Many large companies have law departments, many small companies generally don’t. So which company is in better position to review and evaluate existing contracts?
The answer is neither or maybe both. The first important question for each is who is actually evaluating the contracts, and just because they have a law degree does not mean that contract evaluation is a specific skill set the individual possess. This author recommends choosing who will provide this function within your company and then makes sure they have the skill set to do their job and stay up to date.
There are any number of contract management certificate programs available from prestigious and well know institutions. To name a few, there is Villanova University, The University of California Irvine and St. Louis University. In addition there are organizations that also offer this training. Probably the most well know is, the National Contract Management Association or NCMA that has been around for over 50 years.
Many of these organizations offer on line courses that can be completed within a reasonable period of time. Many of the University and College courses are actually accredited as well as affiliated with NCMA.
Once you have resources that are certified, provide them with the tools they need to do their job. All companies have 100’s to as many as 1000’s of contracts and most do not have a contract management solution. These solutions today are available via the cloud in Software as a Service models for very little investment. Most of these providers will also assist you in the creation of your Meta data and database population.
Contact SafeSourcing for more information.
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