Customer Success Story
Shareflex Contract: A digital solution with central access and automatic reminders for due dates helps to eliminate the chaos of paper and electronic documents.
Heidelberg Pharma AG develops novel drugs for personalised, highly effective cancer treatment and has contractual partners worldwide with whom the company enters into service contracts, for example. “When I started at Heidelberg Pharma in December 2021, we had just started using a software for contract management,” says Anke Fechter, Senior Assistant Patents & Legal at Heidelberg Pharma, describing the initial situation. “However, it was not a pure contract management system. It was a tool that was to be used jointly by the legal department and another department. The problem was that it lacked many functions that were relevant for the legal department. That was not what we had in mind.”
Fechter explains: “We started entering contracts, but quickly realised that the software did not meet our requirements for a contract management system.” The company was working with both paper and electronic documents. On top of that, the software mentioned above did not fulfil its purpose. “It was not possible for us to work with just this one software,” says Mrs Fechter. “So in 2022, at the request of the legal department, we started looking for a new contract management solution that would be better suited to our needs.”
Heidelberg Pharma AG was founded in Munich in 1997 as WILEX Biotechnology GmbH and now has its headquarters in Ladenburg near Heidelberg. The company also includes the subsidiary Heidelberg Pharma Research GmbH. The biopharmaceutical company develops novel drugs for targeted and highly effective cancer treatment based on its proprietary antibody drug conjugate (ADC) technologies. A particular focus is the ATAC technology, which uses the toxin Amanitin from the green death cap mushroom to overcome resistance to therapy and eliminate quiescent tumour cells. Heidelberg Pharma AG operates two sites and employs around 110 people in Germany.
The search started on Google. “One factor that played a role for us, of course, was that we are a fairly small company. Accordingly, we had to weigh which system best met our expectations without being too expensive,” said Anke Fechter, listing one of the selection criteria.
Above all, it was essential that the software could map the entire process, from contract review to deadline management. Fechter summarises: “It was important for us to be able to process contracts completely electronically, directly in the system, without having to send or receive documents by email.” Other key requirements included automatic deadline management to remind users of notice periods, expiry dates, etc., and centralised and mobile access to contracts for all employees.
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During the online research, Heidelberg Pharma AG finally came across Portal Systems. “One advantage was that the contract management software from Portal Systems is SharePoint-based. And the fact that everything comes from a single source was also most convenient for us,” explains Anke Fechter. “Besides, dealing with Portal Systems seemed very unproblematic to me.” There had also been contact with other providers, she says, “but they in turn had contracts with other companies that were supposed to take care of our concerns.” As a result, even the initial discussions had been difficult.
When the project started, the first step was for the Heidelberg Pharma legal department to take action. “We were supposed to come up with ideas on how we want to set up the contract management system,” recalls Anke Fechter. “Our homework was to develop a suitable structure.” One aspect of this was the permission concept. “We also had to clarify internally which structure makes sense so that all departments can work well with each other in the system. Keeping it as simple as possible and only as complicated as necessary.”
The first step was a larger joint meeting with Heidelberg Pharma and Portal Systems. “The focus of this meeting was our exact vision,” says Fechter, who gathered and communicated the internal requirements. “In the subsequent period, communication was quickly limited to me and the developer from Portal Systems. Key topics included the specific design of the contract management solution, the customisations we wanted, and translation – because we wanted to use the system in English.” They were in contact almost weekly, mostly by email – or by video conference when it made more sense to look at things together briefly via Teams. Summing up, Fechter says, “We maintained very close contact.”
Anke Fechter has particularly fond memories of the rapid implementation of her requirements and preferences.
“If I said on Monday that something wasn’t ready yet or that I wanted to change something, I received an email from Portal Systems on Tuesday saying it was done. The turnaround time was very short, which was great.”
Of course, it still took some time before everything was ready, “but the smaller things that needed to be done quickly were taken care of in no time.” A total of eight months passed between the approval of the bid and the go-live of Shareflex Contract. One challenge was the permission management. “We revised the permission concept several times, also due to the fact that internal requirements had changed in the meantime,” Fechter reveals.
Anke Fechter specifies the problem: “We finally decided that we had to set up the planned process quite differently than we had originally planned. Implementing this new process in a system that was purchased at a time when the old process was planned was difficult.” Nevertheless: The contract management system Shareflex Contract from Portal Systems has been in use at Heidelberg Pharma AG for two years and has since brought numerous improvements:
“One thing that is definitely positive is that the due date reminder now runs automatically,” highlights Fechter. “The respective contract owner can quickly access the relevant contract via the notifications that are sent and inform us about the further procedure.” The contract management software is simple, she explains, and also works intuitively. ”This is also confirmed by the feedback from users.” Previously, one had to ask the legal department if a particular contract was available. “Now anyone can look it up directly in the system.” And the biggest benefit of all? “I would say that it’s the automatic due date reminder,” says Fechter. “This makes our work much easier.”
Shareflex® Contract
With Shareflex Contract, you can organise your digital contract management and keep track of all deadlines.
The roll-out of the new Shareflex Contract management system has been very positively received by Heidelberg Pharma staff. “The promise that all contracts are immediately retrievable in one place convinced them,” says Anke Fechter. “In addition, the contract owners can search for their contracts in the system themselves, independently of the legal department. The contracts are available at all times.” All this works much faster and smoother than before. “And because it is so highly intuitive, the system is easy and convenient to use for everyone.” Currently, Shareflex Contract is mainly used by the legal department. “Colleagues from other departments use the system to view contracts and provide information when needed.”
Was it necessary to provide training for users of Shareflex Contract? “Yes,” says Anke Fechter. “Since the software is mainly used in the legal department and I got to know it very well during the implementation, I provided the training myself.” And so far it has paid off, according to Fechter: “Shareflex Contact makes life much easier for the Heidelberg Pharma legal department.”
Patrick Carl
Chief Sales Officer
Email: info[at]portalsystems.de
This post is also available in: German