Author: Barb Dossetter, Delivery Director

I was chatting with Bob Fawthrop (Bob Fawthrop Associates) yesterday as we were preparing the Contract Negotiations workshop at the Business as Unusual Conference and we were discussing the problems that most CIOs and IT Leaders had around this area. In many organisations, Procurement take the lead in negotiating contracts. Sometimes in their effort to reduce the price/cost down to the absolute minimum (I suspect a bonus lurking under here), they often sacrifice the very reason why IT chose that supplier. The workshop session is Contract Negotiation for CIOs because we believe CIOs have a vested interest in getting a contract that they can live with.

The stated intention in contract negotiation is usually to get a “win/win” situation, but often it comes out as “win/lose”. If you can’t figure out how your supplier is making a profit, then he probably isn’t. And ultimately, the customer (i.e you and I) suffer from poor service. One of our members changed employers and but retained the same outsourced service provider who was providing the same service – at least according to the contract. Imagine what it was like for him when he moved from a branded company with deep pockets, to a non branded organisation and moved from the A Account Management team to the Z team. And the price paid wasn’t that much different either! The team

Tags: Barb's Blog, Bob Fawthrop, Business as Unusual, Conference, Contract Negotiation, Procurement