for example, have a clear contract naming system that makes it easy to identify unique clients. But if you have numerous contracts with a single client, you may have several files with similar naming systems. You may also have multiple copies of each contract due to variations that the contract went through before approval. Before beginning your analysis of any duplicate data after a migration, make sure you clearly define your unique records and how you can tell the difference between unique elements and duplicates.  

Step Two: Check Your Original Data

Before you begin your contract data migration, you should do two key things. First, you should back up your data. Second, you should have a solid idea of how much contract data you're migrating. This includes how many files you should anticipate on the other end. While a close look at your original data won't help you check for duplicates in your original data, it will help identify them after the fact.  A look at your original data will also help you determine whether your duplicate record resolution needs to be manual, automated, or some combination of the two. If you have a large amount of data to deal with, for example, you may need to automate at least a portion of the process so that you can streamline it. On the other hand, you may be able to handle small duplication checks manually. 

Step Three: Examine Contract Data for Duplicates

You can use an automated system to help identify duplicates or run a manual check, depending on the size of your data. Since you have a solid idea of what constitutes a unique record and what your original data looks like, you should be able to effectively sift through that data.  You can also set up your system to create a report during your contract migration that will allow you to check for duplicates and catch them as you make the migration. This report can automatically generate information about your data migration, including which files have made the migration and which contract records are likely duplicates. By keeping up with this report during the migration, you can cleanse data as it shifts from one system to the next, making a smoother transition. 

Step Four: Consult an Expert Concerning Those Records

Take a look at your suspected duplicate records. You may need an expert to evaluate those records. Consider: Which records actually need to be consolidated? If you're using an automated system, you may need to look through those contracts yourself. It won’t be immediately clear which records need to be consolidated and which contain unique information. You can also set your system up to help consolidate duplicate records automatically. For example, the system may be able to recognize full duplicates or data that has been corrupted during the migration. Allowing it to select the right records saves you time. How will you pick the survivor contract records?  Determine which records actually need to be kept, rather than deleted. You may note that some duplicate files have errors created during the migration process, while others are clean. If you're automating the process, consider what attributes survivor records need to have in common. 

Step Five: Consolidate Your Records

After a merger or acquisition, your team has a lot of details to focus on. It can be easy to allow merging your contract records to get lost in the shuffle. After all, both businesses likely have an effective contract management system in place that has allowed them to keep up with their contracts thus far. You can wait to merge those systems together, right? In reality, you need to put merging contract records high on your priority list.  Consider these key reasons why merging your contract records is important, and then read our guide to creating a contract migration project. Also, consider how failing to do so could create unanticipated problems for your newly-combined businesses. 

1. Merging contract records can make it easier to generate company-wide reports.

When you merge your contract records, you can quickly and effectively generate reports that cover all aspects of your company's contracts. If you keep your records in different depositories, on the other hand, you may need to generate separate reports for each company, then manually compile them. This can substantially slow down your ability to put together those vital records. 

2. If you don't merge your contract records, employees may not know which system to use.

In the early stages following a merger or acquisition, employees may automatically use the system they've always used as they create, negotiate, and manage contracts. As you restructure your business following those changes, however, you may shift certain business responsibilities to one partner company or the other. Employees may then not be sure which contract record system to use or where to store contracts. 

3. Failure to merge your contracts can make it difficult to find specific contracts and information, especially as your business grows in the aftermath of the merger or acquisition. 

When you begin merging contract records, you will store it under one standardized system that makes it easy to identify key information about your contracts. You'll be able to easily track the current versions of contracts as well as keeping up with where you can find those contracts. When they're located in separate repositories, on the other hand, it can prove difficult to find a specific contract. You may need to go through more than one system in order to find the specific contract you need. This can slow down your response time when dealing with clients. 

4. You don't want combined departments to have to search in two locations for information.

Many departments throughout your newly-combined business may need to access your contracts. You may have a specific department that takes care of compliance. Salespeople need to be able to access past versions of contracts. No matter who needs to access that information, you want them to be able to search in one location for it. Not only that, but you also want to ensure that employees have the right security permissions to access the contracts.

5. Merging contract records will ensure that all alerts and reminders end up in the right place.

Along with your merger or acquisition, you may substantially restructure some of your processes and departments. That includes your contract approval processes. You may have new individuals who need to approve contracts before they can be finalized. Alternatively, you may need to add something to the existing contract approval process of one business to fit the needs of the other. If you're still using separate contract management systems, those systems may have different workflows or processes. That could create additional steps or make it difficult to keep up with your contracts. Merging your systems helps ensure that all of those reminders end up in front of the right individual or team.

6. Merging your systems helps protect your security.