Newsletter topics: Social Media, Negotiating Software Agreements, Human Resources (HR), Blogging, Knowledge Management, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Workforce Management

• 8 Ways of Using Social Media to Increase Your Following and Page Rank
• A Quick Guide to Negotiating Software License Agreements
• New Rules For Federal Contractors
• Health Information May Be Hazardous To Your Health 
• Buy, Build or Borrow? 
• The case for ERP Super Users: If you are in a hole - stop digging!
• How To Get Where You Want To Go Quicker, By Going Slower!

 

(part 1 of 3)

PART ONE – Recommendations for Leveling the Software Negotiations Playing Field

Most buyers of commercial software products usually negotiate from their software vendor's standard form of EULA and Maintenance Agreement (embedded or stand-alone), whose terms inevitably are terribly vendor-biased and devoid of any buyer protections.  They start negotiations by attempting to "neutralize" the various vendor-biased provisions, without giving any thought to what should be their true end game (addressing their own needs, their expense preferences, elements of risk, etc.).  The fact is, the vendor's terms are typically so vendor-biased that neutralizing them is not of much value to the buyer. 

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It's so hard being good and it used to be so easy. I finished my liver so I'd grow up to be strong and prevent famine in China. I wore galoshes and three sweaters because everyone knew disease came from drafts and I swallowed cod liver oil to ensure that I'd grow up at all.

For the company in need of new knowledge, whether for a specific project or for its ultimate survival, this is the first question that needs to be addressed: how do we choose to gain this new knowledge?  We can buy it, and many companies actively pursue mergers and acquisitions with a specific eye to the technologies [a substitute for knowledge, but often only its most apparent artifact].  Some companies seem to feel that it is some form of “cheating” if you don’t develop it yourself, so they pursue the “build” option, often at great expense with unpredictable outcomes.  Lastly, one can “borrow” the knowledge, my normal contribution, which involves engaging a consultant, for a specific time and a specific task, using that person’s knowledge and then relinquishing any claim to the owner of that knowledge.

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In these recessionary times, companies are focused on delivering more efficient services through Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). Unfortunately, ERP proposals usually require investment and often meet resistance. When the resistance is from senior managers it is all the more challenging... 

I can think of no bigger weakness generally in the ERP world than the big hole between IT (Applications) and the Business - the home of lost ideas, issues, duties, roles, responsibilities, tasks, deliverables, improvements, productivity, solutions, resources, policies, communications etc.  Once a system goes live, often the momentum for improvement disappears with it. 

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Have you ever noticed when you are in traffic and in a hurry to get somewhere, it is almost impossible not to creep up closer to the person in front of you?  It is as if by this act of creeping, it is possible to make the car in front move faster so that we can get where we want to go quicker.
 
But, have you ever thought what happens when someone starts to creep up too close behind your own car.  Do you accelerate away smartly leaving them to catch up or do you slow down?
 
The fact is, we are all human beings and the human reaction to being pushed in one direction is to resist and (frequently) push back in the opposite direction.  (Remember what happens when a teenager is told to clean their room?)

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Bruce Newman is the editor-in-chief of the PI Newsletter.  Contact him at: newsletter@prodinst.com

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