by
October 11, 2022
Managing non disclosure agreements (NDAs) can be a distracting task that will take your focus away from growing your business. Learn how an automated platform can help you overcome the challenge.
The last thing you need when growing your business is to spend time on non-disclosure agreements (NDAs). They have become an unavoidable part of every business, irrespective of their size. Whether you are hiring contractors or getting into new business deals, signing an NDA becomes crucial.
However, the process of creating and delivering an NDA can be time-consuming and fraught with risk. But it doesn’t have to be that way, especially when technology is out there to help you. This guide looks at how an automated platform can help you manage your NDAs with ease.
A non-disclosure agreement, also known as an NDA, is a legally binding contract between two or more parties to protect confidential information. NDAs are one of the most common agreements that help businesses protect proprietary information and trade secrets.
While NDAs are applicable for any business, they are common with startups having sensitive or proprietary information. Besides startups looking to raise capital from investors, NDAs can also be for companies with new products or services and those looking for partners who may want to buy into their business.
NDAs typically are used in situations where one party (the discloser) wants to share sensitive information with another party (the recipient). The discloser has something they do not want others to know about but wants to share with someone else who needs it or might benefit from it. The recipient will then agree not to disclose this information in any way that would harm the discloser's interests.
Here are the different types of non-disclosure agreements businesses usually deal with.
A unilateral non-disclosure agreement is a contract between two parties where one party promises not to disclose certain information to anyone else. This type of NDA can be signed by either the party disclosing the information or the one receiving it, but not both. An employee or contractor signing an agreement with a company is a peculiar example.
A bilateral non-disclosure agreement is a contract that states that both parties will disclose confidential information to each other but will not share it with third parties. This type of NDA is common among two businesses that exchange trade secrets with each other.
Multilateral non-disclosure agreements are an agreement between three or more parties. The term multilateral distinguishes it from a bilateral non-disclosure agreement, which is an agreement between two parties. In a multilateral non-disclosure agreement, a minimum of one party discloses confidential information, and the rest agree to not disclose it.
Here are some reasons why your business cannot do without an NDA.
NDAs are a critical tool for any organization. By signing an NDA, you consent to protect the confidentiality of information that you receive from another entity. In turn, the other entity agrees not to disclose your confidential information without your consent. Without them, you risk losing your competitive edge or having it stolen by someone who can use it without permission.
When an employee signs an NDA, they agree not to disclose sensitive or proprietary information about your company or its products to anyone outside the organization. This protects you from having your trade secrets leaked, which could cause you to lose customers. It also helps your employees understand the information they should keep confidential.
NDAs are critical for organizations because they protect the organization's patent rights. When an NDA gets signed, it states that the signer will not disclose confidential information related to the company or product being developed. This ensures that competitors do not learn about any new product, service, or process in development.
Non-disclosure agreement (NDA) management is the process of creating and maintaining non-disclosure agreements. It's important to have a good NDA management process in place so that your company can protect its confidential information. It will also allow the recipients to do the same.
Here’s what the process looks like.
The first step in the NDA management process is the creation of NDAs. The purpose of an NDA is to protect confidential information, so your employees need to be educated about what constitutes covert information and how to protect it. They should accordingly identify the document’s purpose, draft it accordingly, and share it with the recipient.
It is one of the essential parts of the process. It's vital to understand that an NDA is a legally binding contract. You should give the recipient ample time to review and negotiate any terms they may not agree with.
Once an NDA gets drafted, all the parties involved in the contract should sign it. This usually includes the client and anyone who will be privy to sensitive information. These signatures get collected in one place for convenience.
The monitoring of NDA performance is a critical aspect of NDA management. It ensures your confidential information remains confidential, and you can take action if there is a breach in the agreement by the other party.
You should be able to monitor all aspects of an NDA—from contract signing through to termination—and make sure that it gets managed properly. It includes reviewing reports on how well an NDA is getting managed and ensuring that it complies with all legal requirements.
Renewal refers to the process of advancing an existing NDA between two parties. This is a common practice for companies who want to extend their NDAs at regular intervals. Some projects may continue for longer durations, requiring renewals of NDAs when their validity expires.
Here are some challenges you may face if you manually manage your NDAs.
Studies have shown that businesses can lose up to 21.3% of their productivity due to manual document management methods. One of the challenges of manual management of NDAs is that it can be time-consuming and inefficient.
It can be cumbersome to keep track of all NDAs and execute them on time, especially when you have a large volume of agreements to process. It can also be tough to ensure that all parties have executed the contract properly.
One of the biggest challenges of manual document management is that it does not offer version control, which can be a huge problem. If you're managing your NDAs manually and someone accidentally makes a change to the document, how will you know?
How will you know if the change was intentional or not? In addition, what if there's an error in the document and it gets printed out? You could end up with a document that can cost you business.
If you do not have a way to access your NDAs, you will not be able to use them when you need them. Manual document management is difficult because it is hard to keep track of changes and updates. You may end up with multiple versions of the same document floating around in your office, or even worse—you could accidentally send out an outdated version of an NDA.
When executing a business deal, NDA will be a part of the process. You may have to deal with several other documents and several email exchanges. It is easy for the information to get lost when you have manual processes. Without a proper workflow, it may take longer than usual to proceed with the next steps.
Automating the management of NDAs can help you save time, money, and headaches. NDAs are a great way to protect your company's confidential information. However, managing them can be a huge task. If you're like most businesses, you've probably got a ton of them floating around in different formats—some digital, some on paper—and may remain scattered all over.
This is why automating the management of NDAs is so crucial. It becomes easy to manage all your NDAs in one place, so they're easy to access whenever you need them.
Here are some benefits of automating the management of NDAs:
Automation allows you to automate the process of managing NDAs, including sending them out and collecting signatures. This streamlines the process so that it's more efficient and less time-consuming than doing it manually.
By automating this process, you can reduce your cost per NDA by eliminating the need for human labor required if you were doing this manually. This also reduces processing times for each new NDA, which means you can save money on each new agreement processed.
Automating this process ensures that all NDAs are stored in a safe place and cannot get accessed by unauthorized individuals. This helps protect your company from any security breaches that may occur due to human error or negligence during the storage or retrieval of these agreements.
Automation allows you to create a template so that you don't have to start from scratch each time you need to draft an NDA. You can also use automation to ensure that certain elements always get included in every NDA—like a specific clause about how long an NDA will be in force and what happens when it expires.
You can have multiple people working on NDAs at once without being concerned about who's editing which document. You also don't have to worry about losing track of which documents are in progress or completed; everything is managed automatically by the system.
If you are new to document automation or have used a complex solution before, you should try out VisionERA. Our AI-powerd document automation is super intuitive.
You can get started and deliver your first automated NDA is less than an hour.
Here are few things that gives you more reasons that make is really a no-brainer for adoption:
For example, if a new NDA comes in, VisionERA will know what to do with it. It will automatically push it through its workflow, which allows you to focus on other critical tasks while reducing human error and wasted time. VisionERA stands out as an innovative solution that will help you achieve your business goals faster.
Note: Thinking of improving your NDA processing practices? Get VisionERA at $0 invoicing and accelerate your processing workflow. To learn more details about the offer? Use the link here.
To try out VisionERA for yourself? Just click on Free trial and use our platform.
To understand how VisionERA can accelerate NDA processing workflow from our document automation experts, book a demo for a free consultation.