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So as promised, here are my top tricks for effective management of support, maintenance and subscriptions. They are in no particular order!

Storage

Support, maintenance and subscriptions are all types of contracts. You should scan them in for your own reference and as a back-up, and send the originals for storage by the legal department in their fire-safe.

Use a tickler file

A tickler file is any system, whether electronic or in paper format, that you use to remind you that an agreement needs renewing. The benefit of electronic tickler files are that they can be set up to  send automatic reminders to relevant parties, but the drawback is that if a key recipient leaves the organisation, the reminder can disappear into the ether and the contract doesn’t get renewed. If possible, store your scans/photocopies of the contracts and any other supporting information in the tickler file so that they are easy to locate when needed.

Centralise contract management and administration

IT Techies are just plain awful at administration. Centralise it as much as possible into a skilled, coherent team so that you have continuity of administration and regular transfer of knowledge and skills between team members. A key function of the team is to ensure that the entire purchase and renewal process is tracked from renewal reminders being sent out to requisitions and POs being raised and invoices paid.

Request a business case for renewals

The business case doesn’t have to be exhaustive, but it does need to demonstrate that the key decision maker has thought through the options available as well as the implications and risks of renewing or not renewing the agreement.

Co-termination

Where you have several agreements with one supplier, request that they all be co-terminated – in other words, that all the agreements have the same renewal date. The first year may require some pro-rating of renewal figures by the supplier, but they are usually happy to do this. Many software manufacturers insist that the first year be paid in full before the agreement can be co-terminated, but  you will be able to pro-rata and co-terminate the agreement the following year.

The benefits are two-fold – firstly, it leads to significantly reduced administration and  management costs, and secondly it allows decision makers to see the full picture for any one vendor at a time, leading to better and more considered decision making.

So those are my top tips – does anyone have any others they would like to add?

Picture Credit: Penny Buckmaster