Hyperautomation không chỉ đơn thuần là tự động hóa một quy trình đơn lẻ, mà là một cách tiếp cận toàn diện nhằm xác định, kiểm tra và tự động hóa càng nhiều quy trình kinh doanh càng tốt. Đặc biệt, nó kết hợp nhiều công nghệ tiên tiến như RPA (Robotic Process Automation), AI (Artificial Intelligence), Machine Learning, Process Mining và các công cụ quy trình nghiệp vụ tiên tiến để mang lại giá trị vượt trội.

Hyper-Automation là gì?

Hyperautomation là một cách tiếp cận chiến lược và hệ thống để nhanh chóng xác định, kiểm tra và tự động hóa càng nhiều quy trình kinh doanh càng tốt. Nó mở rộng phạm vi của tự động hóa truyền thống để bao gồm không chỉ các nhiệm vụ lặp đi lặp lại, mà còn cả các quy trình phức tạp đòi hỏi ra quyết định thông minh, thích ứng với các tình huống thay đổi.

Các đặc điểm chính của Hyperautomation:

1. Tự động hóa từ đầu đến cuối (End-to-end automation): Hyperautomation không chỉ tự động hóa các nhiệm vụ riêng lẻ mà còn xuyên suốt toàn bộ quy trình kinh doanh.
2. Kết hợp nhiều công nghệ: Nó phối hợp hài hòa giữa RPA, AI, Machine Learning, Process Mining, và các công cụ BPM (Business Process Management) để tạo ra giải pháp toàn diện.
3. Thông minh và thích ứng: Không giống như tự động hóa truyền thống, Hyperautomation có khả năng học hỏi, thích nghi và cải thiện liên tục dựa trên dữ liệu.
4. Tập trung vào con người: Mặc dù tự động hóa nhiều quy trình, nhưng Hyperautomation được thiết kế để tăng cường năng lực con người, không phải thay thế họ hoàn toàn.
5. Digital Twin of an Organization (DTO): Hyperautomation thường tạo ra một “bản sao số” của tổ chức để mô phỏng cách các quy trình, chức năng và KPI tương tác để tạo ra giá trị.

Các công nghệ nền tảng của Hyperautomation

Hyperautomation không phải là một công nghệ đơn lẻ mà là sự kết hợp của nhiều công nghệ tiên tiến. Dưới đây là những thành phần công nghệ cốt lõi tạo nên sức mạnh của Hyperautomation:

1. Robotic Process Automation (RPA): RPA là nền tảng cơ bản của Hyperautomation, sử dụng “robot phần mềm” để tự động hóa các nhiệm vụ lặp đi lặp lại dựa trên quy tắc. Các bot RPA có thể mô phỏng hành động của con người trong các hệ thống số, như nhập dữ liệu, sao chép và dán thông tin, hoặc thực hiện các thao tác theo quy trình xác định.

Ứng dụng: Nhập liệu tự động, xử lý hóa đơn, khai báo báo cáo, tạo tài khoản người dùng.

2. Trí tuệ nhân tạo (AI) và Machine Learning (ML): AI và ML là thành phần quan trọng giúp Hyperautomation vượt trội so với tự động hóa truyền thống. AI giúp phân tích dữ liệu phi cấu trúc, nhận dạng mẫu và đưa ra quyết định thông minh. ML cho phép hệ thống học hỏi từ dữ liệu lịch sử và cải thiện hiệu suất theo thời gian.

Ứng dụng: Phân tích tình cảm khách hàng, dự đoán nhu cầu bảo trì, ra quyết định dựa trên dữ liệu phức tạp.

3. Process Mining và Task Mining: Process Mining sử dụng dữ liệu sự kiện để phát hiện, phân tích và cải thiện quy trình kinh doanh. Task Mining tập trung vào phân tích hoạt động của người dùng để hiểu cách họ thực hiện các nhiệm vụ cụ thể.

Ứng dụng: Phát hiện điểm nghẽn trong quy trình, xác định cơ hội tự động hóa, tối ưu luồng công việc.

4. Business Process Management (BPM): BPM cung cấp khuôn khổ để thiết kế, mô hình hóa, thực thi, giám sát và tối ưu hóa quy trình kinh doanh. Nó giúp doanh nghiệp quản lý và cải thiện quy trình từ đầu đến cuối.

Ứng dụng: Thiết kế quy trình tự động, quản lý luồng công việc, giám sát hiệu suất quy trình.

5. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) và Intelligent Document Processing (IDP): OCR và IDP giúp chuyển đổi tài liệu giấy hoặc hình ảnh thành dữ liệu có cấu trúc có thể xử lý được. Chúng là công nghệ then chốt để tự động hóa xử lý tài liệu.

Ứng dụng: Xử lý hóa đơn, trích xuất dữ liệu từ biểu mẫu, phân loại tài liệu.

6. Công cụ phân tích nâng cao: Các công cụ phân tích nâng cao sử dụng AI và ML để cung cấp thông tin chi tiết từ dữ liệu được tạo ra trong quá trình tự động hóa, giúp doanh nghiệp đưa ra quyết định tốt hơn.

Ứng dụng: Phân tích khách hàng, dự báo xu hướng, tối ưu hóa quy trình.

7. Chatbot và Virtual Assistant: Chatbot và trợ lý ảo tích hợp xử lý ngôn ngữ tự nhiên (NLP) giúp tự động hóa giao tiếp với khách hàng và nhân viên.

