Category Archives for "Contract Negotiations"

Spend Those Year-End Reserves on Help for 2018

By Michael Feit | Benchmarking , Resources

If you are fortunate, you may have leftover dollars on some of your budget lines. Think about how you will spend those year-end reserves to best set yourself up for 2018. Spending remaining 2017 reserves wisely can prove to a great investment in the future.

Provided here are quick, year-end solutions that offer excellent Return on Investment for your 2018 bottom line.

• Benchmark your Lexis and Westlaw Contracts. Feit Consulting will evaluate your contracts, analyzing the Spend Per Attorney, geographical location, practice group mix, and other metrics to provide your firm or organization with a realistic view of how well your pricing and terms are.

• Purchase rich resources specific to an anticipated 2018 project, such as Feit Consulting white-papers.  One of many white papers Feit offers on various legal information management needs is the Sole Provider Viability Decision Guide. This report provides clear steps to analyzing your strategy and evaluating whether vendor elimination is a good option for your firm or organization.

• Schedule a Market Overview Presentation. Gain an understanding of current market trends including pricing stats, strategies and anticipated outcomes for your upcoming contract negotiations – presented in a 1 hour presentation by Feit Consulting Experts.

Contact Feit Consulting today to learn how we can address your legal information year-end needs, and 2018 goals. Click here to get started.

Year-End Special Contract Renewal….Too Good to Be True?

By Kate | Contract Negotiations , Pricing

At this time of year, many firms and organizations are receiving special tidings (or offerings) from their legal information vendors. Perhaps it is a flat annual increase renewal. That may sound enticing but if you consider that your current contract may not have the best pricing and terms, does it make sense to renew it?

Westlaw, Lexis, Bloomberg, WK–virtually all your legal information vendors–provide bonuses and incentives to salespeople who can add incremental sales at the end of the year.

Vendors may offer year-end gifts that on the surface seem quite generous. The resulting variety of offers can be staggering but they can also be tricks. Your firm may be offered price breaks on new contracts, extensions on current deals, trial periods of new products, and the list goes on and on. There may be something hidden in these special tidings. If a vendor has proposed to extend your contract at the same price or slightly lower price, it is very possible your firm is already paying too much.

Be proactive this December! Get the gift you truly want. If you have a wish list, tell your vendor now; you just might get a deal you actually want. Confirm whether your legal information vendor’s latest offer truly is a good tiding; contact Feit Consulting to review and benchmark your pricing and terms.

Contract Red Flags

By Michael Feit | Contract Negotiations , Pricing

Contract negotiations are often not on your list of most fun things to do. It can be a long and drawn-out process. There are many red flags to be aware of when entering the negotiation process.

One is the option of a long-term deal. For some, it can seem ideal to lock in a price and put off the next round of negotiations even farther into the future. However, with rare exceptions, a long-term contract is among the worst paths a firm can choose, for several reasons. The first reason seems obvious: change. Technology and pricing are continuously changing. You wouldn’t buy a plan that kept you from upgrading your phone for five years, would you? The legal-information landscape is rapidly evolving, with exciting acquisitions and new companies/products emerging. These products will continue to pull away use and interest in Lexis and Westlaw. It is always possible that one change in the market could make another product irrelevant. And as Artificial Intelligence rapidly gains momentum, there is much to be seen. Generally, a longer contract benefits the vendor. For legal-information contracts, we always advise keeping the term to within your near- and long-term forecasts; generally, that is three years or fewer, unless you are receiving a truly exceptional deal.

Another red flag is the year-over-year increase. Consider what additional benefits you are receiving for an annual increase. Pay attention to the later-year increases, as these can often be higher than the first-to-second-year increase. Complacency or lack of diligence in managing information resources can have long-lasting unfavorable implications on both processes and costs, thereby hampering overall efficiency.

Another red flag are bundles. Bundling products together can be an advantage for some. However, for many, a new contract bundle may be hiding unnecessary products or content that the firm or organization doesn’t need. Take for instance the cable, internet and phone bundle: if cable companies realized a 35% increase in bundling these products, imagine the increases your legal-information vendors are receiving. Take a good look at the bundle being offered. It could be a great deal, or it might not, but in either case, it is worth investigating.

To learn more about the do’s and don’ts of legal-information contract negotiations, click here.

New Customers Are Treated Like Royalty

By Kate | Contract Negotiations , Pricing , White Papers

It is not unheard of for companies to offer sweet deals to lure in new customers. “Save $15 off your next Lyft or Uber ride”, only to look up the promotion and find out that you are not eligible because it is reserved for new customers.

Similarly, new customers of Lexis and Westlaw are enticed with great pricing, content sets, and contract terms. If your firm has been a long-time customer of either vendor and has not received recent price reductions, it is highly likely that your contracts are unfavorable.

Find out today how your firm’s contracts compare with the market. Feit Consulting offers contract benchmarking services and products, including our white paper, Optimizing Legal Information Pricing.

How Timing Can Impede Contract Negotiations

By Michael Feit | Best Practices , Contract Negotiations

How Feit Benchmarks

By Michael Feit | Contract Negotiations , Feit Consulting

Feit Consulting has legal-information market intelligence dating back to 2001. Each year, Feit Consulting conducts law firm interviews, audits, and surveys. In the last twelve months, we have connected with more than 200 firms, gathering a large array of intelligence to fine-tune our market view. Feit Consulting utilizes an observed median derived from these learnings when developing our benchmarks. The median is our opinion of the mid-mark data point by which half of the market is above and half is below.

Data is continually monitored and benchmarks are recalibrated by Feit Consulting’s Legal Information Research Team. Benchmarks will be tweaked when pertinent market changes take place, influencing the relative strength of each vendor. Pertinent market changes would include a significant new competitor, product features, content, changing preferences, and/or compelling pricing.

Feit Consulting does not disseminate firm-specific information, and is compliant with all signed non-disclosure agreements. Feit Consulting adheres to third-party consultant non-disclosure agreements, and in accordance, does not utilize nor aggregate client information.