Contracts Management &
Outsourcing Governance
Responding to the Unexpected in Contracts
Rapidly changing business conditions during the life of all services contracts require more than a lawyer or contracts administrator pulling out a copy of the contract and telling you what it says. Understanding the full range of legal, contractual and managerial responses to an issue, then moving quickly and decisively to resolution, reduces exposure to risk and gains advantages for the party taking action. Our company’s exclusive focus on contracts management, our dedication to a retained or part time consultancy model, and our flexible pricing arrangements allow us to serve clients with all of the effectiveness of an internal contracts management staff, but with the added advantages of a third party advisor.
Agile Contracts Management (Agile CM)—skilled, real time use of contract interpretation, program management, performance measurement, change orders, dispute resolution, subcontracting, intervention in difficult negotiations and renegotiation, termination and close out, and preparation of breach claims—is what James River calls its consultancy-based approach to addressing client contract management needs. The agility and competency we offer works regardless of the size of the client company, the industry, the response time, or the potential for damage to profits and business reputation.
James River's Contract Management Consultancy Model
Purpose Driven Governance™: Unifying Contractual and Relational Governance Approaches
Outsourcing is a dilemma for most businesses. The benefits of outsourcing are easily recognizable, but historically outsourcing deals have often ended in failure. Outsourcing should lead to tighter management of operations, but few companies have any idea how much their outsourcing costs or if it is in fact meeting business objectives. Outsourcing requires a contract or other type of legal transaction, but it seems impossible to reduce the complexity and change inherent in outsourcing to contract terms.
Although there are no easy answers to outsourcing’s problems, James River has developed a better way of tackling them, by knowing what to put into outsourcing contracts, what to leave out, and how buyers and providers of outsourcing and long, complex services can mutually work to manage outsourcing risks, reduce transaction costs, and optimize their chances for success. Purpose Driven Governance™ is a decision workflow that looks at classic contract law, well known project management techniques, and recent relationship management approaches on a common spectrum. Within the framework of the services contracts lifecycle, Purpose Driven Governance™ serves as a roadmap for parties to collaborate in negotiation and management of the engagement.
James River's
Purpose Driven Governance™ Decision Workflow
Using Contracts To Manage Regulatory, Corporate, and Social Program Compliance
Governance-Risk-Compliance (GRC) is on the minds of all companies regardless of their size or whether they are public or private. Aren't sales and supply contracts a primary means by which any business generates financial reporting data? It stands to reason that contracts should also be a platform from which companies control financial reporting in fulfillment of Sarbanes Oxley. The same reasoning stands for implementing corporate governance initiatives like enterprise risk management (ERM) under the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations (COSO) Integrated Framework, complying with laws and regulations like the Buy American provisions in the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, and incorporating environmentally sound business methods like the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. But, amazingly, there is little to no recognition within the professional risk management community of the effectiveness of contracts in meeting GRC objectives.
GRC Through Contracting (GRCX) is James River’s way of leveraging written contract terms and contracts management resources for corporate governance, risk management and regulatory compliance. Contract management can serve a pivotal role in any ERM program in ways such as the following;
- Adhere to risk appetite guidelines in customer and supplier relationships
- Identify risk events, measure probabilities, and treat risks through contract negotiation and drafting
- Control risk through management of contract performance
- Capture and communicate information on risk management program success, affect program changes, and input program data into GRC software systems
- Mandate compliance by the enterprise both internally and externally with applicable laws, regulations, and corporate and social policies
