Enterprise Contract Management


Book Description

Globalization, increased economic and geopolitical uncertainty, technological advancements, and a rise in the number of regulations and legislations have led to a significant rise in the importance, volume, and complexity of modern contractual agreements. Yet, in spite of these profound changes, many organizations still manage the contracting process in a fragmented, manual, and ad-hoc manner, resulting in poor contract visibility, ineffective monitoring and management of contract compliance, and inadequate analysis of contract performance. The net effect of this has been a heightened interest in re-engineering and automation of Enterprise Contract Management (ECM) processes across industry sectors and geographies. Enterprise Contract Management: A Practical Guide to Successfully Implementing an ECM Solution addresses all the questions surrounding ECM, ECM solutions, and the project management, change management, and risk management considerations to ensure its successful implementation. This concise text will help your organization manage the challenges of the contract life cycle and the key success factors and pitfalls in a typical ECM solution. It is a must read for corporate executives, buyers, procurement and strategic sourcing specialists, contract administrators and procurement managers. There is currently no other book available on ECM solutions. All existing books on contract management focus on the legal aspects of contracts, but none describe the functions, features, capabilities of technology solutions that support ECM, nor do they explain the key considerations for ensuring a successful ECM solution implementation.




Innovative and Agile Contracting for Digital Transformation and Industry 4.0


Book Description

Digital transformation is reshaping the business arena as new, successful digital business models are increasing agility and presenting better ways to handle business than the traditional alternatives. Industry 4.0 affects everything in our daily lives and is blurring the line between the physical, the biological, and the digital. This created an environment where technology and humans are so closely integrated that it is impacting every activity within the organizations. Specifically, contracting processes and procedures are challenged to align with the new business dynamics as traditional contracts are no longer fitting today's agile and continuously changing environments. Businesses are required to facilitate faster, more secure, soft, and real-time transactions while protecting stakeholders’ rights and obligations. This includes agile contracts which are dynamically handling scope changes, smart contracts that can automate rule-based functions, friction-less contracts that can facilitate different activities, and opportunity contracts that looks toward the future. Innovative and Agile Contracting for Digital Transformation and Industry 4.0 analyzes the consequences, benefits, and possible scenarios of contract transformation under the pressure of new technologies and business dynamics in modern times. The chapters cover the problems, issues, complications, strategies, governance, and risks related to the development and enforcement of digital transformation contracting practices. While highlighting topics in the area of digital transformation and contracting such as artificial intelligence, digital business, emerging technologies, and blockchain, this book is ideally intended for business, engineering, and technology practitioners and policy makers, along with practitioners, stakeholders, researchers, academicians, and students interested in understanding the scope, complexity, and importance of innovative contracts and agile contracting.




Valley of Genius


Book Description

"This is the most important book on Silicon Valley I've read in two decades. It will take us all back to our roots in the counterculture, and will remind us of the true nature of the innovation process, before we tried to tame it with slogans and buzzwords." -- Po Bronson, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Nudist on the Late Shift and Nurtureshock A candid, colorful, and comprehensive oral history that reveals the secrets of Silicon Valley -- from the origins of Apple and Atari to the present day clashes of Google and Facebook, and all the start-ups and disruptions that happened along the way. Rarely has one economy asserted itself as swiftly--and as aggressively--as the entity we now know as Silicon Valley. Built with a seemingly permanent culture of reinvention, Silicon Valley does not fight change; it embraces it, and now powers the American economy and global innovation. So how did this omnipotent and ever-morphing place come to be? It was not by planning. It was, like many an empire before it, part luck, part timing, and part ambition. And part pure, unbridled genius... Drawing on over two hundred in-depth interviews, Valley of Genius takes readers from the dawn of the personal computer and the internet, through the heyday of the web, up to the very moment when our current technological reality was invented. It interweaves accounts of invention and betrayal, overnight success and underground exploits, to tell the story of Silicon Valley like it has never been told before. Read it to discover the stories that Valley insiders tell each other: the tall tales that are all, improbably, true.




Fundamentals of Contract and Commercial Management


Book Description

This ground-breaking title from the world s leading authority on contemporary contracting best practices, the IACCM (International Association for Contract and Commercial Management) delivers a lively and practical complete insight into the contracting process which is useful in both business and personal life. Contracts are the language of business, and this book gives readers the essentials that can make a difference to any deal, no matter how big or small. Designed for the non-contract business professional, this book takes project managers and other professionals through the basic process and gives them a road map to improved results, increased value, and successful outcomes In this book you ll find sensible guidance and approaches to ensure business success. Case studies showing you what can go wrong and what can go right -- bring theory into the real world. Checklists give confidence and enable you to be certain that you have asked and answered the right questions as you go through any deal. This real-world approach demonstrates the value of effective contracting. This is not dry, academic prose. It is compelling and dynamic advice and tools to manage business relationships for both buyers and sellers.




