One of our associates went rogue and contracted directly with the publisher. I think they committed to spend an extra $60,000. Can Couranto help?
That’s an email I received in October. Nobody wants it to happen, but nevertheless, it happens more often than you’d imagine.
This client in particular -- a multinational bank -- and its many subsidiaries around the world, rely upon Couranto’s Clarity License Management Platform and the Couranto team for their publisher negotiations, as well as benchmarking terms and managing their group licenses and digital and print subscriptions. Ironically, they had reached out to Couranto for this very reason -- for help in avoiding rogue license orders and duplication.
Rather than allowing each subsidiary -- or worse yet, each individual office -- to negotiate with publishers directly (and therefore blindly), this client had recently deployed the Couranto Clarity Platform to consolidate and leverage their collective purchasing power. They had also begun aligning their contract stakeholders with the Couranto publisher relations team, to benchmark their pricing against cross-industry standards, and take advantage of the most favorable rates and publisher terms. With Clarity, the Bank also enhanced their productivity and efficiencies by integrating their Information Acquisition Page with their eProcurement Platform (Ariba) yielding one consolidated system to provide users with ready access to content, and administrators and finance managers with a convenient but powerful contract and spend management tool.
When the Couranto team discovered the client’s dilemma, the Customer Support and Publisher Negotiations teams leapt into action. Communicating transparently and frequently with the publisher, the contract stakeholders and client procurement, we discovered that not only had the associate negotiated independently, but had in fact agreed to pay a significantly higher rate per user – at cost not only higher but also redundant to the client. Further investigation revealed that other subsidiaries had also signed independent agreements over the prior months, at a higher usage rate. Through the Couranto team’s relationships and distinctive negotiating position, we were in a unique position to help.
The Couranto team capitalized on our long-standing relationships to work with the publisher, advocating for our client to receive the true benefits of group purchasing -- a lower cost per license, and better economy of scale. Working closely with client stakeholders and publisher account groups in the U.S., EMEA and Asia, in a matter of hours the Couranto group was able to consolidate the rogue contracts into the master corporate licensing agreement and successfully enhance the economy of scale for all subsidiaries and offices.
Additionally, as part of the conversation, the Couranto team advocated for a simplified contract with a streamlined process for adding additional seats to reduce the client’s staff time, increase institutional efficiencies, and enhance the group purchasing power. To help prevent similar situations from occurring in the future for this and other clients, the Couranto team created a custom landing page and banner where individual users, procurement specialists, and others involved in the usage and licensing process are easily alerted and informed of the specialized rate and procedure to renew their subscription to this publication.
Couranto Clarity and the Couranto team’s stellar industry relationships and skillset saved this client, partner, and trusted financial institution $80,000 annually -- more than a quarter million USD over the life of the contract -- and positioned them to enhance their delivery of information to users as well as cost savings through economies of scale.
Interested in what Couranto can offer your business?
Contact Nick Collison for more information.
