February 2013 - In today’s IT organization, the employment of effective negotiating and contracting strategies is crucial for operational success. Internal IT teams work with a potential myriad of vendors and strategic partners to deliver a set of cost-effective capabilities that ensure a carrier’s competitive positioning. Beyond that is the need to help facilitate (if not drive) innovation while being ever-mindful of extreme cost pressure induced by a combination of competitive forces and a low interest rate environment. In this brief, Novarica provides a set of action items that can improve the value generated from contract development while avoiding the hangover that can come from haste or miscalculation.

Contents
Key Points…2
RFI/RFP Process…3
Financial and Risk Thresholds…4
Contracting Strategy…4
Organizational Responsibilities…5
Vendor Relationships…6
Refine the “Win”…6
Maintain Your Options…7
Referenceable Customers…7
Learn…7
Third Party…8
Manage Contracts…8
Concluding Thoughts…9
About Novarica…11