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Hidden Costs in Your Technology Agreements: Beware the 'I' Word

Inflation impacts the cost of nearly all your supplier agreements. Look closely at your IT agreements (especially your Cloud agreements). Even though the cost of technology goes down over time, and technology advancements make processes less manual, less error prone, less expensive, and more automated, many of your agreements still have antiquated clauses allowing your suppliers to *increase* your costs on an annual basis by an amount equal to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) amount, and generally include an accelerator above that amount; something like CPI + 3%, which would provide a contractual right of your supplier to increase your costs ...

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SAP and Oracle License Transfers in Carve Outs: How Can You Beat Free?

Robert Geib
Dec. 14,2016 |

We are all conditioned to some degree either consciously or subconsciously, that when we hear the word free - it must be a good thing: Buy one, get one free! Free with purchase of two or more… Free to the first 10 customers… Claim your free gift by registering today… And the list goes on…. However, these marketing terms are not limited to the realm of retail. We are exposed every day to the same conditioning in the world of B2B technology and software. And just like in the retail world, more often than not, “free” is really not free at all. No one gives something away for nothing, or they wouldn’t be in business very long. There has to be ...

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Successful Supplier Negotiations Part II

Robert Geib
Oct. 25,2016 |

"Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth." - Mike Tyson Many of us also know this quote from Mike Tyson, which turned into one of his most famous quotes because of the applicability far beyond boxing..especially in the sport of Supplier Negotiations. It really has meaning in any area of life, whether the blow comes from the death of a loved one, a health issue, losing your job, making a bad investment, a traffic jam, whatever. It's how you react to that adversity that defines you, not the adversity itself. Similar to Sun Tsu's claims, success in a supplier negotiation is often achieved BEFORE the negotiation ever starts. ...

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Successful Supplier Negotiations Part I

Robert Geib
Sep. 29,2016 |

“Every battle is won before it’s ever fought.” ― Sun Tzu Most of us know this quote from Sun Tzu's seminal work, "The Art of War", but is it true that EVERY battle is won or lost before it's ever fought? Well, in context, Sun Tzu was speaking of the great set-piece battles fought at the time, where huge armies would line up and then be sent into the fray to fight. The battle would go to whoever had prepared best, who brought the best supplies, who had the best planning, who garnered the best intelligence, who held the best control of the ground, whose warriors had the best training, and so on.... But in modern conflicts, this view is ...

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