Perhaps you have ever been asked to review an agreement at the start of a project only to determine some of the details are missing? Have you at any time enter into the middle of a project only find out that the service levels in the agreement are not being fulfilled? Think about contracts where service levels are not even being tracked? It makes you ask problem
Generally there are too many situations where organizations spend lots of money on legal fees and resource amount of time in the negotiation of an agreement, only to never look at it again. The whole purpose of discussing service levels in a contract shall be able to hold the supplier given the task of a minimum level of performance. If no person is heading to track against those service levels, then how does one know they are being met? If an organization negotiates prices for services or products, what is a reasonable time-frame before those rates need to be reviewed for validity?
Deal management should be an essential part of any project and any business. You do not desire a fancy system or repository, simply a simple method of tracking the details of your contracts and being proactive in their revival. I have had clients that are still buying IT equipment from the same agreements that were negotiated 5-10 years in the past. Not only have companies significantly increased the service levels that they supply since then, but the price a vast amount of the equipment has eliminated down significantly. This company is not only giving money on the desk, nonetheless they are spending valuable useful resource time supporting equipment that other suppliers would be supporting for these people, at a lower cost than their current contract.
It is imperative that organizations and projects fully understand which contracts are active, which contracts are springing up for renewal and when, and what is the value of each of the organization's contracts. There is other pertinent information that should be tracked as well, but by knowing which contracts are expiring, when they expire and the value, organizations can take a proactive procedure to managing those agreements. Priorities can be established as to where useful resource time should be put in in re-establishing those agreement and time can be invested in doing enough research in order that the re-negotiated deals provide more quality to the organization.
Managing contracts is not rocket science, neither is a specific skill set required. It only requires the capability to manage existing information within an arranged fashion and anticipate changes in the marketplace that will be good for your company and your project.
Seems like a quite easy way to provide additional value to your organization, doesn't it?
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