No business should have to feel they are “on the watch” for changes in their contracts and agreements.  This includes those special “1-year promos” that are deigned to take advantage of companies who get complacent and don’t audit their billing. So instead, the price rolls to the current market retail prices which is usually DOUBLE the promo rate!  Now the service provider should INFORM their customer more clearly of any changes going into effect, clearly state them and offer cost saving OPTIONS?Well, I think we can agree that this is is NEVER going to happen!

Example from frustrated Corporation Manager:

“They didn’t put us on any plan after the expiration, but after I contacted them they supposedly put us back on it and told me to only pay what we were paying prior. It was a big fiasco and has been. I was not under the impression it was only a year thing, but I will contact them and my director to see how they want to proceed if we want to stay or go with another company.”

“I did speak with them and it has taken 5 phone calls over the course of 6 months several disconnection notices that they claimed to me they were going to adjust our account. Again just the other day we received another disconnect notice and I called them on Friday and apparently they only issued us an adjustment from December forward for some reason not November when it had started, and they are saying whatever the promotion was parts are not available.” – P.C. Orinda, CA

Let’s be very clear about this:  This treatment is “vendor abuse”. Service providers have had the ability for MANY YEARS to take advantage of their Clients, and most often do. Unfortunately, that means the business has only 2 options:

1. They can have an internal staff spend hours trying to keep up with the renewals, inventory, billing changes, audits, inspections, expired warranties, agreement promos, 3rd party charges and all the other aspects of contracting with vendors.
2. They can entrust these services to a company that provides a fully managed vendor and supplier service which includes; proprietary software, monthly bill auditing, proactive contract management, document management, compliance notifications, increased efficiency, and maximized profits.

 The choice seems pretty darn simple, doesn’t it?

Imagine all the hours FREED up from resources not having to deal with the frustration of vendor management. Having an EXPERT auditor, contract negotiator and accounts manager creating your unique profile including analytics and visibility into all spend. Having the ability to access all documents, contracts, bills, renewals, compliances, and warranties from ONE CENTRAL LOCATION – 24/7.  That is right, even while key vendor management resources are on vacation or away from the office for any reason,  when an important contact, bill or document is needed it is easily accessible by anyone with credentials.

We understand and respect the services the efforts that internal vendor management resources provide.  But sometimes, they simply cannot dive deep into every bill or invoice and provide the most optimized approach to improving your bottom line.  Sometimes, the only way to do that is by working with cost reduction specialists who do it every single day.

But not every vendor relationship is created equal. A true, risk-based approach requires organizations to first segment their vendors based on pre-determined criteria, and then establish an appropriate level of ongoing due diligence and oversight activities based on the assigned level of risk. And while the specific activities may vary across organizations, there are three types of risk you want to be sure to address.

• Operational Risks
• Financial Risks
• Regulatory Compliance Risk

OPERATIONAL RISKS

Operational risk is the risk that your organization will experience a major failure, shutdown, or unexpected disruption of some segment of your business if a vendor’s processes, people, or systems fail. The operational risk goes hand in hand with your reliance on a vendor and is typically higher with vendors that provide services such as outsourcing, IT systems, and data.

There are two good ways to take a proactive approach and mitigate operational risk: perform periodic on-site and/or due diligence reviews and create a contingency plan should you experience a failure with a risky vendor. These two risk-mitigation activities go hand-in-hand, especially for mission-critical vendors. Monitoring daily performances that don’t meet the standards required is also a good indication that in a time of risk there is a higher risk of disruption or failure.

FINANCIAL RISK

Financial risk is the risk that your organization is negatively impacted financially due to a vendor relationship. This can come in two forms: excessive costs and lost revenue.

Poor Vendor Service due to Finances

Many supplier performance issues are related to finances.

