Even Bank of America Struggles with Managing Their Entitlements

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I saw a recent article posted on the ITAM Review LinkedIn Discussion Group that indicated TIBCO is suing Bank of America for $300 Million for improper use of their software.  This is a perfect example of how almost every company struggles with managing software entitlements.  Weekly, I see license agreement addenda that reference the 199x licensing agreement (often neither the Manufacturer nor Customer can find these executed agreements).  Moreover, some software manufacturers have transitioned to “click-through” or “click and accept” agreements which potentially allow agreements to be accepted without being captured.

Consider centralizing your entitlement information (draw a line in the sand) and create a process around software procurement to ensure you are capturing your new licensing agreements and entitlements.  Consider some sort of mechanism to make it meaningful, such as mandating that no software can be paid for without the manufacturer submitting the licensing agreement with the invoice for payment.

http://www.computerworld.co.nz/article/550104/bank_america_illegally_copied_us_300_million_software_alleges_tibco_lawsuit/?utm_medium=rss&utm_reader=feedly&utm_source=taxonomyfeed

Decreasing Risk and Increasing Odds of Success in Contract Management

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Please follow the link below to view our latest white paper.

Decreasing Risk and Increasing Odds of Success in Contract Management

Why are contracts so essential to running a business?  They define our relationships with customers, partners, and vendors.  Without proper contract management, all aspects of requirements, entitlements and parameters of new and existing contracts are left to chance.  And as we all know, when you try your luck at winning games of chance (no matter how you play), the odds are stacked against you. Proactive contract management puts processes first, helping you efficiently manage your relationships with less risk.

http://info.trident-it.com/rs/tridentcontract/images/Trident_White_Papers.pdf

Trident – Interesting Client Project – Vendor On-Boarding

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Bringing a new vendor into your organization requires a series of activities.  Most companies have a checklist of items they require (NDA, W-9, Certificate of Insurance…) before they can do business together.  The process is manual and prone to errors or incomplete documentation.  We thought it should be easier and made it as simple as a click of a button.

 

Department: Vendor Management/Compliance

 

Challenge: Bring new vendors into your organization with complete documentation, in a consistent process, and with minimal effort.

 

Solution: From a click of a button (Send Vendor Information Form), an email is sent to the new vendor.  The email explains your vendor on-boarding process and in order to do business together they need to click the link and complete Vendor Information Form.   The Vendor Information Form is a list of all due diligence questions that are required (Description of Service, DUNS #, Insurance Requirements, Supplier Diversity…) and provides an “Attach Documents” area to add the supplemental documentation (W-9, D&B Report, COI…).  Once the details are completed and documents attached, the new vendor simply hits submit.  The data is automatically updated within the Poseidon vendor record, the documents are attached, and the Vendor Manager is notified that the process is complete.

 

Benefit: The same set of complete data and documentation is collected from every new vendor.  Audit readiness, compliance, and significant time savings are the primary benefits.

Vendor/Contract Management – The Underrated Value of Simple

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Perhaps my favorite thing about working at Trident is helping clients of all sizes and across all industries try and tackle an age-old issue – vendor/contract management.  Although the stories of prior failed attempts by our clients are vastly different in range and scope, they are all remarkably common in one area – they all […]

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The Case for Continuous Improvement

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Who among us actually enjoys reworking the processes for which we complete our work?  We are often asked to do more with less and tend to follow process based on these demands.  Sure – we’d all like to revamp the entire cycle of how work gets completed in our offices, but who has the time?  It’s a classic catch-22: continue to complete our work simply accepting existing flaws in our workflow or take significant time to completely rework the process to eliminate or minimize those things that slow us down.  As much as we’d like to do the latter, most of us continue on with the former, regardless of whether we consciously make the choice.continuous-improvement

However, fixing the problems in our processes does not have to involve big, sweeping changes that greatly disrupt our current operations.  In reality, the best changes are most often small tweaks in existing processes that, by themselves, make relatively pronounced improvements.  Once the first small change is made, we can evaluate the effectiveness of this adjustment and either continue along with the new path or, if no discernible benefit is realized, revert back to the “old” way of doing things.  Assuming the change was indeed for the better, we are now a little more efficient at doing our jobs.  Continue this cycle of small improvements and within a relatively short period of time, we will have drastically improved the overall process without ever having to completely rehaul the whole system in one fell swoop.