Ứng dụng: Hỗ trợ khách hàng, trả lời câu hỏi thường gặp, hướng dẫn nhân viên qua các quy trình.

Lợi ích của Hyperautomation đối với doanh nghiệp

Hyperautomation mang lại nhiều lợi ích đáng kể cho doanh nghiệp ở mọi quy mô và ngành nghề:

• Tăng hiệu quả hoạt động: Hyperautomation giúp loại bỏ các nhiệm vụ thủ công tốn thời gian, giảm thời gian chu kỳ và cải thiện hiệu suất quy trình. Theo một nghiên cứu của Gartner, các doanh nghiệp áp dụng Hyperautomation có thể giảm chi phí hoạt động đến 30%.
• Nâng cao trải nghiệm khách hàng: Bằng cách tự động hóa các quy trình phức tạp và tích hợp AI, doanh nghiệp có thể cung cấp dịch vụ nhanh hơn, cá nhân hóa hơn và nhất quán hơn. Ví dụ, ngân hàng có thể giảm thời gian phê duyệt khoản vay từ nhiều ngày xuống còn vài giờ bằng Hệ thống Quản lý hợp đồng trong văn phòng điện tử Tasken.
• Giảm lỗi và tăng cường tuân thủ: Tự động hóa giúp loại bỏ lỗi do con người gây ra và đảm bảo quy trình luôn tuân thủ các quy định và chính sách. Điều này đặc biệt quan trọng trong các ngành có quy định nghiêm ngặt như tài chính và y tế.
• Phân tích dữ liệu sâu sắc hơn: Hyperautomation tạo ra lượng dữ liệu lớn về hiệu suất quy trình, hành vi khách hàng và thị trường. Dữ liệu này, khi được phân tích bằng AI, có thể cung cấp thông tin chi tiết có giá trị cho việc ra quyết định chiến lược.
• Gia tăng khả năng mở rộng: Với Hyperautomation, doanh nghiệp có thể dễ dàng mở rộng quy mô hoạt động mà không cần tăng nhân sự tương ứng. Điều này đặc biệt quan trọng trong các giai đoạn tăng trưởng nhanh hoặc khi đối mặt với nhu cầu thay đổi đột ngột.
• Trao quyền cho nhân viên: Bằng cách tự động hóa các nhiệm vụ lặp đi lặp lại, nhân viên có thể tập trung vào công việc sáng tạo, phân tích và chiến lược mang lại giá trị cao hơn. Điều này không chỉ nâng cao năng suất mà còn cải thiện sự hài lòng và gắn bó của nhân viên.

Cách Hyperautomation khác biệt so với tự động hóa truyền thống

Để hiểu rõ giá trị thực sự của Hyperautomation, cần phân biệt nó với các phương pháp tự động hóa truyền thống:

Các trường hợp ứng dụng Hyperautomation trong thực tế

Hyperautomation đang được áp dụng thành công trong nhiều ngành công nghiệp khác nhau. Dưới đây là một số ví dụ cụ thể:

Ngành tài chính và ngân hàng

Tự động hóa quy trình cho vay

• Xử lý đơn xin vay tự động
• Đánh giá tín dụng dựa trên AI
• Xác minh danh tính khách hàng tự động
• Giám sát gian lận thông minh

Kết quả: Một ngân hàng lớn tại châu Á đã giảm thời gian xử lý khoản vay từ 7 ngày xuống còn 1 ngày, tăng tỷ lệ chuyển đổi 15% và giảm chi phí nhân công 30%.

Ngành chăm sóc sức khỏe

Tự động hóa quản lý bệnh nhân

• Lên lịch hẹn thông minh
• Xử lý yêu cầu bảo hiểm tự động
• Phân tích hồ sơ bệnh án bằng AI
• Dự đoán tái nhập viện

Kết quả: Một hệ thống y tế tại Mỹ đã cải thiện năng suất hành chính 35%, giảm thời gian chờ đợi của bệnh nhân 40% và cải thiện sự hài lòng của nhân viên y tế.

Ngành sản xuất

Tự động hóa chuỗi cung ứng

• Dự báo nhu cầu bằng ML
• Tối ưu hóa hàng tồn kho tự động
• Giám sát chất lượng dựa trên AI
• Bảo trì dự đoán cho thiết bị

Kết quả: Một nhà sản xuất ô tô đã giảm chi phí hàng tồn kho 25%, cải thiện độ chính xác dự báo 30% và giảm thời gian ngừng máy 45%.

Ngành bán lẻ

Tự động hóa trải nghiệm khách hàng

• Khuyến nghị sản phẩm cá nhân hóa
• Chatbot hỗ trợ khách hàng 24/7
• Quản lý kho hàng tự động
• Phân tích hành vi người mua hàng

Kết quả: Một nhà bán lẻ trực tuyến lớn đã tăng doanh số 20%, giảm tỷ lệ bỏ giỏ hàng 15% và cải thiện NPS (Net Promoter Score) 25 điểm.