Enterprise API Management


Book Description

A strategy and implementation guide for building, deploying, and managing APIs Key FeaturesComprehensive, end-to-end guide to business-driven enterprise APIsDistills years of experience with API and microservice strategiesProvides detailed guidance on implementing API-led architectures in any businessBook Description APIs are the cornerstone of modern, agile enterprise systems. They enable access to enterprise services from a wide variety of devices, act as a platform for innovation, and open completely new revenue streams. Enterprise API Management shows how to define the right architecture, implement the right patterns, and define the right organization model for business-driven APIs. Drawing on his experience of developing API and microservice strategies for some of the world's largest companies, Luis Weir explains how APIs deliver value across an enterprise. The book explores the architectural decisions, implementation patterns, and management practices for successful enterprise APIs, as well as providing clear, actionable advice on choosing and executing the right API strategy in your enterprise. With a relentless focus on creating business value, Luis Weir reveals an effective method for planning, building, and running business products and services with APIs. What you will learnCreate API strategies to deliver business valueMonetize APIs, promoting them through public marketplaces and directoriesDevelop API-led architectures, applying best practice architecture patternsChoose between REST, GraphQL, and gRPC-style API architecturesManage APIs and microservices through the complete life cycleDeploy APIs and business products, as well as Target Operating ModelsLead product-based organizations to embrace DevOps and focus on delivering business capabilitiesWho this book is for Architects, developers, and technology executives who want to deliver successful API strategies that bring business value.




Principles and Practice of Blockchains


Book Description

This book provides an essential compilation of relevant and cutting edge academic and industry work on key Blockchain topics. This book concentrates on a wide range of advances related to Blockchains which include, among others, Blockchain principles, architecture and concepts with emphasis on key and innovative theories, methodologies, schemes and technologies of Blockchain, Blockchain platforms and architecture, Blockchain protocols, sensors and devices for Blockchain, Blockchain foundations, and reliability analysis of Blockchain-based systems. Further, it provides a glimpse of future directions where cybersecurity applications are headed. The book is a rich collection of carefully selected and reviewed manuscripts written by diverse cybersecurity application experts in the listed fields and edited by prominent cybersecurity applications researchers and specialists.




Weapons System Sustainment Planning Early in the Development Life Cycle


Book Description

According to the Government Accountability Office, sustainment of weapon systems accounts for approximately 70 percent of the total life-cycle costs. When sustainment is not considered early in the development process or as an integral part of the systems engineering design, it can negatively affect the ability of the Air Force to maintain and improve the weapon system once it enters service. At the request of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics, Weapons Systems Sustainment Planning Early in the Development Life Cycle identifies at what point or phase of the development of a weapons system sustainment planning should be integrated into the program; examines and provides recommendations regarding how sustainment planning should be evaluated throughout the development process; investigates and describes the current challenges with sustainment planning and determines what changes have occurred throughout the acquisition process that may have eroded sustainment planning; and identifies opportunities for acquisitions offices to gain greater access to sustainment expertise.







Commercial Management


Book Description

Commercial Management: theory and practice defines the role of commercial management within project-oriented organisations, providing a framework for and helping to develop a critical understanding of the factors that influence commercial management practice. It also identifies generic aspects of this practice and provides a theoretical foundation to these activities, by reference to existing and emergent theories and concepts, as well as to relevant management best practice. The book is structured into four parts: Part 1 Introduction – Commercial Management in Project Environments explores the nature of commercial practice within project-oriented organisations at the buyer-seller interface. It presents a Commercial Management framework, which illustrates the multiple interactions and connections between the purchaser‘s procurement cycle and a supplier‘s bidding and implementation cycles. Additionally, it outlines the principle activities undertaken by the commercial function, identifies the skills and abilities that support these activities and reviews the theories and concepts that underpin commercial practice. Finally, it identifies areas of commonality of practice with other functions found within project-oriented organisations, plus sources of potential conflict and misunderstanding. Part 2 – Elements of Commercial Theory and Practice covers commercial leadership; exploring strategy; risk and uncertainty management; financial decision-making; and key legal issues. Part 3 – Approaches to Commercial Practice addresses best practice management; and commercial and contracting strategies and tactics. Finally, Part 4 – Case Studies offers two extended case studies: Football Stadia (the Millennium Stadium, Cardiff; the Emirates Stadium, Islington; and Wembley Stadium, London); and Heathrow Terminal 5. The book provides a one-stop-shop to the many topics that underpin commercial management practice from both a demand (buy-side) and a supply (sell-side) perspective. It will help develop an understanding of the issues influencing commercial management: leadership, strategy, risk, financial, legal, best practice management and commercial and contracting strategy and tactics. This book’s companion website is at www.wiley.com/go/lowecommercialmanagement and offers invaluable resources for both students and lecturers: • PowerPoint slides for lecturers on each chapter • Sample exam questions for students to practice • Weblinks to key journals and relevant professional bodies