How does Contract Analyst compare to other products?

The following provides an overview of the major items that differentiate us from our competitors.

The Product

• Comprehensive and Full-Featured. Most competing Contract Management Systems on the market start the contract lifecycle at the point when the contract is awarded to the vendor. Contract Analyst provides the capability to start the contract lifecycle when the project is first initiated. In addition, you have the option and capability to perform a Cost-Benefit and Risk Analysis, create, publish, and track Proposal Requests (RFP's, RFQ's, RFI's, etc.), receive and score proposals, and award contracts.
  
  After the contract is awarded, the Contracts Module (the "meat and potatoes" of Contract Analyst), is used to manage your contracts through closing. The Contracts Module is extremely comprehensive, powerful, and can manage virtually any type of contract or agreement, in any industry. If you only have the need to manage contracts after they are awarded, you do not have to use the other modules in the system.
  
  The Contracts Module provides the capability to create, track, and manage the following contract items: General and specific information, dates, actions, flags, notes, reviews, status, sites, coordination and approvals, financial information, payments, encumbrances, funds recoup, contract budgets, equipment and materials purchase, contacts, sub-contractors, deliverables, protests and issues, clients and billing, vendors, contractor performance, amendments, compliance requirements, performance bonds, waivers, exceptions, and exemptions.
  
  All Contract Analyst Versions have a built-in Ad Hoc Report Writer. We are not aware of any other Contract Management System on the market that has this capability. Organizations would normally have to purchase a separate product to have this capability.
  
  Contract Analyst has over 1270 data fields, of which over 250 are user-defined drop-down list fields, over 115 selection fields, over 260 date fields, and only about 20 are mandatory.
  
  
• User Customization. Contract Analyst is greatly customizable. You can rename and hide windows, screens, and fields, and make fields mandatory or read-only. In addition, in Enterprise versions, you can create entire new screens, and fields on existing screens. New "Custom Field" Screens have been added to all modules providing organizations the capability to create a totally custom window for any needs you may have. All these user-customizable features combined with the over 250 user-defined drop-down list fields makes Contract Analyst easily usable to any organization.
  
  
• Flexibility. Contract Analyst is extremely flexible. Unlike competing products that impose the use of Modules and Fields in their applications, we do not. There are 8 modules in Contract Analyst: Projects, Cost-Benefit/Risk Analysis, Proposals, Contracts, Clients, Vendors, Reports, and Correspondence Tracking. You can choose which modules, windows, and fields to use.
  
  You can create templates for proposal requests, proposals, and contracts in Contract Analyst using the Standard Proposal and Contract Clause Tables. Other products that offer the capability to create templates are usually very limited as to the flexibility in creating the templates, and usually only provide the capability to create contract templates and not RFP or proposal templates. Using the built-in Ad Hoc Report Writer in Contract Analyst, you can create any type of template, to include contract templates, RFP and proposal templates, and business letters, without restriction. In addition, you can create template records for any types of your contracts to start from.
  
  
• Intuitiveness. Windows and screens in Contract Analyst are intuitive and very easy to learn and work with. They have a standardized functionality and have the same basic functions from one window to the next. Users need not be concerned that each window works differently. The functionality or structure of several other Contract Management Systems on the market differs from one window to the next.
  
  
• Usage. Most Contract Management Systems on the market are designed for the organizations that outsource and awards contracts. Contract Analyst can be used by both the organizations that award the contract and by organizations that bid on projects and are awarded contracts. You can use Contract Analyst to ensure contract obligations and deliverables are being accomplished according to specifications. Vendors can use Contract Analyst to track submitted proposals and manage all awarded contracts to ensure contract obligations are being met.
  
  

Product Support and Stability.

• Product Support. Product Support for Contract Analyst is un-matched. It is provided by the developers themselves and not untrained helpdesk personnel following checklists. We have been asked, "How can we offer this?" Our answer is, "We build solid and reliable products that require very little support."
  
  Our products are easy to install, simple to use, and rarely have issues. In addition, we provide a generic and customizable implementation plan to help make the implementation of Contract Analyst into your organizational units and processes simple and smooth.
  
  
• Support Plans. Contract Analyst comes with one full year of product support when purchased. After the year of support is up, organizations have the option to purchase additional yearly support at very competitive prices.
  
  
• Database Support. Most Contract Management Systems on the market support only one database engine. Contract Analyst supports five different database engines: MS SQL Server, Sybase ASE and ASA, Oracle, PostgreSQL, and MySQL. In addition, it allows you to configure an ODBC or OLE DB connection opening it up to other database engines. If you have a database server that it currently does not support, we will work with you to support it.
  
  

Licensing and Pricing

We have one of the best, if not the best, licensing and pricing models on the market.

• Licensing. The Enterprise Licensing Models used by most of our competition charge by the number of users. We do not charge by the user. We employ a Site Licensing Model - one low purchase price for the entire enterprise, no matter the number of users. Organizations are only limited by their own database server license. In addition, the license does not expire and need not be renewed on an annual basis as in many licensing models used by some of our competitors. We do not have any hidden or recurring mandatory fees such as with some of our competitors.
  
  In an enterprise environment, it is important to set up a training and testing environment in addition to the production environment. With Contract Analyst you can set up these two environments without any additional licensing fees.
  
  
• Pricing. Our pricing is extremely competitive. And unlike most of our competitors, we publish the prices of our products on our web site. You can bet that if an organization is afraid to publish the price of their product on their web site, it is going to be expensive. In addition, we offer a government, education institution, and non-profit organization discount on top of our already low price.

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