When clients and suppliers form business contracts, neither side ever starts off ‘expecting’ failure. However, that does not mean planning for this eventuality should be overlooked. Both parties need to have suitable contractual provisions in place to avoid the possibility…

One of the most common mistakes organisations make is not planning their vendor termination strategy as carefully as they planned choosing their strategic vendor in the first place. Getting out of the agreement (safely and quickly) often takes more work…

New York-based turnaround management specialists, Alvarez & Marsal, were appointed as administrators of NMC Health after irregularities were discovered in the company’s accounts. By the end of 2020, it was reported they had issued a ‘preliminary notice’ of a potential…

The urge to exit a failed strategic supplier or outsourcing relationship can be so strong that clients leap to instruct their lawyers before they have fully assessed the operational (as opposed to contractual) risks of getting out of a failed contract, early. In short, they do not…

Deciding to terminate a strategic supplier contract before the end of its contract term, is a major undertaking. It poses a real risk of disrupting your organisation’s operations. It is also a significant drain on your time and potentially very…

When considering what you need for your early contract termination evidence and to make the process as smooth as possible, you will need robust evidence that your strategic supplier has failed to achieve the business outcomes you expected. In preparing…

In a recent PAC (Public Accounts Committee) report titled Brexit Consultancy Costs, the committee brought to light the government’s £97m spend on consultancy firms (up to April 2019). It suggested this spend seemed to fail the government’s own standards in…

Wouldn’t it be nice if client-vendor relationships always followed a clearly defined path with all parties focused on doing their best to live up to the business outcomes they agreed to at the outset? I can almost hear you nodding…

If matters have come to a head and no matter what you’ve tried, your IT vendor is simply unable to deliver its solutions to your expectations, then you may have to begin the process of project termination. This decision should…

The collapse of UnitingCare – the multi-million pound collaboration between an NHS consortium and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough CCG to provide ‘older people’s and adult community services’ in the region – has had an unprecedented impact on the sector. It has…

A mutual decision has been taken between The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group (CPCCG) and UnitingCare to end their five-year, £800m health services contract, after just eight months. It’s the latest in a long line of major outsourcing relationships…

With the New Year comes new challenges for Cornwall Council as it starts to regroup after its dispute with BT, over their 10-year £300m outsourcing contract, came to a dramatic end before Christmas. But what led these two parties, so…

A date has been set for Cornwall Council to meet BT in the High Court. On 1 December 2015, both sides will have the opportunity to explain just why the ten-year £300m outsourcing contract that bound them together was ended…

Two weeks before the 2015 general election, David Cameron visited Halifax to assure residents that the A&E department of the embattled Calderdale Royal Hospital would not face closure. “After the election we want to do what we’ve done with other…

How to plan a negotiation in an exit strategy? Many would assume that all that’s needed is to follow the roadmap set out in a contract or to prove some deviation from a contractual obligation so then the relationship could…

The early termination of any major commercial relationship for a high-visibility organisation will inevitably cause ripples in the marketplace. The effects of which – like the infamous ‘chaos theory’ that starts with a butterfly flapping its wings – are difficult…

‘Chief Executives beware’ was the implied message from UNISON in respect of a recent employment tribunal decision that went against Barnet Council. UNISON’s recent press release suggested it was celebrating the conclusion of their “two year battle” against Barnet Council…

It was only last week that we were (or so we thought) reporting on BT’s latest public sector partnership issues with One Connect and Lancashire County Council… and yet it’s BT’s relationship with Liverpool County Council that is in the…

When entering into a new strategic relationship for outsourcing or a major technology solution project, the agreement at some point in its formation will be subjected to time pressures from internal or external sources. It could be that the client…

The statistics are overwhelming; nearly 50% of strategic vendor relationships end in failure. If matters have come to a head and no matter what you’ve tried, your strategic vendor is simply unable to achieve the business outcomes you expected, then…

Most organisations, whether in the public or private sector, are under extreme pressure to cut service costs – and quickly. But they also remain under pressure to keep service levels as high as they possibly can. And minimise complaints from…

Outsourcing has once again been in the public eye due to two recent high profile project failures. Last month, MI5 abandoned its reported £90m digital records management system over concerns that implementation of the system would lead to an “intelligence…

Prematurely terminating an outsourcing relationship is something you should really try to avoid at all costs. Those are the words we typically tell to every single prospective client we speak to who are at their wit’s end with their strategic…

Failed outsourcing relationships are a really painful experience to go through. If you are in a strategic relationship that is not achieving your business outcomes then you will have tried many actions in an attempt to encourage the vendor to…

In last week’s post on using an expert to fix a failing provider relationship we touched upon the fact that repairing a relationship is almost always better than terminating one. Termination is a rocky road to travel down. The potential…

It’s a common situation. An organisation is very disappointed with what they perceive to be a failing provider relationship, unsatisfactory service delivery from a strategic provider, and they want out of the contract. They appreciate that exiting a service provider,…