Get Instant Access
to This Blueprint

Vendor Management icon

Understand Common IT Contract Provisions to Negotiate More Effectively

Avoid the pitfalls and gotchas lurking in the shadows!

  • Contract reviews are tedious, and reviewers may lack the skills and experience to effectively complete the process.
  • Vendors have a repository of contract terms and conditions that are road-tested and often biased in their favor.
  • Vendors change their contracts frequently through hyperlinked documents without notifying customers, and the onus is on you to stay compliant.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

  • Focus on the terms and conditions, not just the price. Too often, organizations focus on the price contained within their contracts, neglecting to address core terms and conditions that can end up costing multiples of the initial price.
  • Lawyers can’t ensure you get the best business deal. Lawyers tend to look at general terms and conditions for legal risk and may not understand IT-specific components and business needs.

Impact and Result

  • Align contract language to meet IT and business needs.
  • Communicate more effectively with Legal and the vendors.
  • Identify and reduce contractual and performance risk.
  • Understand the relationship between contract provisions.
  • Negotiate more effectively.

Understand Common IT Contract Provisions to Negotiate More Effectively Research & Tools

Start here – read the Executive Brief

Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should employ a systematic process for reviewing contracts, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

1. Assess contract terms and conditions

Review and assess your IT contracts for vendor-biased terms and conditions, and gain tips for getting vendors to take on their fair share of risk and become more accountable.


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.

10.0/10


Overall Impact

$16,375


Average $ Saved

11


Average Days Saved

Client

Experience

Impact

$ Saved

Days Saved

Denver Water

Workshop

10/10

$32,499

20

My IT Managers received an intense crash-course in IT contracting. Phil and Steve were able to cover the topics in an engaging way. As the days pro... Read More

Kappa Delta Sorority

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

2

Best: The open dialogue about our vendor performance and ways we can work with them going forward. Understanding the impact of new SOW's on the M... Read More

Association of American Medical Colleges

Guided Implementation

10/10

$117K

110

I have no complaints at all. The session was very helpful and informative. Thank you very much

Foley & Lardner LLP

Workshop

10/10

$61,999

10

Both Aadil Nanji and Steve Jeffery were very knowledgeable, presented their material really well and were very focused on delivering value based on... Read More

Jet Support Services, Inc.

Guided Implementation

10/10

$70,034

5

A terrific, information-rich 40 minutes. As usual, Scott did a great job answering the questions I asked and shared insights to answer the questio... Read More


Workshop: Understand Common IT Contract Provisions to Negotiate More Effectively

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: Assess Contract Terms and Conditions

The Purpose

  • Understand IT contract clauses, improve risk identification, and be more effective at negotiating contract terms.

Key Benefits Achieved

  • Increased awareness of how contract provisions relate to each other.
  • Demystification of legalese and legal concepts.
  • Increased ability to seek assistance from internal parties (e.g. Legal, Risk, and Procurement).

Activities

Outputs

1.1

Review the Contract Review Tool.

1.2

Review the Contract Playbook template.

  • Partial completion of the template
1.3

Review 35 contract provisions and reinforce key learnings with exercises (spread across three days)

  • Exercise results and debrief

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.

MEMBER RATING

10.0/10
Overall Impact

$16,375
Average $ Saved

11
Average Days Saved

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.

Read what our members are saying

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.

Need Extra Help?
Speak With An Analyst

Get the help you need in this 1-phase advisory process. You'll receive 2 touchpoints with our researchers, all included in your membership.

  • Call 1: Review a contract for common pitfalls and gotchas and maximize protections for your organization.
  • Call 2: Discuss next steps for the contract and any applicable negotiation required with vendor.

Authors

Phil Bode

Joel Martin

Alex Chen

Visit our IT Cost Optimization Center
Over 100 analysts waiting to take your call right now: 1-519-432-3550 x2019