Achieving Improved Contracting

On the Emptoris blog, Kevin Potts reports on a presentation given by IACCM Corporate Member Cisco.

As I have highlighted previously, Cisco is without question a leader in contract management. It has taken steps to ensure clarity of process ownership and devised a collaborative management system, which together ensure continuous innovation and improved efficiency. This has been undertaken with leadership from the Law Department – echoing the points raised in my blog from the European Corporate Counsel Exchange (‘Contract Integrity On the Front Line’ – October 26th). General Counsel Mark Chandler has emphasized his ambtion to ensure that Legal and Commercial resources (buy and sell) are ‘a gateway, not a gatekeeper’.

As Steve Harmon, Senior Director of Legal Services at Cisco, set out in his presentation (on which Kevin reports), this could not have been done without automation. It is the bedrock for policy and process improvement and enables the agility that is so critical to business competitiveness today. I recommend that all those who care about their contribution to the business should read this report – http://emptorisinc.blogspot.com/2010/10/how-is-contract-management-software.html