Negotiate SaaS Agreements That Are Built to Last

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Internal stakeholders usually have different – and often conflicting – needs and expectations that require careful facilitation and management.
SaaS solutions bring forth a unique form of “switching costs” that can make a decision to migrate solutions financially, technically, and politically painful.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

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

Impact and Result

Take control of your SaaS contract negotiations from the beginning.
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 SaaS contract.
Prioritize crucial terms and conditions to negotiate.

Negotiate SaaS Agreements That Are Built to Last Research & Tools

Start here – read the Executive Brief

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

Negotiate SaaS Agreements That Are Built to Last – Executive Brief

1. Gather requirements

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

2. Redline contract

Redline the proposed SaaS 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

Cross Country Mortgage, Inc.

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

State of Montana ITSD

Guided Implementation

9/10

$2,458

Phil has been very helpful to the State of Montana, and we appreciate his expertise in this area. Phil has also been very willing to answer all ou... Read More

Bapco

Guided Implementation

7/10

N/A

Workshop: Negotiate SaaS Agreements That Are Built to Last

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.

Business Use Case.

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.

Module 2: Define the Business Use Case and Build a Stakeholder Team

The Purpose

Define the business use case and build a stakeholder team.

Key Benefits Achieved

Create a business use case to document functional and non-functional requirements.
Build an internal cross-functional stakeholder team to negotiate the contract.

Activities

Outputs

2.1

Establish a negotiation team and define roles.

RASCI Matrix

2.2

Write a communication plan.

Communications Plan

2.3

Complete a business use case.

SaaS TCO Calculator
Business Use Case

Module 3: Redline the 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.

SaaS Terms and Conditions Evaluation Tool

3.3

Match to business and technical requirements.

SaaS Contract Negotiation Terms Prioritization Checklist

3.4

Redline the agreement.

Module 4: Build a Negotiation Strategy

The Purpose

Create a negotiation strategy.

Key Benefits Achieved

Controlled communication established.
Negotiation tactics chosen.
Negotiation timeline plotted.

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

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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: Create negotiation team
Call 2: Write communication plan
Call 3: Document use case

Guided Implementation 2: Redline contract

Call 1: Review and redline general terms and conditions
Call 2: Review and redline SaaS-specific terms and conditions

Guided Implementation 3: Negotiate contract

Call 1: Negotiate contract

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, author of The Tech Contracts Handbook, Attorney & Founder at Sycamore Legal, P.C.