Even Bank of America Struggles with Managing Their Entitlements

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

Trident – Interesting Client Project – Vendor On-Boarding

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.

Trident – Interesting Client Projects

Over the past 10+ years, Trident’s end-to-end contract management offering has helped hundreds of clients solve internal vendor/contract management challenges.  A majority of these projects have focused on centralizing information and allowing technology to help them proactively manage their internal processes.  That is still the core of our business but there have been so many […]

Vendor/Contract Management – The Underrated Value of Simple

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 […]

The Case for Continuous Improvement

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.

On Your Terms: Sit Down With Vendors on Your Schedule!

mp9003167731-e1360192388332How does someone begin to develop a vendor management program? If you ask Dell for their “Top Tips for Better IT Vendor Management” they say “Don’t grocery shop when you’re hungry.”  Essentially, their premise is the worst time to try and manage your vendor is when you need something from them.  I could not disagree more.  As in your business, your vendors drive to monthly, quarterly and annual goals.  The best time to discuss improving the relationship with a vendor or describing your requirements of them is when you are about to spend money with them.  You are about to help them reach their goals and I cannot think of a better time to ask your vendors to improve, explain, or fix the manner in which they are helping you achieve your goals.

When your team is about to spend money, you are already dedicating internal resources to the analysis of the transaction. At the same time, it is efficient to review your partnership with a vendor and determine the win – win scenario, not only with the transaction, but also moving forward as partners.  Identify what is working and what is not and use this time to make slight adjustments or course corrections to your relationship.

Manage all of your vendors when you have their attention.  You are about to spend money and your team is already engaged in some analysis.  It is efficient.

This overarching theme works for all vendors, not just your strategic vendors.

I think this sequence of developing a vendor management program is important to achieving the goals and honoring the effort of your staff.  Start with how you vet new vendors.

GATHER YOUR DATA: A new vendor is motivated to get past the gatekeepers. Use this motivation to gather the perfunctory documents and information you need to conduct business.  It should be a fairly rigorous process so that you do not require any additional security screenings or general documentation to do business with this vendor.  How they respond to your requests will start to provide insight on how they will value your partnership.

IDENTIFY STRATEGIC PARTNERS:  You know your business and your customers better than anyone else.  Before you create a complicated vendor scorecard, pick your obvious strategic partners and initially focus on managing them.  The initial value propositions of the vendor as defined by your team should be the outcomes your vendors are managed to.  The vendor is managed to these goals and outcomes until your team proves additional or replacement value propositions that merit tracking.

MANAGE THE SIZE OF YOUR STRATEGIC PARTNER POOL:  No other vendor should be accepted into this exclusive group without proving more strategic than a company already in the group (they can be a vendor but not a strategic vendor until they have a track record of providing value to your company).

With all other partners, you might want to start with managing the contractual entitlements and obligations on a transactional basis.  But remember to talk with them around the time you are about to pull out your wallet.