Ngành dịch vụ công

Tự động hóa quy trình hành chính

• Xử lý đơn từ tự động
• Xác minh giấy tờ thông minh
• Trả lời yêu cầu công dân qua chatbot
• Phân tích dữ liệu để cải thiện dịch vụ

Tương lai của Hyperautomation

Hyperautomation đang phát triển với tốc độ chóng mặt và hứa hẹn những bước tiến đột phá trong tương lai gần. Các hệ thống AI sẽ trở nên tự chủ hơn, có khả năng tự học và tự điều chỉnh mà không cần nhiều sự can thiệp của con người. Sự tích hợp sâu rộng với IoT và edge computing sẽ cho phép xử lý dữ liệu tại nguồn và đưa ra quyết định trong thời gian thực, giảm thiểu độ trễ và tăng hiệu quả. Công nghệ sẽ tiến từ việc tự động hóa các quy trình đơn giản sang các nhiệm vụ đòi hỏi khả năng nhận thức phức tạp, với các hệ thống có thể hiểu và xử lý thông tin phi cấu trúc, ngôn ngữ tự nhiên và cảm xúc. Sự dân chủ hóa hyperautomation thông qua các công cụ low-code và no-code sẽ cho phép người không có nền tảng kỹ thuật vẫn có thể tạo và triển khai các giải pháp tự động hóa phức tạp. Đồng thời, sẽ có nhiều chú trọng hơn vào các khía cạnh đạo đức, minh bạch và trách nhiệm giải trình trong tự động hóa. Chúng ta sẽ chứng kiến sự xuất hiện của “lực lượng lao động kỹ thuật số” – một hệ sinh thái các bot, AI và tự động hóa làm việc cùng nhau và với con người. Hyperautomation sẽ vượt ra khỏi phạm vi một tổ chức đơn lẻ để tạo ra các hệ thống tự động hóa liên kết giữa nhiều doanh nghiệp, tối ưu hóa chuỗi cung ứng trên quy mô lớn. Cuối cùng, với sự gia tăng của các mối đe dọa an ninh mạng, hyperautomation sẽ đóng vai trò quan trọng trong việc phát hiện, phản ứng và ngăn chặn các cuộc tấn công mạng một cách tự động và thời gian thực. Bằng cách nắm bắt và chuẩn bị cho những xu hướng này, các tổ chức có thể tận dụng tối đa tiềm năng của hyperautomation trong hành trình chuyển đổi số, mang lại giá trị lớn hơn và duy trì lợi thế cạnh tranh trong thời đại số.

Kết luận

Hyperautomation đại diện cho bước tiến hóa tiếp theo trong hành trình tự động hóa của doanh nghiệp. Bằng cách kết hợp RPA, AI, ML và các công nghệ khác, nó mở ra cơ hội chưa từng có để tối ưu hóa quy trình, nâng cao hiệu quả và chuyển đổi hoạt động kinh doanh.

Tuy nhiên, thành công với Hyperautomation không chỉ đơn thuần là vấn đề công nghệ. Nó đòi hỏi một cách tiếp cận chiến lược bao gồm con người, quy trình và công nghệ. Các doanh nghiệp cần xây dựng tầm nhìn rõ ràng, đầu tư vào đào tạo và quản lý thay đổi, và xây dựng văn hóa cải tiến liên tục. Những doanh nghiệp có thể vượt qua những thách thức và tận dụng hiệu quả Hyperautomation sẽ có vị thế tốt để thành công trong kỷ nguyên số. Những doanh nghiệp này không chỉ tự động hóa các quy trình hiện tại mà còn tái tưởng tượng hoàn toàn cách họ vận hành, mang đến giá trị cho khách hàng và cạnh tranh trong thị trường toàn cầu. Hyperautomation không chỉ là một xu hướng công nghệ – đó là một chuyển đổi cơ bản trong cách doanh nghiệp hoạt động và tạo ra giá trị. Đã đến lúc các doanh nghiệp ở mọi quy mô bắt đầu hành trình Hyperautomation để đảm bảo tính cạnh tranh và thành công trong tương lai.

The post Hyperautomation: Cú hit tất yếu trong hành trình chuyển đổi số toàn diện appeared first on Opus Solution.

Economic uncertainty is forcing companies to focus on efficiency. As business leaders strategize how to maximize revenue with fewer resources, they should consider empowering their legal department to accelerate deals and drive value.

More than 50% of organizations Opens a new window  report losing revenue due to contracting inefficiencies, and 99% report not having the right technology to improve their contract processes. Investing in effective tools reduces contract turnaround time and increases the legal department’s productivity. The faster legal can approve deals, the sooner your company can realize revenue, which is vital in our current economic climate.

Long Review Cycles Are Costly

Contracts are lengthy and complex, and every clause needs to be evaluated for risk and value. While you can’t rush the process, the longer reviews take, the more they cost. For example, contract review turnaround time can add a week to a new product launch, causing significant revenue losses for each day the product is not on the market. Or businesses may agree on a deal, but the legal review could take months, delaying much-needed revenue recognition.

Many legal departments manually conduct reviews, which are laborious, expensive and prone to error. Manual reviews also burden already overworked legal professionals. According to Axiom’s 2022 In-House Counsel Survey ReportOpens a new window , nearly half of lawyers report being very or extremely stressed or burned out. As a result, in-house legal departments suffer from significant turnover, generating more work for the remaining team.

Additionally, when your highest-paid lawyers spend hours reading documents rather than negotiating business terms or providing legal advice, you lose significant value.

Leveraging AI-powered legal tech for contract management provides a solution to these challenges by accelerating contract approvals while lightening workloads and allowing legal professionals to accomplish more high-value work.

Improve Review Efficiency

Legal departments can discover immediate ROI by automating the most tedious, time-consuming review and negotiation tasks.

Contract review requires extensive person-hours to adequately mitigate risk and inform decision-making. The task is daunting, especially at scale. AI expedites the process by reviewing every line to extract relevant data, identify inconsistencies and flag potential risks and issues — details that overworked legal professionals may unintentionally overlook.

