Contracts & Commitments

To remain competitive, businesses recognize that when managing customer relationships, one size does not fit all. Each customer is different with different needs and growth trajectories. Businesses increasingly need to offer flexibility and customization when setting up contractual relationships on a per customer basis.

Multiple contracts can be set up on an account. Overlapping contracts are processed independently. For instance, if two contracts were set up on an account with Contract 1 imposing a commitment of 100 instances of Subscription A and Contract 2 imposing a commitment of 100 instances of Subscription A, the commitment logic would process Contract 1 and ensure the 100 subscription commitment is met and then process Contract 2 independently and ensure the 100 subscription commitment is met.

The net effect in this scenario is that a commitment volume of 100 subscription's is imposed for both contracts (not an additive commitment of 200). Associated with each contract are Terms, Commitments and Termination Rules.

Contract Terms and Renewals

Every contract has a term. A term specifies the length of the contract. Contract Terms can be specified in Days, Weeks, Months and Years. The start date of the contract is configurable and can be set to the present date or a future date.

Past dates are allowed as long as they are not set to a date prior to the last "invoiced" period. The end date is a read only field and is derived from the start date. The end date is calculated as "Start Date + Term". It is also possible to set up floating end dates to handle scenarios where the contract term is based on the last activated subscription.

A contract can be set up with the following renewal options:

• Expires at End of Term: The contract will expire once the term ends and the account is no longer under that contract.

• New Contract: The contract will renew to a new contract. The administrator will be able to specify the renewal contract as part of this option. For instance, the administrator can use this option to set up a 36-month contract with volume commitments and then renew to a 1-year contract with no commitments.

• Auto renew: The contract auto renews to a contract automatically created to reflect the same term and conditions as the original. For instance, a 36-month contract would auto renew to another 36-month term with identical commitments.