Helpful tips to make your strategic supplier relationships work really well

Over the last few decades, we have regularly been involved in designing or realigning SLAs (Service Level Agreements) for highly complex projects to assure fit-for-purpose contracts and optimise strategic provider relationships. We are often also asked to design or realign…

Before signing up to new contracts – especially large ones – a round of pre-contractual due diligence is something that should never be skimped on, skirted around or ignored. This blog sets out essential steps to take before you walk into a…

Must-Know Elements for Building a Risk-Aware Procurement Strategy It has never been more important for your project to have a robust, tried and tested procurement strategy that you can rely on. Agreement on a roadmap for the way you conduct…

Our expert witness work in the High Courts often highlights problems with ERP project implementations. We receive and give evidence that explains what has gone wrong with the implementation of an ERP solution and why. Ironically, these unique insights into…

5 Must-Know Elements to Build a Strong Case for Contract Termination Terminating a strategic supplier contract early isn’t something you should do lightly. It poses a great many risks, not only due to the disruption terminating the contract will cause…

Understand the risks and rewards of each approach to procuring ERP software Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) procurement is one of the most ambitious and challenging undertakings for any organisation. The process of acquiring a single system that spans the entirety…

The single most important key critical element of successful delivery of externally commissioned services is being clear on ‘what good looks like’ to both you and your external service provider. However, in the many hundreds of external service delivery partnerships we…

Throughout this Intelligent Supplier series, we’ve explored eight key behaviours that define an Intelligent Supplier, highlighting how each trait contributes to a successful win-win partnership. The evidence is clear that the future of supplier–client relationships extends far beyond traditional transactional…

The Benefits and Risks of Moving to SaaS for Mission-Critical Applications We recently wrote an article on Moving from On-Premise to SaaS – How Insights from Disputes can Safeguard Your Organisation. While that article centres around the potential for disputes…

This is the penultimate paper in our series of articles on the ‘intelligent supplier’ and it focuses on service area domain expertise. In it, we discuss: • What is Service Area Domain Expertise? • What Service Area Domain Expertise Isn’t…

How Insights from SaaS Disputes Can Safeguard Your Organisation In this article, discover how to: Understand the Transition from On-Premise to SaaS Leverage Insights from SaaS Solutions Disputes Ensure a Smoother Transition Using Key Due Diligence Practices Identify Functionality Gaps…

Welcome to this, the seventh of nine articles in our in-depth series looking into the make-up, indicators and behaviours of an intelligent supplier – the practically innovative partner for your complex service delivery relationships. On reflection, I recognise that the…

Driving really strong and collaborative behaviours between you and your supplier for complex projects and services is a great achievement. Your own team’s competence in managing external providers to help accelerate the achievement of your business objectives, will be seen…

Managing Innovation – Welcome to article 5 in our series of 9 on the vitally important, but often overlooked, subject of the ‘intelligent supplier’ – what to look out for, what behaviours to support and what to avoid when it…

There are few things more important to the prospects for your complex/strategic projects than the need for you to find a strategic supplier partner that reflects your own ‘commitment to the cause’ (a critical friend supplier) – an ‘Intelligent Supplier’…

Welcome to the third article in our series on the collection of facets and intrinsic value of an Intelligent Supplier – what your supplier could be doing to ensure your relationship has a greater chance of success, and how you…

Any successful complex service delivery relationship requires both sides to consistently act in the best interests of the relationship – a collaboration between ‘intelligent clients’ and ‘intelligent suppliers’. However, in our experience, backed up by numerous independent reports on the…

Outsourcing, when executed effectively, can be a game-changer for organisations, offering cost savings and access to valuable specialised expertise. However, our own experience of being involved in nearly 600 strategic outsourcing relationships, reveals that this is an opportunity that is…

This article is the first of a series of nine articles dedicated to your Strategic Partner in a complex project service delivery relationship: the subject of the ‘Intelligent Supplier’. Both the mindset and behaviour of your Supplier are critical to…