Instead of sorting through contracts, legal professionals can concentrate on revenue-driving tasks such as analyzing results, crafting competitive strategies and maintaining favorable business relationships. The streamlined process reduces review time, effort and cost and accelerates sales velocity.

Standardize Best Practices

Legal departments create playbooks to standardize definitions, preferred negotiation positions and best practices. They can use that framework to train AI to enforce company-specific parameters when reviewing incoming contracts. This training helps ensure all agreements align with business expectations.

Rules-based AI also institutionalizes collective knowledge. Legal departments constantly need to train new staff, a long and expensive process with limited ROI. AI applies and retains information in perpetuity, so when people leave, the company doesn’t lose that valuable knowledge. New employees can use AI to learn the company’s negotiation framework and make edits in line with company policy, yielding better results in less time.

Mitigate Risk

With hundreds to thousands of contracts, prioritization becomes challenging. Manual processes require the same time and attention for each document review, even if the agreement contains low risk.

AI can conduct a comprehensive risk assessment that was previously only possible when an experienced attorney reviewed the agreement. The technology flags potentially risky clauses and ranks them by severity so attorneys know how to prioritize their efforts. The assessment reduces escalations so senior lawyers can perform more high-value work.

Legal professionals can also use AI to identify ambiguous terms and suggest appropriate replacements or simplify and auto-insert preferable language, reducing risk and saving time.

Accelerate Negotiations

AI identifies how and where negotiated agreements deviate from standards and proposes substantiated changes. In minutes, automated contract review solutions automatically apply the company’s preferred positions to each contract in the form of fully redlined and annotated contracts.

The markup enables reviewers of all skill levels to recognize which clauses require attention. Rather than comparing document versions, senior team members can concentrate on applying their knowledge and expertise to find solutions to specific issues. The streamlined redlining process significantly reduces the first-pass review of contract negotiations.

Increase Sales Velocity

Standardizing the contract negotiation process and making the legal playbook accessible shorten the approval process, allowing business units outside the legal department more autonomy without compromising quality or introducing risk.

With an automated markup, procurement and sales teams can be confident in their contracts and spend less time waiting for legal review. The shortened process enables the company to win and close more deals faster, driving higher and faster revenue.

A Note About Generative AI

Generative AI creates exciting new prospects for contract management, but the technology is still being vetted. One significant concern — generative AI could potentially introduce errors in legal documents. Existing algorithms sometimes experience “hallucinations,” which can be extremely problematic in the legal space. A recent high-profile case involved a lawyer submitting a brief with fake casesOpens a new window  generated by generative AI.

Generative AI may struggle to understand context and nuance specific to a firm or business’s contracts. Depending on the training data set, generated content may be counter to best practices or not applicable to the circumstances.

Privacy and confidentiality pose another challenge. You must ensure AI will not include confidential information in a response.

Generative AI will revolutionize the way legal professionals work, but that time is not here yet. In the meantime, legal teams should look to more mature AI solutions built specifically for legal. Many of these more robust, proprietary AI options rely on rules-based systems, meaning the AI makes decisions and applies appropriate changes aligning with predetermined rules, such as an established contract playbook.

Best Practices for Leveraging AI in Contract Management

To effectively leverage AI in contract management, you must implement the technology thoughtfully and intentionally. General counsels should follow these best practices.

Selection and implementation

• Define clear objectives for contract management.
• Identify business needs to guide the selection of AI-powered contract management tools.
• Ensure data privacy and security in tools and practices.
• Train and upskill employees to effectively use the technology.

Contract management tools in practice

• Use AI to automate rote tasks and reduce workloads.
• Leverage AI to understand document structure and context and extract actionable insights at scale.
• Monitor and measure performance to adjust processes and tools as needed.

Don’t Forget the Humans

While AI is valuable, it won’t replace lawyers altogether. Business leaders and general counsels need to prioritize human-centered AI, allowing humans – not computers – to dictate processes. AI-powered technology should meet the legal team’s needs to make their lives easier, not add additional steps. The right solution can reduce workloads and allow time for more value-added work, which correlates with less burnout and better job satisfaction.

Budgets and legal professionals are stretched thin in this challenging macroeconomic environment. While AI-powered contract management solutions require some upfront costs, they quickly create significant ROI. Legal departments can harness the power of AI to unlock maximum contract value, accelerate sales velocity, drive growth and revenue and address workforce challenges, all of which are imperative to surviving an economic slow period.

Tasken eOffice, researched and built by Opus Solution, a Business consultant in Vietnam, is an internal task management system as well as automatic approval processes, an online and user-friendly system, allowing businesses to operate more efficiently than ever before. Using new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data, blockchain technology, available on multiple platforms and integrated with tools that businesses already, Tasken provides access to all employees, making it easy for them to keep track of their assigned tasks, necessary documents or requests that need to be approved, with just a few simple steps on the computer, can be done at any time, anywhere.

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All smart contracts on Ethereum are open-source, meaning that their source code is publicly available and can be viewed and audited by anyone (though they sometimes need to be decompiled first). While this offers some levels of transparency, it also exposes vulnerabilities in the smart contract code, potentially enabling hackers and malicious users to compromise them.

Due to the increasing complexity of smart contracts, security issues and bugs are quite common, especially in cutting-edge applications. Therefore, it is crucial to conduct regular audits to identify and address any vulnerabilities. It is also important to understand the nuances of smart contract security and implement best practices to mitigate potential risks.

This article explains smart contract audits and how they contribute to enhancing smart contract security.

