**Tags:** #BusinessDecisionMaker ## A document is just a document A contract today is mostly useful as a matter of record. Great for reference, but a typical contract doesn't accomplish much beyond that. It has no built-in enforcement mechanisms and typically no metadata that can be used by other systems. The state of the art involves scanning documents with machine learning models to *infer* intent - a risky maneuver to rely on. This means that the rest of your business has to pick up the slack to perform or verify what your business actually needs, whether it is updating a purchase order, sending an email to your finance department, or asking your sales team for an update. ## Smart Legal Contracts create context A Smart Legal Contract defines states that can be associated with your agreement so that your contracts become more than just records; they can become living documents capable of running software. The software doesn't matter - it could just be to automate sending an email, or perhaps triggering the generation of an invoice. A SLC creates context around the actual status of your agreements. You're no longer reliant on needing to piece together the state of your business from a multitude of sources. ## Open Source and extensible Decombine SLC are open source Apache 2.0 licensed open source and use leading edge capabilities. Everything you use to put together your SLC can be re-used, as there is nothing proprietary involved, so it can be a very smart investment. For more details on this, see our [[SLC Design Guide]]. ## Getting started You can create a Membership for your organization or business free of charge at https://decombine.com. Read more about Membership at [[Membership]].