Deliveries were late, and shortages were piling up with no relief in sight. The primary supplier was actively blaming the secondary supplier for the bottleneck, claiming that their supplier was behind in their coating process. They began casting aspersions on the supplier’s lack of process control, communication and even hinted at ethical issues.

While the protocol was for the primary supplier to manage all downstream relationships, this problem had escalated high enough that it was time to call the supplier directly to get to the bottom of the issue and develop a get-well plan.

Negotiating and Enforcing Contract Compliance

Organizations understand the importance of managing competitive solicitations and negotiating good pricing. But negotiating a good price has little to do with managing costs, which comes from enforcing contract compliance, effectively managing the procure-to-pay cycle, and performing periodic cost and contractual audits. It’s the work done after the vendor contract is negotiated that mitigates the risk of excessive costs.

The other financial risk relates to the reliance on vendors who support your revenue-producing activities. Examples include fundraising companies, outsourced service providers, and fulfillment centers, to name a few.

It may also include vendors whose technologies you use to process financial transactions. Problems with these vendors may delay access to revenue or, in the worst cases, result in lost revenue for your organization.

It’s important to identify and segment these types of vendors to design the most appropriate diligence and oversight activities and to also integrate with your vendor management operational risk planning as it relates to contingencies.

Regulatory Compliance Risk 

This has become a HOT TOPIC in many industries. Nonprofit organizations like health plans, healthcare systems, and credit unions, along with those that receive Federal grants, are heavily regulated by Federal agencies. And in many cases, certain regulations pass through to third-party vendors.

Regulatory compliance risk is the risk that a third-party vendor will violate a law or regulation that your organization has placed on them as a requirement for doing business with you.

Ensure your risk management activities enable you to evaluate how well your vendors are complying with the appropriate laws and regulations.

Even though a supplier may be remarkably reliable, the fact that their component or ingredient is essential to your finished product makes them high-risk. Partnering with a company that oversees these risks to proactively avoid business disruption is key to avoiding potential problems.

Audits aren’t just necessary for validating new suppliers––they’re an important tool for maintaining quality and compliance over time. The recent rise in outsourcing only further underscores the importance of having a plan in place to conduct regular evaluations led by skilled quality professionals.

Limitless Technology, LLC has been managing complex indirect spend and vendor documentation since 2006 for some of the largest companies in the USA saving them millions in costs.

Through our Billing Optimization and Vendor Management Solutions proprietary platforms, we utilize technology, processes, expertise, time, and resources to improve our client’s bottom line.

Limitless Technology manages your vendors, so you can manage and grow your business.

For Additional Information Contact us at 407.330.4466

Automatic Renewal Clauses (“ARCs”) or AUTORENEWALS can be golden for business. But for all their perks, ARCs are notoriously problematic. They may irritate customers who’ve missed the termination window, trap businesses in undesirable ongoing agreements, and undermine the validity of entire contracts. They act to perpetually renew a contract when no notice has been given to terminate it. So how can a business ensure they manage their autorenewal contracts to avoid termination penalties, increased fees, and being locked into an unwanted contract.

Keys to Managing Auto Renewals, Todd Larsen, CEO

3 Keys to Managing Autorenewal Clauses

ONE.

When you sign a contract set a recurring alert as a reminder to review the agreement. Organizations especially those with multiple locations have numerous contracts and agreements. Managing them ALL can become overwhelming. In most cases after the contract is signed, it is FILED and FORGOTTEN! Therefore, managing every contract and agreement is a must or the organization can easily miss autorenewals costing them thousands.

TWO.

Review the contract portfolio completely periodically. While it is certainly important to negotiate the best bargain for the organization, contract risk management increases IMMEDIATELY AFTER contract execution. Collecting autorenewal contracts with an unspecified duration for analysis can be TRULY illuminating! Questions to ASK …

• What percentage of all contracts are autorenewals or unspecified?
• How long ago was the oldest review?
• What types of contracts are auto-renewed? What departments, divisions, or subsidiaries are producing the most autorenewal contracts?

