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Training - Contract Management

 

Let’s be frank – contract management isn’t the most exciting aspect of procurement. After all, who likes paperwork and minutia? Most people don’t. For those in the earlier stage of their career understanding legal jargon can be daunting and negotiating the contract with the supplier, harder still.  More experienced professionals might not have even been taught this core skill properly and, with a desire to focus on more exciting activities, try to steer clear of contracts whenever possible.

Robust contracts are a key tool to manage your suppliers and minimise risk. So, like them or loathe them, you need to be good at them.  Following some simple steps and with a bit of practice, I’ll show you that contract management isn’t nearly as arduous as you might think.

If you’re a Head of Procurement or Procurement Director you might have different needs. Perhaps you’re unhappy with the low level of spend under contract, the poor accessibility of contracts or that the full contract value isn’t derived. As a Procurement Director I’ve had this challenge myself and have some good ideas how to help you.

contract paperwork shutterstock_10172476

Benefits

By learning and deploying contract management, the benefits to your business should be:

  • Better protection from potential risks

  • Greater value from your suppliers

  • Better service from your suppliers

  • Lower likelihood of contractual disputes

  • Less chance of commercial surprises

  • Better relationships with your suppliers

And the benefits to you should be:

  • Delivering significantly better contractual results

  • Not being filled with dread every time you have to do a contract (you'll actually realise they aren't too bad)

  • A significant saving of time and hassle

Other Details

Course Material

Attendees will receive a full training pack containing a summary of content from the day as well as copies of all case studies and group exercises

Trainer

Frost, Procurement Adventurer

Duration

1 day for Level 1 or Level 2

Location

Typically, clients like to host the training on their own site. I get asked to train all round the World and I'll head to where you'd like to be. From time-to-time I run a course open people from non-competing businesses in a fixed location. This course can be run remotely by VC.

Cost

The cost will vary depending on a number of factors such as the number of delegates, the number and complexity of categories to address and the follow up involvement you would like. I will quote against your specific requirements. 

Client Feedback

Simon has clearly negotiated a lot of contracts! He has so many top tips and ideas and de-mystified many contractual clauses I didn't understand.

Caroline Curtis - Head of Supply Chain, Tails

 

I'd previously been on a contract management course run by lawyers, which was so boring and complicated. Simon bought a whole new perspective to this topic. Thank you!

Procurement Director, Global FMCG

The training was easy to follow with loads of examples and his how-to guide explaining the process and all the clauses is brilliant. I highly recommend this course.

Emilio Cardenas, Purchasing Manager, Leathams

Course Prospectus

Course Approach

The course covers the end-to-end contract management process, striking the right balance between understanding key legal concepts and contractual clauses with pragmatism to know when to use common sense. It’s founded on lessons learnt from the many hundreds of contracts I’ve negotiated, formal CIMA contract training and contracts I’ve overseen with teams I’ve managed. During the course I use lots of examples and we go through real contracts of yours.

I run two levels of this course for

  • Procurement specialists - starting their procurement career or a few years in

  • Procurement and Senior Procurement Managers - who have solid contract management skills learnt on the job but aren’t formally trained and would like a refresh

 

I also work with Procurement Directors who are well versed in contract management but have different needs for example to get more spend under contract, drive contract adherence or derive more value from contracts.

Level 1

By the end of the training you will understand:

  • The end-to-end contract management process

  • What a contract is

  • The structure and key sections of a contract

  • The benefits of a contract and why it is important to get it right

  • How to create a contract

  • Key contractual clauses

  • Negotiating and closing the contract

  • Ongoing management of the contract

 

Level 2

Starts with a refresh of key elements of Level 1 and then focuses on specific areas that the group would like to focus on. As examples this might include how to:

  • Negotiate the most challenging contractual terms

  • Navigate a contract with a challenging supplier

  • Manage a major contractual dispute

  • Improve contract adherence, especially on indirect spend

  • Terminate a contract early if the contract doesn’t permit it and the supplier doesn’t want to

  • Avoid contract termination if you want it to continue and the supplier doesn’t

 

If you're a Procurement Directors, typical areas we might address are how to:

  • Engage your team with contract management

  • Get contracts out of the draw and delivering value

  • Link contracts with supplier performance

  • Streamline the contract management process to make it a less arduous task

  • Create the right interface with your in-house legal term or third party lawyers

  • Chose, install and drive adoption of contract management systems

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