What Are Smart Contracts?

Smart contracts are self-executing contracts with the terms of the agreement directly written into lines of code. These contracts automatically execute predefined actions once certain conditions are met.

The code runs on distributed ledger technology, such as blockchain. This offers several benefits, including:

• Transparency;
• Eliminating the need for intermediaries;
• Reducing costs compared to traditional contract processes.

Each party doesn’t need to trust the other. All they need to do is verify that the code does what it’s supposed to do.

What Is a Smart Contract Security Audit?

A smart contract security audit is a comprehensive review process that assesses the security of the smart contract code and identifies potential vulnerabilities within it. These audits also often check for inefficiencies and simply incorrect code, even if they don’t pose direct security threats.

The audit is conducted by experienced security professionals who specialize in blockchain technology. Their main objective is to identify any potential security flaws or coding errors that may lead to potential breaches or exploits.

Why Smart Contract Security Audits Are Important

Smart contracts are not immune to security flaws. In fact, the nascent nature of the technology makes them particularly vulnerable. Furthermore, any coding errors or vulnerabilities can have severe consequences, such as financial losses or exposure to sensitive information.

It is important to note that if the security of a smart contract is breached and funds are stolen, recovering them can be extremely difficult due to the irreversible nature of blockchain transactions. This further emphasizes the significance of conducting a smart contract audit.

In essence, conducting a security audit provides assurance to the users that the deployed contracts have been thoroughly reviewed and are free from any exploitable vulnerabilities (assuming the auditor didn’t miss anything major). It helps prevent potential attacks and ensures the integrity of the smart contract ecosystem.

Other benefits of smart contract security audit include:

• Early audits in the development lifecycle can prevent costly errors post-deployment;
• Security auditors manually verify smart contract code, which helps avoid negative consequences;
• Audits provide assurance of asset security to all owners in decentralized applications;
• Comprehensive auditing produces analytical reports with vulnerability details and mitigation recommendations;
• Potential increases in efficiency and functionality if the auditor notices imperfect code.

7 Most Popular Forms of Smart Contract Attacks and How to Mitigate Them

One of the most important ways to avoid smart contract vulnerabilities is to know the most common problems and how to prevent them.

There are a number of security vulnerabilities that are more commonly found in smart contracts. Here are the seven most popular forms of smart contract attacks and some effective strategies to mitigate them:

Reentrancy Attacks

Reentrancy attack vectors exist due to the imperative execution of Solidity smart contracts. When a contract makes an external call to another contract, the calling contract’s execution is paused until the call returns.

This opens up the possibility of an infinite loop, allowing a malicious contract to withdraw resources without updating the balance. Multiple types of reentrancy attacks exist, including single-function, cross-function, cross-contract, and read-only reentrancy attacks.

To mitigate this vulnerability, developers must carefully design external calls and ensure the contract’s state is checked and updated appropriately. Adding a reentrancy guard can prevent multiple functions from executing simultaneously. Audit tools like Slither, Mythril, and Securify can help identify different types of reentrancy vulnerabilities.

Oracle Manipulation

Smart contracts rely on oracles to access and consume external data from off-chain systems. Manipulated or incorrect oracle data can trigger the execution of smart contracts erroneously, leading to potential exploitation.

Attackers sometimes distort oracle prices and then use complex smart contracts called flash loans to drastically increase their principal and thus the amount of money that they can steal.

To mitigate this issue, developers can use decentralized oracles like Chainlink or Tellor or even multiple oracles, which can provide accurate data and deter attackers from interfering with the data.

Gas Griefing

Gas griefing occurs when a user sends the required gas to execute a smart contract but not enough to execute subcalls. If the contract fails to check the availability of required gas for subcalls, it can significantly impact the application’s logic.

Unfortunately, there is no effective technique to prevent gas griefing entirely. Developers can code the contract to set the amount of gas to be sent, reducing the likelihood of this attack. However, a rise in gas costs may lead to transaction failures.

Transaction Order Dependence Attacks (Frontrunning)

Smart contracts become publicly visible as pending transactions, enabling miners to choose transactions with the highest gas fees. This creates an opportunity for attackers to front-run transactions by submitting an identical transaction but with a higher gas fee. These attacks are almost always usually performed by bots, supplemented with information from miners processing transactions.

For example, when a user tries to make a large swap on a decentralized exchange (DEX) but doesn’t set a slippage limit (the amount the trader is willing to lose to price impact), bots can swoop in and front-run the transaction. The bot would submit a massive buy transaction with a higher gas fee so that it is verified before the trader’s transaction, making the asset’s price increase significantly. Next, the trader’s transaction goes through at the inflated price. Finally, the bot sells all the tokens it bought at a profit, bringing the price right back down.

To try to prevent frontrunning attacks, developers can choose to accept transactions with a gas price below a predetermined threshold. Alternatively, a commit-and-reveal scheme can be implemented, where a user first submits a solution hash instead of the cleartext solution to avoid frontrunners’ interference.

Frontrunning is most easily prevented on the user side by setting low slippage. A simple warning pop-up explaining slippage before users make trades is often helpful in preventing frontrunning.

Force-Feeding Attacks

Developers cannot prevent smart contracts from receiving Ether (ETH), the native token of Ethereum. This makes force-feeding attacks possible, in which an attacker tries to manipulate a contract’s Ether balance to change the expected balance relied upon by the contract’s internal code.

To mitigate force-feeding attacks, developers should avoid using a contract’s balance as a check or guard within a function.

