Programme

• Contracts in Context: Understanding the Role and Value of Contracts

  The role of contracts in the commercial environment: the cost benefit analysis curve
  Identifying areas of exposure and risks
  Defining key aspects of the Contractual Relationship
  Understanding key Principles of Law
  Outlining Essential Clauses
  Key areas requiring protection
  Potential "War Zones": How to Avoid Conflict

• Building a Successful Relationship between Buyer and Seller

  Clarifying objectives of buyer and seller
  Defining specifications, requirements and bills of quantity
  Pre-tendering stages – effective briefing
  Analysing and evaluating the response
  Key criteria for selecting the short list
  Tendering procedures

• Honing your Negotiation Skills

  The psychology of negotiation
  Preparation and planning
  Drafting the agreement
  Negotiating techniques
  Evaluating the pros and cons of ‘soft’ vvs ‘hard’ approaches
  Negotiating in teams

• Case Study: Understanding The Supplier Perspective

  What are the Ingredients of a Successful Tender?
  How Customer and Supplier can both Win
  Creating an Effective Service Relationship
  Building in Futures

• Understanding the Purchaser’s Perspective: Examining the Contract

  Specifying the key constituents of a ‘good’ contract
  Protecting yourself by incorporating penalties
  Recognising the implications of recent law

• Enforcement and Dispute Resolution

  Common causes for disputes
  Effective methods for resolving disputes
  A guide to levying penalties
  Terminating contracts and the legal ramifications

• Drafting the Contract

  Identifying your key objectives
  Ensuring effective communication between parties
  Closing loopholes
  Highlighting danger areas
  Defining terms and conditions

• Managing Risk Through Effective Contract Drafting

  Common risks in contracts
  Constructing clauses to minimise risk
  Implementing risk management techniques

• Common Real-Life Contract Scenarios

  Model conditions
  Enquiry and bid
  Fixed price
  Limit of liability

• Establishing and Measuring Standards of Supplier Performance

  Creating a successsful contracts management structure

  - role of the project manager
  - role of the contracts administrator

  Effectively managing transition
  Creating effective Service Level Agreements – example
  Ensuring you achieve your quality criteria
  Setting and monitoring targets
  Reviewing common methods of measurement:- CPA, PERT and GANTT
  Establishing Key Performance Indicators, benchmarking and milestones
  Escalation and problem resolution

• Controlling Your Contracts

  Ensuring delivery to time and budget
  Handling variation to specification: pricing, approval and change management
  Maintaining positive relationships
  Trouble shooting tactics
  Motivating and managing contracts staff
  Ensuring effective supply to meet business needs

• Summary, Forum and Discussion

Books by Kingswell Consultants

Books on Service Management

Hiles, A. N. The Complete Guide to IT Service Level Agreements, Matching Service Quality to Business Needs.. ISBN 0-9641648-2-5 published by Rothstein Associates Inc.  The standard work on IT Service Level Agreements.

Hiles, A. N. E-Business Service Level Agreements: Strategies for ISPs, ASPs, *SPs and CLECS.  Published by Rothstein Associates Inc.  The first book to deal specifically with e-commerce Service Level Agreements.

Hiles, A. N. Service Level Agreements, Winning a Competitive Edge for Supply and Support Services.  ISBN 0-9641648-4-1published by Rothstein Associates Inc. This book applies Service Level Agreements to services other than IT. Real case studies and example SLAs are provided ranging from Human Resources, Logistics, through Training, Livestock Handling, Logistics and Field Service Engineering.

Hiles A.N. and Gunn, Dr. Y. Creating a Customer-Focused Help Desk: How to Win and Keep Your Customers. Published by Rothstein Associates Inc. ISBN 0-9641648-6-8 This book has the support of the Help Desk Institute www.helpdeskinst.com

Books on Business Continuity

Hiles A.N. Business Continuity Management: Best Practice. Published by Rothstein Associates Inc. ISBN 0-9641648-3-3.  This book explicitly covers all the ten areas of business continuity competence required for membership of the Disaster Recovery Institute International (DRII) and the Business Continuity Institute (BCI).

Hiles A.N. Enterprise Risk Assessment & Business Impact Analysis – Best Practices ISBN 1-931332-12-6 Published by Rothstein Associates Inc. Covers many techniques and methods of risk and impact assessment with detailed examples and checklists.

e-Publication. Kingswell books on Business Continuity, Service Level Agreements and  Help Desk Management will shortly be available by page download in conjunction with Rothstein Associates Inc and Books24x7.com.

New and updated books. Existing  books Business Continuity Management – Best Practice and IT Service Level Agreements have been extensively updated. See our products page or visit www.rothstein.com .

All the above books can be obtained from:

Rothstein Associates Inc.
4 Arapaho Road
Brookfield
Connecticut
0608-3104 USA

www.rothstein.com

e-mail pjr@rothstein.com

Telephone: USA: 1-888-ROTHSTEIN
Worldwide: +1 203 740 7400

Hiles A.N. Guide to Risk Management. Published by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales.

Hiles A.N. and Barnes, P. (Editor and main contributor) The Definitive Handbook of Business Continuity Management, John Wiley & Sons, 1999, ISBN 0 471 98622 4.

Hiles, A.N. (contributor), Croner’s Purchasing and Supply Guide to I.T., 1994, ISBN 1 85524 271 0

Hiles, A.N. (contributor), Guide to Business Continuity Management, 1999, for the Confederation of British Industry by Caspian Publishing

Hiles A.N. (contributor) Business Continuity Management, 2000, Institute of Directors / Department of Trade & Industry.