Back in August 2020, I posted a blog about SOAR stories. SOAR stories are a fantastic way to reflect on Situations that seemed challenging at the time because of certain Obstacles. In order to succeed, you took Action and the Result was something you can be proud of, and which contributed to who you are today. It built character.
You many think that these stories mean nothing. After all, they are just stories. However, ALL stories have a meaning; ALL stories disclose something about the characters in them. The character-traits are what keep people interested and yearning for more.
The story is only one part of what makes doing this exercise valuable. The more important part is rediscovering who you are at your core and what attributes distinguish you from others when faced with challenges.
I'd like to continue sharing some of my personal SOAR stories and the characteristics that they exhibit.
What are some of your SOAR stories? If you can't see your inner #basass, we can work together to rediscover it! I'd love to hear them and publish them on this blog!
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The end of Fiscal Year was approaching and one of my SaaS vendors’ contracts was expiring. Upon discussions with the supplier, I surmised that there were multiple contracts, on multiple purchase orders across the org, with varied pricing. Rates increased annually between 5% - 20%, depending on the change in volume of subscriptions, or sometimes solely based on the fact that the project owner was unaware that rates were lower elsewhere, and he didn't negotiate the rate or leverage the procurement org.
I decided to push for an umbrella contract that would provide corporate-wide pricing and terms, even though I was working for a particular business group.
If I didn’t negotiate the contract in time, the stakeholders would be out of compliance, or there may be a disruption in service, and I risked upsetting stakeholders both in and out of my organization, who may currently have cheaper licensing costs.
I felt that this was the right thing to do for the company, and it benefited the supplier as well: they no longer had to manage multiple contracts with varied pricing. The administrative efficiencies to be gained were appealing to the supplier.
I negotiated a standard price per license across all users, with a YoY rate increase of no more than 3%. I gave the supplier a 3-year contract, with no guarantees. The users would have the ability to increase or decrease scope without penalties – this was a change from the previous contract. I negotiated a grand-father clause to give users who would be negatively affected price-protection for the first year. In additional to these benefits, this new contract avoided $81K in spend.
In order to avoid disruption in service, I extended the existing contract by 60-days and partnered with Legal to craft a Letter of Intent. This bought me time to finalize the paperwork for a 3-year, $4.8M, deal.