Building a collaborative working relationship with your strategic suppliers can truly be a game changer for most organisations. You’ll already know from experience that when suppliers understand your goals and align with them, everything seems to run far more smoothly…

One of the most frustrating and stressful triggers within the world of complex outsourcing and solution integration projects is the challenge of in-flight contract changes. Here, the focus is not just on the mechanics of change, but on the degree…

With either cost reduction or competitive pressures taking a primary position in your organisation, you will know that if you are not moving forward, then you are falling behind. For this reason, it is important to continuously adapt to stay…

In this article we focus on a step by step guide for your legal team to craft clear, purpose-driven contract terms for a successful ERP procurement and implementation. Successful ERP Procurement & Implementation In our accelerated business environment, a comprehensive…

When things go wrong in complex outsourcing, service commissioning or system integration projects, the costs of both escalating the problem for resolution and its remediation, are usually significant. And, looking back over the hundreds of projects we’ve been involved with…

Court judgments are not just rulings for or against someone else. Insightful organisations use lessons learned from these to help inform their approach to improving clarity of requirement articulation on complex procurement projects. As around 85% of all client–supplier disputes…

The complexities of client/supplier relationships – between signing the contract and commencement of the implementation – can, in many cases, be distilled down to a key set of principles and ‘checklist’ of actions… these leads many to ask, “what is…

If you are considering a replacement systems integrator for your current or future project, lessons learned from past experiences can often help build a far more accurate picture of ‘what good looks like‘ to benchmark against in any new relationship.…

Deciding to terminate a strategic supplier contract before the end of its contract term, is a major undertaking. It poses a real risk of disrupting your organisation’s operations. It is also a significant drain on your time and potentially very…

Why read this post? It will help you sanity check your approach to buying digital transformation services and/or supporting solutions that may involve significant integration complexities. Why misunderstandings arise when buying digital transformation services In over 85% of the Expert…

Outsourced relationships can often be punctuated with opportunities for controversy. Having dealt with improving the performance of over 500 outsourcing relationships, evidence continues to teach us that more than 50% of these high-value contracts fail to achieve their expected outcomes…

The payment for services provided is a fundamental tenet of any contractual agreement, so the first question we’d ask, is ‘why?’. Why would a client organisation be looking to delay payment under a contract? If you are considering withholding payment…

To achieve optimum project performance in complex and strategic supplier relationships, you need to enlist the help of skilled people, placed in the right roles, while allowing them the freedom necessary to bring their skills and expertise to bear on…

Large, complex contract relationships are notoriously difficult to predict successful outcomes on. Many will make it through to a successful conclusion, some will fail spectacularly, and others will quietly underachieve. In this article we examine the smart way to use…

Joint working is often a product of financial necessity. However, it should also be viewed through a benefits lens – organisations coming together to generate and invest in much more innovative practices. Strategic alliances can be formed between multiple clients…

Do you find it tiresome when months are spent going back and forth between your legal team and certain suppliers, only to finalise contract terms that often bring no real benefit to your project or its business outcomes?   We…

Commercial trust in strategic supplier relationships concerns the way ‘on-the-ground’ behaviours impact the confidence parties have in one another. Essentially, doing what you say you’ll do, when you say you’ll do it, is a positive starting point for relationship building.…

One of the most common mistakes organisations make is not planning their vendor termination strategy as carefully as they planned choosing their strategic vendor in the first place. Getting out of the agreement (safely and quickly) often takes more work…

Given the length and scope of PFI contracts, change is inevitable, so the effective administration of PFI change management, in terms of both the change process and its associated costs, is fundamental to successful PFI contract management. In this article…

Effective contract and supplier management involves a number of facets. At its core, though, are two fundamental points: Define and maintain a clear purpose with your strategic contractor/supplier, so that roles and responsibilities between you remain aligned to the business…

When clients and suppliers form business contracts, neither side ever starts off ‘expecting’ failure. However, that does not mean planning for this eventuality should be overlooked. Both parties need to have suitable contractual provisions in place to avoid the possibility…