Painlessly Negotiating a SaaS Deal

Repeat after me – "The vendor's form does not protect my interests. The vendor's form never accurately reflects the deal. I am a quality leader and I therefore require agreements that reflect the understanding between the parties."   

It takes leadership to create a culture where your company insists on clear understandings with its vendors and partners. A mature contracting process is a sometimes overlooked component in a bigger process whose goal is to ensure successful technology implementations. A company does not enter into contracts to set up lawsuits, but to prevent them. This course will cover legal issues as well as business and leadership skills, including specific contracting issues in the context of how this relates to successful projects. SaaS is still relatively new for most enterprises and it is a complete break from the old licensing model. SaaS deals raise many complex legal issues that need to be thoroughly negotiated.   

In this course, Mark Grossman, an accomplished technology lawyer and author, speaks to the unique customs, usages, and norms of SaaS deals, and the particular provisions that are critical to agreements in this area. The discussion includes issues common to SaaS agreements including intellectual property, warranties, and limitations of liability. 

Learning Objectives: 

I.     Identify key provisions that should be included in every SaaS contract

II.    Understand how limitation of liability clauses can weaken SaaS agreements 

III.   Decide how best to protect your data in the cloud 

IV.   Recognize how intellectual property provisions in SaaS agreements can be a trap for the unwary 

V.    Develop strategies to keep SaaS agreements out of court

VI.   Grasp how to negotiate cloud and SaaS agreements that communicate the deal in clear, simple, and unambiguous terms and reduce the likelihood of disputes