3 ways proactive contract management will set your enterprise apart

Tim Cummins, CEO of IACCM,
comments on contract management

We are excited to kick off a new series with the International Association for Contract & Commercial Management (IACCM). If you are not familiar with IACCM, it is a global community of senior contracts, sourcing, legal and commercial management executives and managers. We’ve been a member of the IACCM for five years and value its insight on contract best practices and operational excellence within organizations.

First up in our series is a guest post by Tim Cummins, President and CEO of IACCM. Tim works with leading corporations and public and academic bodies, supporting executive awareness and understanding of the role that procurement, contracting, and relationship management play in 21st century business performance and public policy. You can read more of his thoughts on managing trading relationship in the global networked economy on his blog, Commitment Matters.

ERD makes impact on Impax

Impax implements ERD solutions

We've already introduced you to Enterprise Revenue Dynamics and shared what we believe is the importance of integrating contracts, pricing, and compliance. So how are organizations actually putting these principles to use in the enterprise?

Impax Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ: IPXL) is putting ERD solutions into action. Impax first implemented Revitas solutions in its generics division, and has now upgraded to the Flex platform and expanded the solution to its branded division. Impax cited ERD’s increased efficiencies and automated abilities as two of the key factors in its decision to expand its use of Revitas solutions.

Sarbanes-Oxley and the contract management conundrum

Contracts, the foundation of SOX compliance

It’s been almost 10 years since the passing of Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), and the debate still rages on over its benefits and impact on the American economy. However, there is no doubt that the past decade has been free from major accounting scandals from corporations akin to those that sparked the act, like Enron and WorldCom. And most companies are finding that their books are correlating better with reality as a result of improved accounting practices. Although vilified by critics over the years, SOX seems to be serving its purpose.

Sunshine Act controversy: the great bagel debate

This post is the second of a six part series on the Physician Payment Sunshine Act, which was kicked off earlier in the week with The Sunshine Act 101. 

Point counterpoint: the Sunshine Act dispute 

As we’ve explored already, the Sunshine Act is new legislation within the Affordable Care Act that requires drug and medical device manufacturers to annually report payments and other transfers of value to physicians and teaching hospitals. Payment information will be published on a public website where patients can search for their doctor to see what he or she has been paid by pharmaceutical and medical device companies.

Not surprisingly, the Sunshine Act has been controversial. Some see the merits of the legislation and believe it will reduce overall healthcare costs, while others think it will turn back the clock on medical innovation. Two recent op-eds in The Wall Street Journal and The Huffington Post epitomize the two sides of the controversy. In a piece entitled "Who Paid for Your Doctor’s Bagel," Dr. Thomas Stossel, a Harvard Medical School physician, takes a clear stand against the legislation. Just two days later, Dr. Marilyn Wedge responded with a counter argument, "The Million Dollar Bagel: Harvard Doctor Fights Back." Let’s take a look at where the two sides differ on the issue.

Start your engines: Revitas launches new blog

Revitas kicks the blog into high gear

Revitas is revving up our new blog. Welcome!

We’re striving to offer business leaders critical insights into Enterprise Revenue Dynamics, the intersection of contracts, pricing, and compliance, through a steady drumbeat of blog posts, podcasts, white papers, webinars, videos, and other media.

3 tips to keep your sales team on top from best-in-class management experts

Sales 2012: tried-and-true tips

How many of these have you heard?

“Our cost of sales is too high!” 

“We don’t convert enough leads into sales.” 

“Our average deal size is too small.” 

Sound familiar? It’s no secret businesses are continually looking for new ways to cut costs and streamline their business processes. Last week Peter Ostrow of Aberdeen Group and Lise Neely of Revitas hosted a discussion on how sales organizations within best-in-class companies are meeting and surpassing the most common challenges facing them today. If you missed it, you can listen to a replay of the webinar, but here are some important takeaways.

A bold new idea: Enterprise Revenue Dynamics for better contract management, pricing, and compliance

The ERD wheel: an integrated solution for success

As a technology marketing professional, I am usually wary of creating definitions -- people like to use their own words to describe a new idea or approach, and it can be tough to create a common vision. But the idea of Enterprise Revenue Dynamics has such transformative potential for businesses that I’m going to give this a shot:

Enterprise Revenue Dynamics (ERD) is a strategic, integrated approach to managing business-to-business contracts, pricing, and compliance.

The Sunshine Act 101

The Sunshine Act sheds light on
payments for physicians

Regardless of where you stand on the political spectrum, from a business perspective, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is law. This means pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers need to understand the letter of the law, know how it affects their operations, and ensure they are compliant with it.

One component of the ACA that is of particular interest to our customers is the Physician Payment Sunshine Act (the Sunshine Act). We’re introducing an ongoing blog series on the Sunshine Act to highlight the many implications and facets of the legislation for your business and to help get you thinking about a strategic approach.

Project managers: Why your contract management software needs a red zone strategy

There’s a lot of software that’s easy to install and get started with, and a lot of companies do well with a basic installation. But even the best software, especially when it’s deployed in critical areas like compliance management, can benefit from having a project manager involved. I can speak to this from personal experience from what I've observed in Enterprise Revenue Dynamics, but I assure you that this applies to other areas of business as well. Let me unpack it from my perspective and you’ll see what I mean.

Contract management software:
the project manager is your quarterback

First, it’s true that the basic installation of contract management solutions is straightforward when performed by properly certified staff. Suite configuration to perfect a customer’s experience, however, involves a team of subject matter experts, the composition of which varies based on a host of factors. Most companies in the enterprise require a custom configuration to optimize the software for their specific needs. This kind of optimization is critical for an industry like contract management, where a mistake can bring heavy fines. Enter the project manager.

Risky business: Balancing operational efficiencies with 340B and Part D Coverage Gap Program compliance

340B and Medicare Part D: tackling
compliance challenges

There are certain evergreens in the pharmaceutical industry. One, in particular, is a challenge for pharmaceutical organizations to answer: “How do you comply with government regulations, while remaining operationally efficient?” Compliance always infers additional costs and unfortunately, the core competencies of a pharmaceutical company are in drug discovery and development, not necessarily compliance paperwork to satisfy regulators.

Today pharmaceutical organizations are dealing with balancing the compliance mandates of the 340B Drug Pricing Program and Medicare Part D Coverage Gap Program provisions in the Affordable Care Act of 2010. Organizations have the difficult task of giving the government what it wants while keeping the organization well-oiled and running efficiently.

5 predictions for business intelligence in 2012

There has been a steady transformation of the business intelligence (BI) space which can be categorized into the “three C’s”: consolidation, consumerization, and commoditization. Back in 2010, global spending on BI, analytics, and performance management applications increased 13.4 percent to $10.5 billion, according to research by Gartner. As organizations embrace new technology and market trends, they are slowly changing what types of BI and analytics they use, how they gather them, and where they obtain them from.

Look into our crystal ball for
2012 BI predictions

BI has become a commoditized business driver that delivers quick, high-value solutions to the enterprise and will continue to attract enterprise attention as the need for uniformed insight into organizational data grows. The continued pull from the market, paired with vendor innovation, will result in additional performance and usability enhancements to help drive insight into the hands of the entire enterprise. But what does this mean to you, the users of BI software?