Last week I had the opportunity to present the first half of a teleconference on contract lifecycle management (CLM) hosted by the Institute of Supply Management (ISM) and Zycus. You should be able to view the recording in its entirety within a week or so here. It was a good session covering the basics of CLM as well as some specific best practices so I recommend taking a look. As part of the presentation we polled the listeners on a few key questions and I'd like to share the results as well as some insights.

I'm currently researching the ROI of the Vendor Management Office (VMO) -- looking to help answer key questions like:  

• Of the services the VMO provides to the company, which have the most value?
• What are best practices for establishing VMO credibility across the org?
• How is VMO performance being measured?  

With about 25 VMO interviews completed so far I've seen a surprising trend -- when asked what VMO services provide the most value to the organization, contract lifecycle management is consistently front and center.

Now, it makes sense that many VMOs are involved in some stage of the contract as an IT domain expert but these folks are actually taking ownership of the entire process -- building contract templates, authoring, owning the approval and review cycles, as well as ongoing monitoring. Some VMOs are also even leading the charge to bring in new software tools to automate this process and get better control of overall contract lifecycle management (CLM). Why?

Given the unique, complex and risky nature of many IT contracts, the CPO's organization is staying hands off and relying on the IT specialists to create a favorable deal that’s enforceable. 

OK, makes sense. Buy why should the VMO really own the process end to end?

My initial reaction is no, it shouldn’t. And many of my VMO interviews agree -- but have still heroically stepped in to fill the void short of an alternative.  

What do I recommend?  

Microsoft announced on Friday that it will stop selling new Select licenses from 1 July, 2011. Customers with existing agreements can renew them for another 36 months, as per their agreements, but the replacement Select Plus program is likely to be a better option. Microsoft launched Select Plus on 1 July 2008, and I wrote at the time that it was an improvement on the basic Select structure: Microsoft Simplifies Its Volume Licensing.

However, Microsoft's pricing team struggled to persuade its LARs to promote Select Plus over the more familiar Select agreement, and customer adoption was disappointing. So the decision to drop the older program makes sense for Microsoft, because it will force its channel partners to embrace the new model. And its no bad thing for buyers - you've one less choice to make, and there's little negative impact.

The biggest advantage of Select Plus for sourcing managers is that they no longer need to submit a three-year spending forecast - this is extremely difficult for central teams buying on behalf of autonomous business units that won't havent planned Microsoft technology adoption that far out. Instead, pricing works like an airline loyalty program, on the current and previous years' actual transactions, as the figure below from my report illustrates. My report explains some more  advantages, such as the flexibility to opt tactically for software assurance on individual purchases.

The SAP services market is undergoing significant change: provider consolidation, changes in pricing models, new delivery options, and cloud-based deployment. At the same time, firms are entering 2010 with an eye to growth and business strategy enablement, after significant focus on cost-cutting during the recession. Firms struggle with finding the best services provider for their SAP project and the best delivery, pricing, and deployment models to ensure value, ROI, and success in achieving business goals,. Increasingly, firms are also considering Cloud and SaaS delivery models.
SAP users wondering about the latest trends in SAP services – from pricing models to multi-sourcing to cloud – are welcome to join us for an interactive session next Thursday March 25th. Moderated by Forrester’s George Lawrie, Bill Martorelli, Euan Davis, Stefan Ried and I will lead an interactive discussion around:
- SAP services provider landscape. The market has undergone significant consolidation, with major acquisitions by firms like PwC (BearingPoint), Xerox(ACS), and Dell(Perot) as well as numerous smaller acquisitions. Leading India-based firms have rapidly built their strategy consulting capabilities and now challenge the MNCs in higher value project work.
- Offshore delivery. Offshore ratios have grown extremely high. Implementation and project work is commonly 60% or more offshore; support and maintenance work surpasses 90%. Firms’ offshore strategy is broadening beyond India into geographies such as Latin America, China, and Philippines.
- Outsourcing and AMS work. Firms weigh the trade-offs between single-sourcing their project across implementation, AMS, and hosting versus using multiple providers. Firms also struggle with pricing models and SLAs, with many firms exploring outcome-based pricing models that shift risk to their provide. Outcome-based pricing also provides a potential foundation for innovation and savings beyond labor arbitrage.