Don't Rollover for Rollovers

There were 10 contracts running and the little one said, "Rollover, rollover..." It's not, perhaps, quite as catchy as the old nursery favourite, but it is oh so true - with potentially hundreds of contracts running at any one time for any one business, keeping track of them all can become a losing battle. And that means, one by one, they rollover.

A rollover contract is one which, unless you say otherwise, will simply continue once it gets to the end of its term. It's likely you've got a number of them on your personal accounts too; car insurance, home insurance, various forms of utilities... They all just keep going until you tell them to stop.

It's useful though, isn't it? It's a handy thing, this rollover business. Surely it means you don't have to think about your contracts, you don't have to delve deeper down into what you are paying? Well, that's true. But that's not a good thing for your organisation, even if it's exactly what the companies behind these rollovers are hoping will happen.

The cost of a rollover contract is substantial. Or it can be. But no one will ever know that if they don't do a little digging before that point of no return when the rollover happens and they're stuck with whatever it is they're paying for - at whatever rate the provider has chosen - for another year. That's not even fantastic if you do want the service, but what if you don't? What if you've decided that you simply no longer need it, yet, because of the rollover nature of the contract, you end up being stuck with it for another year (or more!), paying out, month after month, for something entirely useless - lots of wasted money.

Forewarned is forearmed

So it's important to know when your rollover contracts are going to end. Or at least come up for renewal - after all, a true rollover contract never really ends, and that's the issue that organisations are facing on a monthly or annual basis. But knowing when the next rollover is due is essential. If you know when, you can put some time aside to do something about it. You can negotiate. You can get yourself a better deal. You can save money. Or, if all else fails, you can move away from one company and start with another. Knowing when the rollover is going to happen puts you in the perfect position for negotiation. You're in control. And unless whatever you're negotiating about is a peculiarly unique product or service, they need you far more than you need them.

But you can only do this if you're in the know

That's where our contract management solution - intelligentcontract.com - can help. With easy to set up alerts sent straight to your inbox letting you know exactly when you need to act, you can be sure that your organisation in a great position to avoid those costly rollovers. And with a licence for our software starting at just £29 per person per month, avoiding just one of those rollovers pays for the software for a year.

For more information, to get a free trial or to organise a demo give us a call on 0333 344 3905 or click at www.intelligentcontract.com