Timestamp Dependence

This vulnerability happens when the smart contract relies on the value of the block timestamp value to execute an operation. Due to the distributed nature of the Ethereum platform, timestamp values used within smart contracts might not always be synchronized across all nodes.

To avoid this vulnerability, developers should refrain from using ‘block.timestamp’ as a control or logic check or as a source of randomness.

Denial of Service (DoS) Attacks

Smart contracts are susceptible to denial of service (DoS) attacks, where an attacker overloads the system to block other contracts from executing or manipulating values for personal gain. This can disrupt auction results or financial transactions.

To deter DoS attacks, developers can simply make them costly for attackers. Implementing time-lock puzzles and increasing gas fees can increase an attacker’s costs and discourage them from executing DoS attacks.

The Bottom Line: Don’t Skimp Out on Smart Contract Audits

In the fast-paced world built on smart contracts and blockchain technology, ensuring the security of these self-executing contracts is paramount. A smart contract security audit plays a crucial role in safeguarding users’ assets and maintaining the integrity of the ecosystem.

By identifying vulnerabilities through rigorous code analysis and implementing best practices and mitigation techniques, developers can significantly reduce the risks associated with the deployment of smart contracts.

Ultimately, by prioritizing smart contract security, individuals and businesses can fully harness the potential of this transformative technology without compromising their security.

Tasken eOffice, researched and built by Opus Solution, a Business consultant in Vietnam, is an internal task management system as well as automatic approval processes, an online and user-friendly system, allowing businesses to operate more efficiently than ever before. Using new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data, blockchain technology, available on multiple platforms and integrated with tools that businesses already, Tasken provides access to all employees, making it easy for them to keep track of their assigned tasks, necessary documents or requests that need to be approved, with just a few simple steps on the computer, can be done at any time, anywhere.

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Managing contracts is an overlooked form of management. Managers interact frequently with employees, and some of those discussions and situations naturally relate to compensation. Some of these conversations will deal with contract management. Other times, businesses need to manage contract agreements with other businesses. It’s not talked about much, but contract management is an important business topic. If you’re unsure of how the contract management process works, it’s important to understand the basics.

What is contract management, and why is it important?

Contract management is the process of managing contract creation, execution, and analysis to maximize operational and financial performance at an organization, all while reducing financial risk. Organizations encounter an ever-increasing amount of pressure to reduce costs and improve company performance. Contract management proves to be a very time-consuming element of business, which facilitates the need for an effective and automated contract management system.

The fundamentals of contract management

When two companies wish to do business with each other, a contract specifies the activities entered into by both organizations and the terms through which they will each fulfill their parts of the agreement. Contracts affect business profitability in a very large way due to the emphasis on revenue and expenses.

When a contract is phrased poorly, one organization might lose countless thousands of dollars over a simple technicality they lacked the resources to identify. Effective contract management can ultimately create a powerful business relationship and pave the road to greater profitability over the long term, but only when managed correctly. It’s a good idea to include a legal department or a lawyer in contract management discussions. The precise wording of contracts is crucial to contract management.

Contract management also applies to managing different contracts with freelancers or employees. These occasionally require management and alterations that help both parties.

Generally, contract management involves a few key stages. There’s the early stages or pre-award phase. This is all the work that takes place prior to a contract being given to someone, whether it be a business or an employee. The middle stage is when the process is awarded. This includes all the paperwork to make the agreement final. Third, there’s the post-award stage. This is where a lot of contract management and maintenance comes in.

Those three basic stages are a simple way of looking at contract management in three phases, but the process is more complicated than that and can be viewed in more stages depending on how detailed a view you’re taking. We’ll discuss a deeper view of the process later.

Elements of successful contract management

It isn’t enough that an organization has professionals in place to handle contract management. Employees must be augmented with the presence of processes and software companions to satisfy increasing compliance and analytical needs. When a contract management strategy is successfully implemented, organizations can expect to see:

• The expected business benefits and financial returns are being realized.
• The supplier is cooperative and responsive to the organization’s needs.
• The organization encounters no contract disputes or surprises.
• The delivery of services is satisfactory to both parties.

Activities that comprise good contract management

The foundation for contract management relies on the implementation of successful post-award and upstream activities. During the pre-award stage, employees should focus on the reason for establishing the contract and if the supplier can fulfill the terms of the agreement.

Additional consideration is needed to understand how the contract will work once awarded. Avoiding unwanted surprises requires careful research and clarity of purpose in the actual contract.

Contract management requires a level of flexibility for both parties involved and a willingness to adapt contract terms to reflect any changing circumstances. Problems are inevitable, which means organizations must be prepared for the unexpected and be able to adjust contract terms when needed.

What are the stages of the contract management process?

While there are many components of contract management, we can summarize the process by breaking it into five clear stages: creation, collaboration, signing, tracking and renewal.

We can further identify individual steps within the stages. In all, we can break the process down into nine steps, each of which contributes to one of the five overarching stages. This makes it easier to manage the end-of-quarter crunch that tends to happen when it’s time for a new round of contracts. Here are the steps of each stage:

Creation

1. Initial requests. The contract management process begins by identifying contracts and pertinent documents to support the contract’s purpose.

2. Authoring contracts. Writing a contract by hand is a time-consuming activity, but through the use of automated contract management systems, the process can become quite streamlined.

Collaboration

3. Negotiating the contract. After drafting the contract, employees should be able to compare versions of the contract and note any discrepancies to reduce negotiation time.