This whole concept has been around for decades.  It has often been referred to as “Continuous Improvement” or by the Japanese term “kaizen”, the latter of which became famous as Toyota implemented this methodology on a grand scale in their production facilities.  As our small illustration above proved, continuous improvement can be implemented in nearly every process, big or small, with minimal disruption.  The message is clear, however: we should never be satisfied with the status quo and always strive to make everything we do just a little better every day.  The old way of doing things aren’t necessarily the best simply because that’s the way it’s always been done.  In fact, quite the opposite is most often true.  Continuous improvement works in part because our challenges are always changing.  We are not making changes for change’s sake; rather, we are constantly adapting our ways of doing things to most efficiently stay on top of the game.

At Trident, we embrace the concept of continuous improvement in everything we do.  Our Poseidon contract management portal is built on an SaaS platform to allow for near-instant updates as well as affording us the ability to quickly tailor-make solutions for our customers, especially as their challenges continue to change.  There is no software, updates or patches to install and when a change needs to be made, all it takes is a call to Trident for us to build exactly what you need, when you need it, at a price that is usually a fraction of the cost of other less robust offerings.

More than likely, you are keenly familiar with those challenges and process inefficiencies you face as an organization.  Reach out to us to collaboratively design a solution that precisely fits your needs. As your needs inevitably change over time, we stay with you along the way to make adjustments and/or build new functionality as the need arises.  As many of our clients can attest to, we have become one of their favorite partners for these very reasons (you can read testimonials from a handful of our clients on our Work+Results page).  We are in it for the long-haul and our mission is to deliver solutions that are right for you, big or small, even as those needs evolve.

It really is that simple.  Continuous improvement with Trident as your partner.  Let us show you how Trident can simplify your workload using our best-of-breed technology that can be fully integrated into the systems and processes you already use.

Cloud Computing – Revolutionizing the Way we Work (and Play)

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cloud_buildingWe are all familiar with the many ways cloud computing has revolutionized our use of technology in the office, at home, and on the go.  Whether it’s using Trident’s Poseidon portal (built on the Salesforce.com platform), streaming movies and television shows at home via Netflix, or Apple’s iCloud services on your iPhone or iPad, cloud computing has infused itself into nearly every aspect of our day-to-day lives.  The underlying concept has existed for decades, but it came to prominence with the widespread expansion of high-speed internet in the early  2000s.  However, the most fascinating aspects of cloud computing do not lie in its history, but rather in what lies on the horizon.

This summer, North Bridge Venture Partners released its annual survey on the future of cloud computing.  North Bridge surveyed nearly 800 people at 39 well-known information technology companies (including Amazon, SAP, VMware, and Citrix, along others) to gather their insights and opinions on what’s to come in the realm of cloud computing. The full results of the survey can be viewed here.

The overarching conclusion was straightforward: the cloud is changing software.  While that may seem obvious to most of us, the devil is most certainly in the details.  More than 50% of the respondents believe that most categories of today’s software will be disrupted by the cloud, with “big data”, CRM, and e-commerce at the top of the list.  At Trident, we have already witnessed sizeable cloud-driven initiatives at many of our customers (one of which is their use of our online Poseidon portal) and we expect this trend to accelerate as the cloud continues to mature.

As evidence of this, spending on Software as a Service (“SaaS”), perhaps the most well-known cloud computing service model, is expected to grow at six times the rate of all other types of software, with 55% CIOs planning to increase spending on SaaS in the next twelve months.  According to the respondents, the main driver of this growth is surprisingly not cost; rather, scalability is the top reason for switching to the cloud (with business agility as a close second).

Even if you haven’t yet made the decision to employ cloud-based applications in your environment, it is very likely that you will in the near future.  According to research by Goldman Sachs, 84% of new software will be SaaS.  This shouldn’t be surprising, as cloud computing has provided:

  • scalability,
  • ease of maintenance,
  • lower maintenance costs,
  • reduced capital expenditures,
  • straight-forward subscription pricing models,
  • resiliency and redundancy,
  • and faster deployment.

The survey also details a rapidly declining trend in the cloud’s perceived concerns.  Only 12% of respondents believe the cloud still needs to mature, down from 26% in 2011, and a scant 3% consider it too risky, down from 10% in 2011.  Perhaps most surprising is that 50% have complete confidence in the technology, up from only 13% one year ago.  It will be interesting to see how these numbers change as more and more of us take the step to leverage the amazing advances in cloud computing in the months and years to come.

