IT agreements tend to be read carefully once and then renewed without being read again. Meanwhile the organisation changes: more people, fewer servers, a new building, a move to the cloud.
This is a list you can work through in an hour, with the contract and last month’s invoice in front of you.
1. Does the user count still match reality
Count the people who actually need an account. Agreements written three years ago often bill for a number nobody has revisited, in either direction.
2. Does the device count still match
Servers that were decommissioned, laptops that were replaced and printers that left the building can all still be on the schedule.
3. What is inside the monthly figure
Write down, from the contract, what the monthly amount covers. Then write down, from memory, what you think it covers. The gap between those two lists is the conversation to have.
4. What is billed separately
Project work, out of hours attendance, hardware, licences and travel are commonly outside the monthly figure. That is reasonable. Not knowing it is not.
5. What the response times say
Look for the difference between a response and a resolution. Many agreements promise the first and say nothing about the second, which is normal but worth understanding.
6. How priorities are decided
There should be a definition of urgent that does not depend on who shouts. If the contract has none, agree one in an email and keep it.
7. Who owns the licences
Check whose name the Microsoft or other subscriptions are under, and when they renew. Licences held inside a provider’s agreement are harder to move.
8. Who owns the documentation
You should be entitled to a copy of how your systems are put together, not only to the service. Ask whether that is written anywhere in the agreement.
9. What the notice period and term are
Find the renewal date, the notice period and whether the term renews automatically. Put the date in a calendar with a reminder two months before it.
10. What happens on exit
A good agreement says what the provider will hand over and within how long. If it says nothing, that is worth adding at the next renewal rather than at the point of leaving.
11. What reporting you get
You should be able to see the number of requests, what they were about and which ones repeat. Repeat requests are the most useful number in the whole report, because they show what has not been fixed properly.
12. Whether the price has been reviewed
Many agreements contain an annual increase clause. Check whether it has been applied, and whether the service has changed to match.
How to use the answers
You are not looking for faults. In most cases the agreement was right when it was written and has drifted since. The purpose of the review is to bring the paper back in line with the organisation, and to remove the two or three items that are being paid for and not used.
Take the list to your provider as questions rather than complaints. A provider who welcomes the review is showing you something useful about how they work.
What to do with the answers
The list above produces a page of notes. What turns notes into a better arrangement is the order you raise them in, and the tone.
Separate the three kinds of finding. Some items are simply out of date, such as a user count or a device schedule. Some are gaps, such as no definition of urgent. Some are money, such as licences for leavers. The first group is housekeeping and a provider will fix it in a week. The second needs a short written agreement. The third is a credit conversation and is best raised on its own.
Put the housekeeping in one email. Counts, schedules, contact names, the renewal date. No preamble. Most of it will come back corrected without any discussion, and clearing it makes the larger conversation shorter.
Ask for the gaps to be written down rather than explained. If there is no definition of urgent, ask for one in an email and keep it. If there is no documentation clause, ask to add one at renewal. A verbal assurance about either is worth nothing in eighteen months when the person who gave it has moved on.
Raise money separately and with the figures. Not a complaint, a calculation. Licences for named leavers, with dates. The device removed from the building in March that is still on the schedule. Specific items are dealt with. General dissatisfaction is absorbed.
Put the renewal date in a calendar with a reminder two months before. This single action prevents most of the problems in this article recurring, because it moves the review from something you do when annoyed to something you do on a date.
Decide what you would do if nothing changed. Before the conversation, not during it. Sometimes the honest answer is that the arrangement is adequate and the review was worth doing to confirm that. Knowing your own position keeps the conversation calm and makes the outcome better either way.
A provider who welcomes this review is telling you something useful about how they work. So is one who becomes defensive about a question as ordinary as how many users am I paying for.
If you would rather somebody else read it
We review agreements for organisations that are not sure whether theirs is still fair, including agreements with other providers. We will tell you what looks standard, what looks unusual and what we would change, without asking you to move anything.
See managed IT and outsourced IT for how our own arrangements are written, or send us the agreement and we will come back with notes.