Signing

4. Approving the contract. Getting management approval is the step where most bottlenecks occur. Users can preemptively combat this by creating tailored approval workflows, including parallel and serial approvals to keep decisions moving at a rapid pace.

5. Execution of the contract. Executing the contract allows users to control and shorten the signature process through the use of electronic signature and fax support.

Tracking

6. Obligation management. This requires a great deal of project management to ensure deliverables are being met by key stakeholders and the value of the contract isn’t deteriorating throughout its early phases of growth.

7. Revisions and amendments. Gathering all documents pertinent to the contract’s initial drafting is a difficult task. When overlooked items are found, systems must be in place to amend the original contract.

8. Auditing and reporting. Contract management does not mean drafting a contract and then pushing it into the filing cabinet without another thought. Contract audits are important in determining both organizations’ compliance with the terms of the agreement and any possible problems that might arise.

Renewal

9. Renewing. Manual contract management methods can often result in missed renewal opportunities and lost business revenue. Automating the process allows an organization to identify renewal opportunities and create new contracts.

Much of contract management comes down to handling these nine steps. Contract lifecycle management is critical. As different contract types go through their various stages, contract managers need to monitor any potential changes or breaches of contract. If an employee or business is unhappy with their contract, it might be worth making alterations to the contract. It’s important to follow contractual obligations while also making sure both sides of the contract are happy.

There are many times during the contract management process when lifecycle management becomes important. Vendor performance and risk management are important considerations during the management of contracts. For example, if a vendor fails to meet their contractual obligations, you may need to rework the contract or enforce some disciplinary measure.

What is contract management software?

While the tradition is to manage contracts manually through folder and file cabinet storage, the practice is riddled with inefficiencies that can only detract from an organization’s overall efficiency.

Contract management software is an electronic approach to solving these problems. Contract management software suites can organize all contract paperwork. The software can put signing and renewing on an electronic calendar that is easy to manage, and it can help you track and allocate resources related to the contract management process.

Integration with an automated contract management service can free up countless man-hours and automate countless processes associated with managing a contract, thus creating more value for a company.

“Contract management software stores key information about contracts relating to providers, commercial leases and licensing agreements,” said Robert Powell, CEO and founder of the Rob Powell Biz Blog. “The overall purpose of contract management software is to streamline administrative tasks by creating a centralized and uniform record for each contract’s processes.”

Using contract management software can make it easier to monitor complex contracts without relying solely on paperwork.

“The most important aspect of contract management software is that it allows employees in multiple locations to access contracts in one place,” Powell said.

Who uses contract management software?

This software will primarily see use in departments that directly deal with creating, tracking and signing contracts. This is often offloaded to the HR department, which manages the vein of employment accounting. The software can also involve managers who need to complete vital processes. Since it can integrate with calendars and communication software, HR can use the heavy-lifting components of the software suite, while the rest helps to loop in managers and personnel who are needed for specific aspects of signing or negotiation.

How to become a contract manager

Not all universities offer a degree in contract management, but some schools do. Getting that education is one option, but there are other business degrees that position you for success in the industry. From there, you want to add contract management experience in some form.

“With a bachelor’s degree and a few years of experience in the field, you can apply and test for certification through the NCMA (National Contract Management Association),” said Jared Weitz, CEO and founder of United Capital Source. “Along with education and credentials, a contract manager needs to have solid communication and writing skills and a keen eye for organization and deadline management.”

A law degree can also be beneficial to this career path. Legal knowledge is critical in managing contracts. Contract management and negotiation both rely on legal knowledge and expertise.

If you want to become a full-time contract manager, it’s a good idea to connect with other contract managers to learn how they entered their current role. There’s no one set way to become a contract manager, but business experience is important when becoming a contract manager.

How much money does a contract manager make?

Understandable, the salary for a contract manager varies by qualifications and location. According to PayScale,  the average annual salary for a contract manager is $80,151. The site lists Northrop Grumman Corporation, Accenture, and the Raytheon Company as a few of the most lucrative companies for contract managers.

Contract managers can also work their way up to a senior contract manager, contract director or a contract administrator. Contract analyst is another common career path within the contract management field.

The bottom line

Contract managers help manage the legal and financial aspects of contracts with businesses or employees. For companies that make frequent contractual agreements, hiring a contract manager can be a good idea.

Tasken eOffice, researched and built by Opus Solution, a Business consultant in Vietnam, is an internal task management system as well as automatic approval processes, an online and user-friendly system, allowing businesses to operate more efficiently than ever before. Using new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data, blockchain technology, available on multiple platforms and integrated with tools that businesses already, Tasken provides access to all employees, making it easy for them to keep track of their assigned tasks, necessary documents or requests that need to be approved, with just a few simple steps on the computer, can be done at any time, anywhere.

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Implementing a systematic transformation of both tools and processes, allows legal departments to manage contracts effectively.

First, investing in the right contract management tools is paramount, not only to foster efficiency but also to help ensure business continuity and mitigate business risks.

Increasing workloads, together with the risks associated with managing contracts manually, contract management systems become “critical to survival” and help legal departments reduce risks while improving collaboration within the business.

Here are a few examples of best practices to use when implementing contract management tools:

1. Automated contract creation tools to streamline workflow and mitigate risks 

An effective document automation tool significantly reduces effort and risk associated with manually drafting contracts and legal documents.

You can create and maintain a library of Word-based templates for contracts and colleagues in other departments can select a template for the type of contract they need to create.

By standardising contract language, clauses and design in the templates that you approve for use, you ensure compliance across contracts used by the business.