To learn more about how Trident can help simplify the management of your software, hardware, and data, please contact Todd Steiner at tsteiner@www.trident-it.com or (608) 276-1909.

Contract Management – It’s Personal (and should be)

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mp9004385851-e1360190007344After 10+ years of helping our clients with their contract management efforts it still amazes me how personal contract management is to each organization and each stakeholder. Even the term “contract management” is personal. It can mean notification reminders and reports, document management, asset management, metadata management (all the details about the contract), process management, vendor management, a combination of these concepts, or something entirely different.The bottom line is that people want “contract management” to solve something that is personal to them (regardless of the initial need).

For most people “something” usually starts with a big picture organizational mandate (we need to reduce operational spend by 10%, comply with a new regulation, or report details to a new boss).The message and need can be clear but the breakdown occurs when those responsible for doing the work are already stretched thin, don’t have the tools/processes, or can’t get the people within the organization to consistently respond to their requests. So what do people do? They personalize the initial mandate to make it work for them.

The reason for this blog is not to state the obvious. It is intended to get people thinking about what an ideal solution for their environment would look like before they start the vendor vetting process.  If you have a foggy idea of what you want then vendors will be driving your needs to what they do best.  Put in the time to whiteboard the picture of what will solve the initial mandate and help those doing the work.

Here are some non-industry specific  examples of the types of review and desired functionality:

1.  Types of Contract Review (who are the stakeholders and what benefits do they want)

  • Legal Review
  • Financial Review
  • Risk/Compliance Review
  • Needs/Requirements Review (operationally does this contract solve our needs)

2.  Objectives/Functionality

  • Single shared repository with varied permissions
  • Document version control, review tools, indexing and search capabilities, audit trails, collaboration, and the ability to create new contracts
  • Document routing for approvals, review, comments, signature, and filing
  • Metadata about each contract (extracting useful information from the legalese)
  • Tracking and Email notifications
  • Dashboards and reporting

Feel free to connect with Trident (tsteiner@www.trident-it.com or 608-276-1909) if you need help figuring out where to start or defining what you want.  There are lots of options available to you. Making it personal will produce your best results!

5 Simple Steps to Improve Your Contract Management Process

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mh900448357-e1361912724271There are three components to every effective contract management solution – People, Technology, and Process. People and Technology are as important to the overall success of your program as two legs of a stool but Process is the glue – and third leg of the stool – that pulls everything together. In other words, if you unable to consistently repeat the required steps within your contract management process, then the best People and Technology in the world are just Band-Aids that will eventually peel away.

Unfortunately, most organizations avoid contract management process planning because it is the “heavy-lifting” part of the project. It requires more time, more effort, and more self-examination then most organizations are willing to dedicate. The short cut is to buy the “silver-bullet” technology (contract management software, workflow applications, reporting tools…) and just expect their people to make it work. If this is your desired direction you may get lucky and everything will come together. However most will encounter elongated implementation cycles, rising costs (more time, more software, more development), and unreliable long term results.

Before you even review technology options and who are the people that will be involved, here are five simple Process development steps management should consider prior to getting started.

Step 1 – Why are you looking for change?

Something is happening in your environment that has moved effective contract management from the dredges of a perennial project 11 position to the top of your list. It may be a dire need to drive cost savings, a time-consuming audit that now has you refocused on asset/contract management, or a merger/acquisition/divestiture that hasn’t gone well due to lack of insight to what you actually own.  It doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that you take the time define crystal clear and measurable goals – reasons why you are doing this – before you start.

Step 2 – What would happen if you were successful?

Defining the reasons why you are tackling an effective contract management solution is a great start! However in order to get approval, funding, and buy-in/commitment to this project, you will need to build a solid business case to compete for scarce resources. Your business case should include where dollars/time/resources saved by your new process will used, what specific projects could benefit, and how the company will benefit from the new allocations.

Step 3 – Review your current process

Start by reviewing your current process using the 80/20 rule. Every process has its set of exceptions but 80%+ of the time it works a certain way.  You will need to document every step in detail and determine what is working and what needs to be changed.

Step 4 – Make small changes

You are not going to eat an entire whale in one bite. The same can be said about making changes to your current contract management process. Focus on small incremental changes that provide quick wins – areas that have measurable value to the organization and can be used to build momentum.

Step 5 – Build a continuous review plan

Assign someone the responsibility for scheduling monthly, quarterly, or annual process review meetings – include management. Highlight the measurable success you have had, discuss the next series of small changes, and set goals for what the desired results should look like.