(a) Step 1: Selection of contracts and scope of contract automation
A legal department should of course decide which type of contracts will be processed through the Weagree Wizard. Those contracts may likely require an ‘upgrade' (or quality review). The selection of the contracts that will be upgraded is largely coupled with the decision which sub-set of the selection will be made available to business line managers and staff (see step 9 below). Whilst broadly identifying the various categories of users (e.g. in-house counsel and business line managers), the selection of the contracts to be upgraded may be expanded.
As a first step, the ordinary course contracts would be included in the Wizard: these are all the contracts negotiated on a regular basis by the company's relevant businesses or departments. Typically, the selection of contracts would cover the sales-side contracts (i.e. sales agreements, service contracts or licenses), the purchase-side contracts (i.e. purchasing contracts, warehousing, transportation, waste treatment and large procurement contracts), contracts related to intellectual property (incl. confidentiality agreements) and M&A-related documents. Also corporate housekeeping (i.e. resolutions and powers of attorney) can be managed through the Weagree Wizard.
The selection of contracts should not distinguish for different levels of complexity or types of underlying product or services. Only if the complexity or nature of products or services demands a significantly different contractual approach, adjusting the selection would be appropriate. For example, a purchaser-friendly contract does imply significant other contractual devices as opposed to seller-friendly sales contract. However, the distinction for the complexity of a transaction or the nature of the contracted products or services should be made by the end-user (as part of the Q&A): such distinction would rather result in contract clauses not being included (or the inclusion of mere high level principles) than in completely different building blocks. In making the selection, the identification of required building blocks should be leading.