Contract management software brings savings.

PositionBusiness Briefs

Do you know what all your various contracts say, and if you are losing money because you aren't meeting their terms? Many big corporations don't have an adequate handle on those questions, says Mark Friedman, CEO of Accruent, a Santa Monica, Calif.-based software firm doing "enterprise contract management." Companies the firm has worked with, like Morgan Stanley or Viacom Inc., may have 10,000 or even 100,000 contracts in force, filed away in many locations, and may have not be on top of the details, he says.

"Large companies are very good at negotiating contracts. The challenge they face is that they are not good at enforcing conditions and provisions in these contracts," Friedman says. "There is a lot of what we call "leakage," and they tend to pay amounts that are different than what is stated because of cancellation clauses, thresholds and the like. This is stuff they fought for, but they don't enforce."

Friedman says that the biggest issues for companies in this area now are:

* Expense reduction. Whether it's real estate or information technology, there are indirect costs that companies are keen to swueeze dollars out of, gain operational efficiencies and improve their return on investment.

* Risk. Friedman says companies are still skittish about...

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