Contract Management - Realizing the Savings
I always say that half the challenge in succeeding in business is having a good contract in place with your customers and suppliers. There is a good podcast (Contract Management -the Next Level of Procurement) out that talks about the other half with suppliers: realizing the savings with a contract. It is easy and I think quite common for a procurement office to award a contract and then put out an internal announcement that they saved the company so many millions of dollars. In reality they have not saved the company any money yet. The real savings comes with the proper execution of the contract. That is where you need to track and have contract metrics to measure the actual savings as they occur. If you do not, you are sure to have revenue leakage.