THREE.

If you chose auto-renewal contracts TAG them appropriately. One of the MOST COMMON MISTAKES made by finance, legal, and contract management departments is to open the spreadsheet of contracts and leave the “expiration date” blank. With a blank entry, it is not clear whether it was forgotten or if an expiration does not exist.

Most organizations have autorenewal contracts in their portfolio. Chances are that no one knows how many, how much money is at stake, and what the consequences are. With the three simple steps above you can help your organization master these challenging agreements.

The LIMITLESS Vendor Management Solution (VMS) Software is: fully managed software, enterprise-based, and generates high-level spend and vendor management metrics. VMS provides a SINGLE SOURCE tool providing transparency and visibility into all vendor management processes, documentation, invoicing, and costs.

Imagine all of your vendors at your fingertips in one FULLY MANAGED software solution. Tracking and managing contract auto-renewals is only one of the features of LIMITLESS VMS.

With a Vendor Management Solution, contract experts can negotiate a fixed rate for a particular service. The contract terms must be met ensuring that both parties are aware of what is expected and any variances will be flagged and the vendor will be held accountable for any charges and changes outside of the agreed terms.

Limitless Technology, LLC has been managing complex indirect spend and vendor documentation since 2006 for some of the largest companies in the USA saving them millions in costs.

Through our Billing Optimization and Vendor Management Solutions proprietary platforms, we utilize technology, processes, expertise, time, and resources to improve our client’s bottom line.

Limitless Technology manages your vendors, so you can manage and grow your business.

For Additional Information Contact us at 407.330.4466

Vendor management is a core competence in successful business. In a competitive marketplace, businesses must look at creative ways to extract more value from providers, while reducing risk and upholding quality.

Simply beating suppliers down on price year after year is not a sustainable strategy!

Limitless Technology, LLC has been managing complex indirect spend and vendor documentation since 2006 for some of the largest companies in the USA saving them millions in costs.

Through our Billing Optimization and Vendor Management Solutions proprietary platforms, we utilize technology, processes, expertise, time, and resources to improve our client’s bottom line.

Limitless Technology manages your vendors, so you can manage and grow your business.

For Additional Information Contact us at 407.330.4466

Those that lead IT teams should harness this urge for savings by identifying experts (internal and external) that can streamline and standardize vendor processes. At the same time, these experts can reduce the costs that leadership seeks while creating a more organized and cost-efficient structure.

Read more to see a system many IT leaders have implemented across industries to help optimize billing and produce costs savings.

Outsourcing vendor management to a third party will also help standardize processes; and consistency helps enable the transparency essential to effective governance. This helps to alleviate flawed data, and costly mistakes.

Our software will not only house every contract, service agreement, warranty or renewal agreement, but we also manage negotiations for better rates and terms saving your business from unnecessary fees and costs while maintaining quality standards. If you have questions regarding how to manage vendor contracts/agreements or would like more information regarding our fully managed vendor management solution contact LIMITLESS at (866) 504-4050.

“Through 2019, EVERY dollar invested in innovation across a business will require an additional $7 in IT execution, which SVM leaders will have to manage,” said Claudio Da Rold, research vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner.

Knowing the statistics on levels of investment, every business leader has a 7x greater reason to look more deeply into their IT operations and the vendors they choose! The question to ask is, “How do C-Level executives choose the right IT partners when knowing the cost to their organization is incredibly high?

How Do Executives Select the Right IT Vendors?

• When choosing the right vendors and suppliers, there are a few areas of focus:
  • Can the vendor handle the breadth and scope of infrastructure to handle the projects assigned?
    • Proper capabilities
    • Infrastructure in place
  • Does the vendor have a proven record of performance?
    • A History of achieving prior project deliverables
    • Recommendations of business leaders in similar industries

These points are a simple guide to assist leaders in determining the correct resources for their organization when a company directive is rolled out and a new IT resource needs to be chosen.

