NCMA PRODUCT REVIEW

The National  Contract Management Association has reviewed QuickForms twice over the years. With 23,000 members, NCMA is the only organization devoted  exclusively to contract management professionals.

By Jeff Fox, Esq./ NCMA Contract  Management Magazine:

This is a review of the website for  drafting documents at    http://www.quickforms.net.

Contract Administration increasingly includes the "drafting" as well  as the "reviewing" of contract documents. Quickforms, utilizing  Invisible Hand Software and the talents of co-founders John A. Newman  (an attorney who provides the text) and Thomas R. Mielke (who provides  the coding), claim to provide web-based software that will be quick,  and it is indeed quick.  More than that, Quickforms promises a  product that can be anything you need along a wide spectrum from  discussion draft to checklist for controlling your related efforts,  and, it does indeed provide all that is promised.

Regardless of the size of your  organization, whether you have armies of in-house attorneys or simply  many hats that you alone take turns wearing on the job, this is a product that truly affords you the opportunity to save lots of time  and lots of money. Specifically, it bootstraps right to the level of  interaction with your own lawyers by spotting issues to include or  exclude from your document. The end-product is what Quickforms' John  Newman characterizes as a "quick, near-customized, quality control check version of a form" from your own answers to the questions posed  when using the program on the website.

While that characterization is true,  it is also far understated. This is a product that will amaze you, it  has the "wow" qualities that make it worth more than the mere cost per  document paid for with a credit card when you review your answers to  the dialogue that develops the draft of the document.

Contract administration will never be  the same for anyone who adopts the quick, cheap and effective tool  this website makes available around the clock. You can obtain drafts  of a large menu of documents. The entry to the more than 5,000 pages  of content that can be applied to your document allows you to select a  document by the title every attorney or contract manager would  use, or, for you to use a tool on the website that applies expert knowledge to your input of direct answers to the questions posed.

This tool is phenomenally attractive.  There is no long time frame for licensing renewals, there is just a  simple and truly inexpensive fee-per-use. This is the place on the internet to get an amazingly useful return on [the fee] and a few  minutes of your time when you are tasked with creating or reviewing  the kind of document that can cause misery beyond measure if things go  wrongly.

For my test of the system, I first  ran the agreement for the compensation of a recruiter for  filling employment openings. It is very instructive as to your  negotiation choices with the outside recruiters to be able to scroll through the menu of terms to decide whether to include them or exclude  them, it is even more instructive to see the choices available inside  the special clauses of the drafting process.

Quickforms was originally an  out-of-the-box package of 14 agreements to load on your pc.  On  the web, it is demonstrating an entirely new meaning to the phrase "out-of-the-box."  Regardless of the number or frequency of agreements your shop generates, this web site allows you nearly  instantaneous tools for a well-reasoned solution from an overwhelming  body of knowledge to the unique application that you need to resolve.

Better than sliced bread? Yeah, this  is a truly "wow" experience for someone in the field of contract administration, especially if you want to see the model agreement  format, the UCC terms, or the thrill of accomplishment at your  job. What is it missing? Two things: the FAR and the full menu of  every jurisdiction under the sun. It does not have every possible  jurisdiction for some of the many distinctions in state law that can impact these agreements. Does it really have a use for a contract manager if it ignores the FAR?  Bear in mind, the FAR is  where your shop adds its own business practices to compliance with  government contracts.

This tool still adds value, but it  does not replace the professional in the world of contract  administration. But, as a separately advertised service on the Quickforms  website, Invisible Hand Software will gladly allow you to integrate  their service with your own database of special purpose clauses,  including the FAR or whatever your shop relies upon. Moreover, in a  world where government contracts increasingly look to the best  commercial practices, early adopters of this system will be winners.

NCMA has previously  reviewed this product as the testimonials page includes this old  posting:"Virtually eliminates the time or expense needed to produce a  first draft."   This time, we can update it, confirming it  still accomplishes that, and more, much more.  To say it is easy  to use is misleading.  It is the simplest, quickest, cheapest and  best contract drafting tool I can imagine.

--Jeff Fox, Esq. / NCMA

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