2022 celebrates 35 years of the sourcing industry and we’ve seen an abundance of change over the years, but one thing that hasn’t improved enough is the contracting process. Why are we still negotiating clauses that don’t need negotiating and bringing the lawyers on board too late in the process? With the introduction of so many news technologies, such as AI, which have the potential to transform approaches to contracting, why are we not embracing these positive changes enough? The GSA is resurrecting it’s Contracting Workstream to drive change in the industry and modernise the contracting process and we have identified 4 areas of focus:
Transformation and Change
- Usability challenges with contract changes
- Principles to anticipate and facilitate change
- How to formalise change mid agreement
Workstream output: Playbook for Change
Making Standard Contracts Smarter
- Principles and psychology of contract design
- Leveraging new technologies and automation
- Smart contracts
- Digitalisation of contracts for SMEs
Workstream output: GSA ‘manifesto for smarter contracts’
GSA Standard Terms
- Starting point for contracts to keep them equal with reasonable middle ground
- Working to clauses rather than contract templates
- Help to facilitate the contracting process – how vs what?
Workstream output: Additional standard terms to add to the GSA ‘clause bank’ and amendments / simplification of existing terms
Sourcing Best Practice for Contracting Framework
- Simplifying best practice for contracting
- Achieving balanced contracts and avoiding adversarial approaches (including realism around liability and risk, designing a contract with both parties in mind)
- Quick and faster contracts, risk-based solutions
Workstream output: Agreed principles for what both parties should focus on
We need more of our community to join us in driving this agenda for change so we are calling for more professionals – from buy-side, supply-side and legal firms - to join these working groups and create outcomes that we can present back to the industry. Join us on the 7th September as we take a deeper dive into the above areas and work on the agenda for each of the workstreams moving forward.
