I received multiple e-mails about last week’s post on IACCM’s Top Negotiated Terms. In the post, IACCM President and CEO Tim Cummins and I raised concerns that supply and contract managers were spinning their wheels by rehashing and renegotiating standard T’s & C’s, inhibiting their ability to collaborate with trading partners on what really matters: maximizing and continuously improving the value achieved from buyer-supplier relationships.

While agreeing with the premise, Supply Excellence readers asked an even greater question: what can we do about it?

Now I don’t want to steal the thunder from this week’s Top 5 Supply Strategies webinar on Sure-Fire Contract Compliance Strategies, but I will share some tips and resources you can put into use to streamline contracting and agreement management at your organization. From my experience with over 170 contract lifecycle management solution customers and from rubbing elbows at IACCM Conferences and other industry events, I have uncovered the following best practices for contract compliance:

• Use standard contract language and templates.
• Standardize methods and procedures across the full contract lifecycle.
• Automate contracting and management proceses.
• Ensure support at the top — and in the trenches.
• Align policies, performance, and incentives to drive compliance.

But don’t take my word for it. Hear first-hand how Qualcomm has used these and other strategies to streamline contracting and improve agreement management performance by attending the Sure-Fire Contract Compliance Strategies webinar tomorrow. There’s still time to register for free here.