Master Contract Review and Negotiation for Software Agreements

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Internal stakeholders usually have different – and often conflicting – needs and expectations that require careful facilitation and management.
Vendors have well-honed negotiating strategies. Without understanding your own position and leverage points, it’s difficult to withstand their persuasive – and sometimes pushy – tactics.
Software – and software licensing – is constantly changing, making it difficult to acquire and retain subject matter expertise.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

Conservatively, it’s possible to save 5% of the overall IT budget through comprehensive software contract review.
Focus on the terms and conditions, not just the price.
Learning to negotiate is crucial.

Impact and Result

Look at your contract holistically to find cost savings.
Guide communication between vendors and your organization for the duration of contract negotiations.
Redline the terms and conditions of your software contract.
Prioritize crucial terms and conditions to negotiate.

Master Contract Review and Negotiation for Software Agreements Research & Tools

Start here – read the Executive Brief

Read our concise Executive Brief to find out how to redline and negotiate your software agreement, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

Master Contract Review and Negotiation for Software Agreements – Executive Brief

1. Gather requirements

Build and manage your stakeholder team, then document your business use case.

2. Redline contract

Redline your proposed software contract.

3. Negotiate contract

Create a thorough negotiation plan.

Member Testimonials

After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve. See our top member experiences for this blueprint and what our clients have to say.

Client

Experience

Impact

$ Saved

Days Saved

Testimonial

ACS Ventures Inc.

Guided Implementation

8/10

$5,000

City Of Fort Collins

Guided Implementation

10/10

$12,395

Best --Ted led the discussion at my pace to ensure my questions were answered and the appropriate follow-up was made. He was always prepared and ... Read More

Arizona Department of Environmental Quality

Guided Implementation

9/10

N/A

British Columbia Transit

Guided Implementation

9/10

N/A

validated what we thought we knew it was in context validated gaps and deficiencies and identified new ones some ideas on next steps and how to ... Read More

U.S. Auto Parts Network, Inc.

Guided Implementation

9/10

N/A

U.S. Auto Parts Network, Inc.

Guided Implementation

8/10

N/A

Canpotex Limited

Guided Implementation

10/10

$2,000

QuikTrip

Guided Implementation

9/10

$12,733

QT Team on the call today would like more time to digest the comments from the contacts analyst before the call. If QT could have 1 week before di... Read More

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Workshop: Master Contract Review and Negotiation for Software Agreements

Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

Module 1: Collect and Review Data

The Purpose

Assemble documentation.

Key Benefits Achieved

Understand current position before going forward.

Activities

Outputs

1.1

Assemble existing contracts.

1.2

Document their strategic and tactical objectives.

1.3

Identify current status of the vendor relationship and any historical context.

1.4

Clarify goals for ideal future state.

Business Use Case

Module 2: Define Business Use Case and Build Stakeholder Team

The Purpose

Define business use case and build stakeholder team.

Key Benefits Achieved

Create business use case to document functional and nonfunctional requirements.
Build internal cross-functional stakeholder team to negotiate contract.

Activities

Outputs

2.1

Establish negotiation team and define roles.

RASCI Chart

2.2

Write communication plan.

Vendor Communication Management Plan

2.3

Complete business use case.

SaaS TCO Calculator
Software Business Use Case

Module 3: Redline Contract

The Purpose

Examine terms and conditions and prioritize for negotiation.

Key Benefits Achieved

Discover cost savings.
Improve agreement terms.
Prioritize terms for negotiation.

Activities

Outputs

3.1

Review general terms and conditions.

3.2

Review license- and application-specific terms and conditions.

Software Terms & Conditions Evaluation Tool

3.3

Match to business and technical requirements.

Software Buyer’s Checklist

3.4

Redline agreement.

Module 4: Build Negotiation Strategy

The Purpose

Create a negotiation strategy.

Key Benefits Achieved

Establish controlled communication.
Choose negotiation tactics.
Plot negotiation timeline.

Activities

Outputs

4.1

Review vendor- and application-specific negotiation tactics.

Contract Negotiation Tactics Playbook

4.2

Build negotiation strategy.

Controlled Vendor Communications Letter
Key Vendor Fiscal Year End Calendar

About Info-Tech

Info-Tech Research Group is the world’s fastest-growing information technology research and advisory company, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals.

We produce unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. We partner closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.

What Is a Blueprint?

A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your IT problems.

Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.

Table of Contents

Need Extra Help?
Speak With An Analyst

Get the help you need in this 3-phase advisory process. You'll receive 6 touchpoints with our researchers, all included in your membership.

Guided Implementation 1: Gather requirements

Call 1: Define business use case and build stakeholder team
Call 2: Evaluate initial proposal

Guided Implementation 2: Redline contract

Call 1: Review terms and conditions
Call 2: Validate requirements and incorporate into redlined contract

Guided Implementation 3: Negotiate contract

Call 1: Develop a negotiation strategy
Call 2: Review final proposal

Authors

Scott Bickley

Laura Trabucco

Contributors

Christiaan Murphy, Global Software Category Manager at CGI
Jeffery I. Gordon, SVP, author of Software Licensing Handbook & Mortgage Lending Vendor Operations Manager at BT&T
David W. Tollen, Attorney at Law & Founder at Sycamore Legal, P.C.