At Win-Win Agreements, we can help you negotiate your entire technology agreement. Either as part of your existing team or leading the negotiation team directly, we will use our depth of knowledge and expertise to assure you that you achieve the best price and protect yourself financially, technically and operationally.

Vendors will typically insist that you use their agreement. This puts you at a disadvantage right away. Don't expect that they will use one of your agreements unless you are large enough to warrant that kind of clout. Because of this, it is imperative that you understand how their agreement works, and understand how to negotiate provisions to your advantage.

Take the time to review our Negotiation Do's and Don'ts that list some of the things that are important in licensing negotiations.

Maintenance agreements and accompanying Service Level Agreements are undoubtedly the most important long-term component of a relationship with a vendor. Unfortunately, this is also the area that gets the least attention. You are going to be with your vendor a long time unless you need to break the agreement. Breaking the agreement is tough, so don't count on that as something that can just happen. To that end, you need to consider carefully how you want to be supported for many years to come. This includes operational support, help when you need it, improvements to the system, financial predictability and much more. Don't leave this to the "standard" offering in the vendor agreement. Make sure you get what you need now and in the future.

Maintenance agreements and service level agreements are typically negotiated at the same time and may be part of the software agreement, but don't let them get mingled too closely. Take the time to review our Negotiation Do's and Dont's that list some of the things that are important in support negotiations.

In addition to negotiating your vendor agreements, Win-Win Agreements can help you get competitive vendor quotes in a clear and comprehensive process.

This may or may not involve creating a formal Request for Proposal (RFP) from which the vendors can respond. An RFP is a typical method of getting proposals from your vendors, but it is not the only method. RFP's can be time consuming and, depending on how they are written, the results can be less than satisfying.  We can discuss the various options for soliciting vendor proposals with you.

No matter what process you use, in order to really understand the key points and differences between the competing offers, it is imperative that you start with a common set of business and technical requirements as a basis for response. Vendors understand this and will structure their response to comply with your request. Vendors are creative and can always find a way to include their unique business value within the context of your solicitation. Starting with a common procurement and evaluation framework puts you in the driver's seat. Learn more about our Procurement Process.

Do you need help with the entire procurement process?

At Win-Win Agreements, we can help you with every aspect of your procurement. We have extensive experience helping to build the business case, define requirements, write the solicitation, evaluate responses, and negotiate the resulting technology agreement, inclusive of maintenance and service level agreements.

If you already have the organizational knowledge but need additional capacity to make it happen, we can step in. If you need help driving this process so you can focus on your business, let us show you how we can manage the process for you while keeping you in the driver's seat. 

Learn more about our full procurement lifecycle process.

Do you have a multi-year agreement that is coming to the end of its term? Are you unhappy with your existing agreement as it is written? Is it just not working and you need an exit strategy? Win-Win Agreements can help.

Renewals: The time to think and act regarding a renewal on a multi-year agreement is months, if not a full year, in advance. Don't wait until you receive a renewal notice. You will have lost all negotiating leverage. Let us discuss with you the possibilities afforded to you as part of a simple renewal. It is time well spent as you apply the lessons learned during the previous term of the agreement and apply it to the new term. You can continue to lower your business, technical and financial risk at this time.

Renegotiations and Terminations: There is never a good time to renegotiate an unfavorable agreement or terminate a bad one. However, sometimes it must be done. There are many things you need to consider at this crucial time of the agreement. Things do not always play out as intended, even if you think you have the agreement understood.

Making a miscalculation at this time can cause you considerable loss of time, focus and money. Handled inappropriately, you may find yourself in breach of the Agreement. It is also a time when emotions can run high. Let Win-Win Agreements help you explore your options to change what is not working or exit the agreement as gracefully as possible.

Over time, if you have negotiated a significant number of agreements within your organization, you will find that many have fallen into a state of disarray. Other business priorities take precedence, and agreements get amended and extended based on a priority that may not be consistent with the original objective. At times, new agreements get executed without knowledge of existing agreements in place. Often with conflicting terms.

All of these scenarios lead to the possibility of overpaying for licenses and support fees, redundent licenses and more. If you feel this might describe your organization, let Win-Win Agreements conduct a portfolio review of your existing agreements. We can help you streamline these agreements and give you a simplified portfolio of agreements that will save you money.