After Executives Select the right Vendors, Are Systems in Place to Manage Them?

A strong external IT resource will still need a focused system in place to manage their day-to-day impact on your business. However, one major problem in the IT industry is that company’s internal IT teams don’t have the time and, in most cases, the resources to manage their IT, Telecom, and VOIP systems at a micro-level. They are too busy managing the system-wide issues that arise daily and impact employees’ productivity on a ground level.

Often, IT teams leave secondary issues to handle a later time. The problem with these issues is that they often lead to costly expenditures for the organization. A short list of examples below:

• Products/services that are no longer needed by the organization due to a structural change in the business
• Billing discrepancies caused by disconnect from ground-level teams
• Small issues impacting individual locations as opposed to company-wide outages

C-Level executives need to understand the cost impact leaving these issues unresolved can cause their organization. A cost-effective strategy is to employ a third-party organization with the skills and ability to manage the above issues, so that internal resources can focus on “putting out the fires” that are an immediate need.

Find out more about our company and how we assist in managing both processes here.

This includes IT services, office supplies, delivery services, utilities, rentals, and the goods needed to run business day to day. GET entire list of vendors here. When you consider the myriad of services and supplies businesses need in order to operate strategic management of those service providers and vendors – they need to be first and foremost the core of importance, but you’d be surprised at how often it isn’t.

Most companies might think their vendor management solution is “just fine the way it is”, and in some cases that might be true. The real issue is that only a few businesses know exactly what to even LOOK FOR or even where to begin, and without that information they might find that their current process is lacking in more ways than one.

So how do you ensure you have the BEST VENDOR MANAGEMENT SOLUTION?

You must consider availability of all billing, agreements and documentation. How easily accessible is every document related to every vendor? How updated is the information? How efficient is the management process? Do you feel any time is wasted in finding, organizing, interpreting and optimizing? Is billing fair? Are there any errors in billing, oversights, overcharges or invoices for services not even rendered? How often is all vendor related information from billing to contracts evaluated? Rated? What about the quality of the service … Is quality being accessed?

Vendor management is more than getting the lowest price. Most often the lowest price also brings the lowest quality. As the saying goes: “you get what you pay for”. Be careful not to short-change the vendor by trading off quality as this could have a profound impact on your own business. The key is for BOTH SIDES to align on what constitutes as quality and a good value. You and your vendors should be willing to negotiate a fair price while receiving the expected quality. If the vendor is serious about the quality they deliver, they won’t have a problem specifying the quality details in the contract.

Because vendor management inherently means dealing with a great deal of third party businesses, services and providers, it would be ridiculous to assume that one solid strategy will never need tweaking, reviewing and changes as time goes by. Vendors change their prices from time to time and in order to ensure you get the best deal, it’s important to keep an eye on any new pricing, billing or contract changes that could either benefit or hurt your business.

Reevaluating vendors is an essential part to ensuring the “best for the best”. Every time you reevaluate, you’ll find changes – be it somewhere you can save money, somewhere you can optimize efficiency and performance, somewhere you can spend less resources and so on. For these reasons, it’s important to deal with a vendor management service that is always thinking about what to do next…

LIMITLESS offers a fully managed solution to ensure you are “paying for what you are receiving”. Ensuring contract terms are met as well as compliance standards. Tracking any potential risks, optimizing your billing and managing all contract and agreements in one central software solution.

Outsourcing vendor management to a third party will also help standardize processes; and consistency helps enable the transparency essential to effective governance. This helps to alleviate flawed data, and costly mistakes.

Our software will not only house every contract, service agreement, warranty or renewal agreement, but we also manage negotiations for better rates and terms saving your business from unnecessary fees and costs while maintaining quality standards. If you have questions regarding how to manage vendor contracts/agreements or would like more information regarding our fully managed vendor management solution contact LIMITLESS at (866) 504-4050.