As any updates you make are automatically shared with users. New laws, policies or regulations are incorporated immediately, reducing the likelihood of legal and financial risks.

2. Collaboration tools to accelerate negotiations, reviews and approvals 

To optimise collaboration, improve reliability, manage time better and get rid of inefficiencies, it is important to optimise and accelerate contract review, editing and management.

With a contract collaboration tool, you can invite stakeholders to access a contract, make changes, add comments and decide whether to accept or reject suggested edits from others and obtain a comparative summary of the versions.

The legal department can set up dynamic workflows that automate the distribution of the document to the relevant stakeholders. By transforming the draft into a PDF document and activating the validation workflow, in-house lawyers avoid having to follow up with stakeholders for approval, thus saving time and increasing efficiency.

3. E-signature tools 

If you are looking to digitise contract processes, it is nearly impossible to keep e-signature tools out of the tech implementation plan.

With an effective e-signature tool, you can execute contracts quicker, and abolish the legal department bottleneck. You can collect signatures on contracts, agreements and legal documents quickly and securely anywhere on any device, while protecting confidential information.

E-signatures cut the costs of printing, faxing, scanning, express delivery, and the risks involved with “print-sign-scan” by always keeping your data secure and private.

Going fully digital for contract management is the way forward in an increasingly complex and fastpaced business environment. By removing bottlenecks and empowering the business to self-serve, you ensure compliance while strengthening the position of the legal department as a competent business partner within the company.

Tasken eOffice, researched and built by Opus Solution, a Business consultant in Vietnam, is an internal task management system as well as automatic approval processes, an online and user-friendly system, allowing businesses to operate more efficiently than ever before. Using new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data, blockchain technology, available on multiple platforms and integrated with tools that businesses already, Tasken provides access to all employees, making it easy for them to keep track of their assigned tasks, necessary documents or requests that need to be approved, with just a few simple steps on the computer, can be done at any time, anywhere.

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Established in 1991, Ajinomoto Vietnam Company is a 100% foreign invested company belonging to Ajinomoto Group, Japan with an initial investment value of more than 8 million USD. Over 30 years of operation, the Company has constantly developed, expanded its business network and increased its production capacity. From the first product, AJI-NO-MOTO®, over the past 30 years, Ajinomoto Vietnam has always made constant efforts in research and development to bring a wide range of spices, food products, drinks and nutritious food with the best quality, safe, suitable for the taste and needs of Vietnamese people.

Currently, Ajinomoto Vietnam has two representative offices in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, two manufacturing plants including Ajinomoto Bien Hoa Factory operating since 1991 and Ajinomoto Long Thanh Factory operating since 2008 and the 3rd factory also in Long Thanh has started construction since 2016. In addition, the company has 3 large distribution centers and branches spread over 63 provinces. The total number of employees working at Ajinomoto Vietnam Company is more than 2,300 people.

To build a system with such a large number of employees was a challenge for our company. However, Opus is very pleased that the project ended successfully with good results.

Online Approval & Contract Management System

The Online Approval & Contract management system – a part of Tasken eOffice Solution – is a system that allows employees to create a new request for approval of the Contract and accompanying documents without having to print it out in writing, then submit it to each department for approval manually. This system will help employees upload soft copies of contracts and select approvers just through mouse clicks. In the context of the current stressful Covid-19 epidemic, which requires most businesses to have employees work from home, this system is really an extremely necessary thing.

Online Approval & Contract Management System effectively manages the external grant request submission and approval process for multiple activity types in an ever-shifting regulatory environment. This system allows organizations to easily track and report on a variety of request activities, providing requestors, approvers, and administrators full visibility into the grant processing lifecycle. It tracks the entire workflow of a grant request including registration, request submission, review and approval, contracting and payment, outcomes and financial reconciliation, and custom reporting.

With Online Approval & Contract Management System, it’s easier than ever to accept requests, forward them to the right team/person and provide an overview of the requests made so as to keep users notified. It leads to improved performance of employees and boosts an organization’s capability to handle service requests in a professional manner.

Training session for employees of the corporation to use the system

Ajinomoto Vietnam Company is a 100% foreign invested company belonging to Ajinomoto Group, Japan. As we all know, Japanese culture in business always emphasizes discipline and perfectionism at work. Japanese people are very disciplined about time and commitment. In the process of working, they spend a lot of time exchanging information and negotiating. These are also the challenges our company needs to overcome when cooperating with such a large corporation. In order to pass the Japanese quality and allow the system officially golive, Opus has undergone many tests from Ajinomoto Vietnam such as security tests, load tests, etc.

Besides the difficulties, our company considers this an opportunity for us to learn, accumulate experience to increasingly improve our products. As a Vietnam business consultant, Opus Solution hopes to have the opportunity to cooperate with companies, especially in the context that businesses are gradually moving towards digital transformation. When working with us, you can rest assured, we always make sure the product delivered to you is the best product. Not only accompanying your company in the cooperation process, we will also continue to be by your side in the later stages to support the warranty, advise on solutions to make our relationship progress well and continued to achieve success in the future.

Tasken eOffice is an enterprise platform easy-to-use, online company task management software, that will enable your company to be more productive than ever. Available modules such as HRM, BPA/BPM, Project management, CRM… are ready for deployed and integrated with company existed tools, Tasken provides access to task lists at any time, from anywhere. Developed, operated and owned by OPUS SOLUTION

More detail about this solution: You can visit here https://tasken.io

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