Negotiate SaaS Agreements That Are Built to Last
Leverage your unique position and find substantial cost savings.
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Contributors
- Christiaan Murphy, Global Software Category Manager at CGI
- Jeffery I. Gordon, SVP, author of Software Licensing Handbook & Mortgage Lending Vendor Operations Manager at BT&T
- David W. Tollen, author of The Tech Contracts Handbook, Attorney & Founder at Sycamore Legal, P.C.
- Internal stakeholders usually have different – and often conflicting – needs and expectations that require careful facilitation and management.
- SaaS solutions bring forth a unique form of “switching costs” that can make a decision to migrate solutions financially, technically, and politically painful.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- Conservatively, it’s possible to save 5% of the overall IT budget through comprehensive software and SaaS contract review.
- Focus on the terms and conditions, not just the price.
- Learning to negotiate is crucial.
Impact and Result
- Take control of your SaaS contract negotiations from the beginning.
- Look at your contract holistically to find cost savings.
- Guide communication between vendors and your organization for the duration of contract negotiations.
- Redline the terms and conditions of your SaaS contract.
- Prioritize crucial terms and conditions to negotiate.
Start here – read the Executive Brief
Read our concise Executive Brief to find out how to redline and negotiate a SaaS agreement, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the different ways we can support you in completing this project.
1. Gather requirements
Build and manage the stakeholder team, and then document the business use case.
2. Redline contract
Redline the proposed SaaS contract.
3. Negotiate contract
Create a thorough negotiation plan.
Guided Implementations
This guided implementation is a six call advisory process.
Guided Implementation #1 - Gather requirements
Call #1 - Create negotiation team
Call #2 - Write communication plan
Call #3 - Document use case
Guided Implementation #2 - Redline contract
Call #1 - Review and redline general terms and conditions
Call #2 - Review and redline SaaS-specific terms and conditions
Guided Implementation #3 - Negotiate contract
Call #1 - Negotiate contract
Book Your Workshop
Onsite 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 onsite 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: Collect and Review Data
The Purpose
- Assemble documentation.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Understand current position before going forward.
Activities
Outputs
Assemble existing contracts.
- Business Use Case.
Document their strategic and tactical objectives.
Identify current status of the vendor relationship and any historical context.
Clarify goals for ideal future state.
Module 2: Define the Business Use Case and Build a Stakeholder Team
The Purpose
- Define the business use case and build a stakeholder team.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Create a business use case to document functional and non-functional requirements.
- Build an internal cross-functional stakeholder team to negotiate the contract.
Activities
Outputs
Establish a negotiation team and define roles.
- RASCI Matrix
Write a communication plan.
- Communications Plan
Complete a business use case.
- SaaS TCO Calculator
- Business Use Case
Module 3: Redline the Contract
The Purpose
- Examine terms and conditions and prioritize for negotiation.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Discover cost savings.
- Improve agreement terms.
- Prioritize terms for negotiation.
Activities
Outputs
Review general terms and conditions.
Review license and application specific terms and conditions.
- SaaS Terms and Conditions Evaluation Tool
Match to business and technical requirements.
- SaaS Contract Negotiation Terms Prioritization Checklist
Redline the agreement.
Module 4: Build a Negotiation Strategy
The Purpose
- Create a negotiation strategy.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Controlled communication established.
- Negotiation tactics chosen.
- Negotiation timeline plotted.
Activities
Outputs
Review vendor and application specific negotiation tactics.
- Contract Negotiation Tactics Playbook
Build negotiation strategy.
- Controlled Vendor Communications Letter
- Key Vendor Fiscal Year End Calendar
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.
Client
Experience
Impact
$ Saved
Days Saved
Cross Country Mortgage, Inc.
Guided Implementation
10/10
N/A
1
State of Montana ITSD
Guided Implementation
9/10
$2,512
2
Bapco
Guided Implementation
7/10
N/A
N/A
City of Walla Walla
Guided Implementation
10/10
$44,567
5
Renown Health
Guided Implementation
9/10
$26,103
5
Armed Forces Benefit Association
Guided Implementation
9/10
N/A
N/A
City of Arlington
Guided Implementation
10/10
$2,546
5
Success Academies
Guided Implementation
8/10
N/A
N/A
Shelby County Government
Guided Implementation
10/10
$127K
20
Farmers New World Life Insurance Co Inc
Guided Implementation
10/10
N/A
N/A
Textron Inc
Guided Implementation
6/10
N/A
N/A
Emerson Commercial & Residential Solutions
Guided Implementation
10/10
N/A
N/A
AgeTech
Guided Implementation
10/10
$25,000
2
Renown Health
Guided Implementation
6/10
$12,733
2
Clark Builders
Guided Implementation
6/10
N/A
2
QuikTrip
Guided Implementation
6/10
N/A
N/A
