Practicalities of establishing a Contract Management Center of Excellence

The ongoing challenge of establishing a standardized approach for contract management within an organization continues to be a struggle on many levels. Template and clause consistency, standard approval processes, negotiation best practices, obligation and risk management: these are some of the vexing of issues where ready answers often elude us. Why? Because everyone has just a bit of a different opinion on how to get things done and no one has the time to compare notes and map a path forward. This is problem is greatly compounded for organizations with a global footprint and all of the additional challenges associated with serving the global marketplace. Yet, the inefficiencies, risks, and potential opportunities, when looked at objectively, easily justify the effort to successfully move forward with establishing contracting standards across the organization.\r
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On a practical level, these standards can best be achieved by the establishment of a Center of Excellence or CoE. The concept of the CoE has been in existence for quite some time yet it has not been readily embraced as a formalized and structured framework in the Contact Management ecosystem and we have not realized the material benefits of reduced cost and improved quality through the application of center-based, shared services. It is time to change this and here is how we intend to do so. Thought leaders from British Telecom, Seyfarth Shaw, and the Corridor Company have worked together to provide the first introductory webinar into establishing a Contract Management Center of Excellence. Please join us on October 1st as we share the realities of establishing a CoE with Tim Cummins, CEO of IACCM.\r
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Key discussion topics for our 45 minute session include:\r
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1. Establishing a CM CoE Vision\r
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2. Developing a CoE Roadmap\r
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3. Core Components of a CoE\r
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4. The Role of Shared Services\r
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5. The care and feeding of a CoE