This post is primarily for leadership positions.  So much focus goes into designing the current solution, that few think about what will happen at the end of the term.  It is common that a “ramp up” provision is in place for bringing services in, but not so common that there is a “ramp down” provision for when services are being moved off.  Obviously it is not in your provider’s best interest to make it easy for you to move away from their solutions.  One of my clients recently commented on this regarding cloud based services – how easy it is to move services to the cloud but not so easy to move them back.  I’ll have a separate post in the near future on pitfalls to avoid with cloud based services, but regardless of the type of services or solution you are buying, there is a possibility that in a few years there will be a better solution available.

This is one where your IT and Sourcing people need to work together.  It will be important for your IT people to try to anticipate what it will take to “deconstruct”  the solution and implement an alternative.  Your sourcing people will need to make sure that this is factored in.  The danger is that no one gets a pat on the back for avoiding a problem 3-5 years in the future.  And 3-5 years in the future most of the people working on the current solution will be gone.  Leadership can make sure that this has been factored in, and most importantly documented.

When you begin looking at a new deal, one of the areas of concern is usually the revenue or line commitment.  You know that your business is changing all the time.  Are you going to leave money on the table and sign a deal with a lower commitment and lose out on savings or are you going to lock into a higher commitment and risk a shortfall that you will need to pay against?

Most people are petrified of committing to a high number and then paying the “penalty fees”.   Are they really penalties at all?  That is a discussion for another day.  Today though, we are going to look at a technique that can be used to maximize your savings while limiting your exposure.

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White papers are either too dull or too much of an ad. Websites are often too much work to sort through with what you don’t want to know. Podcasts have much greater utility because of mobility such as in your car, while working out, or just sitting down somewhere with earplugs. The problem is, where do you find something worth listening to? Read more…

It’s starting… Why they have been resisting this is a testament to perhaps an outmoded record-company-fighting-an-iTunes-model type of thinking. If you can retain your data revenue and force the traffic over someone else’s network like a Starbuck’s, Panera Bread, or even your home wi-fi connection, why not do it? Read more…

I’ve seen this quoted twice now and wanted to comment on how deceiving this really is. Both AnchorPoint and Gartner have thrown this number around in webinars and implied most companies can realize this by renegotiating their contracts – some even go so far as to say you can renegotiate anytime. Of course you can, but getting a good deal; not so much. A reasonable disclaimer would be these are pretty much best case scenarios and your results may vary – really vary.

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