A lawyer can explain very precisely that a contract is a "written agreement" between "two or more parties" and how and when this agreement is legally valid. But a contract often stands for more.

You don't just conclude a contract for every appointment (‘to have lunch together tomorrow?’), contracts often contain agreements that have an interest in people inside and outside your organisation.

Managing contracts is about making contracts manageable. That sounds like you're going to sit on it. As if a contract is a wild monster and otherwise escapes. But a contract itself is a static document. Many organizations therefore think that securely storing contracts is enough to manage a contract (contract storage).

Others go a step further and put important metadata from the contract (such as the end date) in a list (contract registration). But storage or registration alone is not much use to you as a stakeholder.