These thoughts allowed those brave men and women to over throw the tyranny of rule at that time, and use this independent thinking to drive away from the dictatorship they were under and strive for freedom of: Religion, Speech, Press, Peaceful Assembly and to Petition to Government for a Redress of Grievances.

Yet, this independent thinking was not an opinion of one but of many, and at the end of the day it took a Declaration of Independence with this collective input to drive one INDEPENDENT thought, which governs our nation and has created the ledger of accountability we strive to abide by still today.

In business, we need to also thinking independently and use our wisdom and or experience to shed light onto business practices to improve upon them and to drive profitability. However…certain decisions must not be formed by the opinion of one but, from  a collective independent thought which governs the best return for the entire organization. These thoughts are to come from one man, woman, division or leader but, a singular collective thought for the common good of the business.

In the business of vendor management and cost reduction practices we often see this decision making coming from one division. Historically, a vendor management function reported to areas like information technology, procurement or the chief financial officer. And today with strong risk-related activities, more likely it will sit in compliance or risk management, or even directly to the risk committee depending on the size of the organization.

So how and why is an independent collective thought so important?  Well, for starters, if this discipline reports to a single division, it’s likely to have a very narrow focus or have decisions made predicated only on financial concerns. Additionally, you wouldn’t want it devoted to a specific business line or business activity, as it would be naturally skewed to meet that departments needs first versus the best for the overall organization..

Vendor management and billing optimization services should be an independent group/department inside your company, an individual apart from any one division or outside of your company independent of “organizational blinders”.

Here are 3 important reasons why: 

1. An independent focus outside any one department, provides some a strong degree of autonomy and the ability to audit interdepartmental actions. This of course can only be accomplished with the senior leadership team supporting the thought of a balanced approach to decision making and risk management.
2. Most regulatory guidance is predicated on the board and senior managements involvement. If vendor management is a detached area, then the participation does not get diluted in the day to day work of another business area.
3. The goals of a well-managed third party risk program are far different than the business objectives of any one branch or organization. Therefore, vendor management will stay more on track if it is maintained by a separate group.

Failure to manage your vendors in this way reduces transparency throughout the organization, creates pockets of unnecessary expense, allows cash to be wasted unnecessarily and reduces the overall profitability of an organization which leads to: poor financials, reduced evaluation, lost investors, and often times to the demise of an organization.

However, companies are fixing this problem every day by finding external 3rd party resources to guide them through this independent thinking, and break away from the autocratic or vacuum based decision making and create the appropriate level of vendor accountability, compliance and full transparency needed to manage your vendor risks best in the future.

This IS what our team at LIMITLESS does All Day and Every Day. We take this burden off of your people – so they can focus on the bigger problems they face daily. We partner with each member of your team so they feel confident they can maintain the overall control of these relationships without losing vendors they value however, DO gain the critical accountability and transparency the entire organization needs to make better decisions. The support we provide, like our forefathers provided for us as a nation, allows your independent teams to no longer worry about handling the complexity of these relationships. Instead they can focus on growing the business, taking more overall market share and ensuring the success of your organization.

Contact LIMITLESS today for a FREE CONSULTATION to discover how to get control of your unmanaged spend and reduce expenses in your business.

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Important Agreement signed last week. You ask yourself … “Where is that Contract – I know it’s in HERE somewhere I just saw it last week. I know it was filed … Account name or by service? I can’t find it!” Meanwhile, management is still in meeting waiting for the signed Agreement.

How REFERENCEABLE is your CURRENT VENDOR Database? How quickly could you retrieve files, agreements, contracts, vendor contact information or a particular invoice by date or total amount PAID? How can those documents be retrieved “from another location?”

LIMITLESS Vendor Management Solutions is THE Vendor Management Solution Software that brings Superior Spend Analytics and Visibility within a FULLY MANAGED software solution. Contact LIMITLESS for more information.