Negotiating SaaS Contracts and Commercials - for Procurement Professionals

Introduction

IT spend is growing across all organisation types in every industry sector (and expected to exceed $5 trillion globally in 2024).

Software spend accounts for up to 15% of IT organisations’ annual budgets and software spend globally, for the first time, is expected to exceed US$1 trillion in 2024.

More and more, large organisations will invest in complex software solutions to enhance organisational capability and increase shareholder value. However, this investment is not without risk.

Skilled IT Procurement personnel are seen as key value enablers and risk mitigators in the delivery of business-critical IT projects. Accordingly, software procurement skills are in higher demand than ever across large enterprises.

Cloud software, delivered as a service (SaaS), embodies many of the flex and scale options associated with Cloud infrastructure and platforms. However, in large organisations, SaaS has many (if not more) risks associated with its procurement, deployment and use than the on-premises software licensing models deployed heretofore.

Now more than ever, IT Procurement experts need to be aligned with their business and technology colleagues in their awareness and understanding of the challenges and risks associated with negotiating SaaS contracts.

This is where this training event will be of value – not only to procurement folks who may be expert in other categories and just moving into the software category, but also as a solid refresher to existing software procurement professionals.

An investment in the Negotiating SaaS Contracts and Commercials training will provide real, tangible value for current or aspiring software procurement professionals when engaging with the market on complex SaaS software solutions.

Attendees and their sponsoring organisations should witness a significant return on this training investment in terms of reduced cost, reduced risk and better value outcomes from your complex SaaS software negotiations.

Topics Covered

Overview of the SaaS Software Category

The crossover between On-premises and SaaS is leading to confusion and uncertainty in buying organisations around how to engage software vendors to supply software products and deliver complex software solutions. A key challenge is ensuring that the contracts and commercial regimes are fair, mitigate risk and deliver value.

Key topics covered include:

• Software Contracts – understanding the important differences between on-premises licensing and SaaS/Cloud contracts
• Understanding the commercial drivers for SaaS vendors and how they influence their deal structures
• Key legal, commercial and service delivery provisions, including those that mitigate risk in SaaS and Cloud Services deals
• Understanding the linkages between contracts, commercials and software delivery … as well as how Vendors seed their contracts with ‘gotchas’ and lock-ins
  

Software Contracts

The event also compares key software contract types, the key differences between them and the need for a differentiated focus depending on whether the software is to be used as an on-premises solution or as a SaaS service. Each of these “use and deploy” contexts have differing obligations and sensitivities around licensing, service delivery and support services and are viewed quite differently from the vendor and customer perspectives. Understanding these differences is key to negotiating successful SaaS contract and commercial outcomes.

Software Delivery and Support

The event will address complex SaaS software delivery and support models and how to use software procurement and negotiation processes to engage vendors, mitigate risk, reduce cost and deliver value for your organisations. This will include key contract, delivery and support provisions, an explanation of key differentiators between SaaS and on-premises software and “gotchas” to be avoided.

About Strategic Computing

Strategic Computing is a niche consulting firm with deep expertise in the area of complex IT sourcing, negotiation and training, including Software, Cloud Services and IT Outsourcing. Coming from a background of software engineering and IT consulting, we understand complex technology projects, as well as the commercial and contractual agreements that underpin them. Led by Ray Murphy, since 1991 we have helped major Client organisations negotiate strong outcomes for complex IT procurement projects.

Our Clients are large organisations across many business sectors, including banking and finance, insurance, media and communications, telecoms, aerospace, software, manufacturing and public utilities. These include such organisations as Barclays, NatWest, Reuters, Capgemini, Heineken, Telefonica O2, Verizon, Aviva, AIB, FBD, eir, Aptiv, LeasePlan, Central Bank of Ireland and many other blue chip organisations.

Course Presenter

Our founder and the course presenter, Ray Murphy, has a B.Sc degree in Computer Science from Trinity College Dublin, a Masters in Business Administration from the Smurfit Graduate School of Business, University College Dublin and an Advanced Diploma in Public Procurement Law from the Honorable Society of King’s Inns, Dublin.

Ray is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (FCIPS), a Fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants and Advisers (FIMCA) and is a former board member, director and vice president of the Institute of Management Consultants and Advisers.

• Prior to specialising in the area of complex IT sourcing, Ray had been a software engineer with a global software company, a systems integrator and a Managing Consultant with KPMG.