Telecom contracts can seem frightening at first if you don’t know what you are doing. Contracts are scary by nature because they are a legally binding commitment that can have long-term consequences. If you are faced with making the decision to sign a telecom contract, take a deep breath and review your options. You may have forgotten to include some crucial terms and there are several best practices to consider before you make a commitment. Follow these tips to ensure you don’t make any mistakes or slip-ups with your next big contract.
Make Every Effort to Create the Best Exit Strategy
The terms and conditions of a telecom contract are crucial. You need to make every effort to ensure that the terms are favorable to you. You won’t always get what you ask for, but you miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.
One of the most important components of a contract is your exit strategy. What if things take a turn for the worse and you no longer want to do business with the company? Will you have any options to protect yourself? If at all possible, you need to include terms that allow you to terminate the contract for any reason with no early termination fees. Usually many find these terms distasteful, but still, you need to try.
Realistic Termination Terms
More realistically, you need to include termination terms if you are dissatisfied with the quality of service. With contracts, nothing is more frustrating than being locked into an agreement while suffering unsatisfactory service with no hope of release. Additionally, if the service provider fails to follow through on their promise, you should be able to terminate with no penalties. Seeking a remedy of specific performance may be an appropriate course of action in these circumstances. However, contract litigation and court battles are lengthy, costly, and generally unfavorable to your business.
Legally Binding SLA Protection
You need to make absolutely sure that you specify what happens in the event that your service provider fails to adhere to the service-level agreement (SLA). It’s a simple fact of life that everything isn’t perfect, and even some of the highest-performing networks and services have flaws. However, an isolated incident is much different from constantly failing to provide adequate service. Be certain you include definite terms that quantify your SLA and what happens in the event of failure. The worst-case scenario in these situations is being forced to do business with a service provider whose service is garbage.
Account for Organizational Changes
You need to understand that a lot may change over the active lifetime of your contract. Businesses are constantly changing, growing, and evolving. If the company you sign a contract with gets bought out or merges with another organization, there could be service-impacting implications for your business. In the event of a merger or acquisition, you need to reserve the right to renegotiate the terms of the contract.
A failure to structure any of these considerations into your next telecom contract can have serious negative consequences for your business. Do your due diligence and make sure you follow these four tips to ensure you don’t get taken advantage of.
[author_bio username=”Ken” name=”yes”]
