Steer
Vendor and contract reviews
Before you sign or renew a software, telecoms or IT contract, someone who knows your IT should read it. A vendor and contract review is that second opinion, with a recommendation.
Which contracts fit your work, and which just had the best pitch.
Software, the phone system, the internet line, a practice tool, a support contract: each arrives with a sales pitch and a renewal date, and the person signing rarely has the time to check it against how the firm actually works. The review does that. We read the offer or the contract against your IT as it is: what it really costs over its term, what it ties you to, what it needs from your systems, how you would leave, and whether something you already have does the job. Then our recommendation, in writing, before you sign. The decision stays yours; the paper makes sure it’s an informed one.
What we check
Read against your IT, not against the brochure.
A contract review is a short piece of work with a long effect. These are the questions each one answers.
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What it costs over the term
Not the monthly price but the whole term: licences for the people you have, setup and migration, what the price does after year one, and what the contract you’re replacing still costs until it ends.
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What it ties you to
Term, notice period, automatic renewal, minimum seats. The lines that decide whether a contract is a choice next year or a trap.
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Whether it fits your IT
Sign-in through Microsoft Entra ID, where its data lives, what it needs from your devices and network. A tool that doesn’t fit the rest of your IT costs more than its price.
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How you would leave
How your data comes out, in what form, and what it would take to move to another vendor. A contract with no way out is read as one. Where your regulator asks for an exit plan, this is where it starts.
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Whether you already have it
Many firms buy a tool that a licence they already pay for includes. We check your Microsoft 365 plans before anything new is added.
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Our recommendation, then the vendor
Sign, renegotiate, renew or let it lapse, with the reason. Where you want, we handle the vendor afterwards: the questions, the setup, the exit from the old contract.
On record
On the decision paper.
- The contract or offer as reviewed, with its term, notice and renewal dates
- What it costs over its term, and what the alternatives would
- How it fits your IT, and how you would leave
- Our recommendation and your decision, with an owner and a date
- The renewal date, in the roadmap, before it passes
Where your regulator asks how you choose and oversee your providers, this is the record.
What usually goes wrong without it.
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The renewal nobody read
A contract with automatic renewal and a long notice period renews itself for another term before anyone looks at it. The date was never on anyone’s calendar.
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Two tools for one job
A new tool is bought because nobody knew the licence the firm already pays for includes the same thing. Both keep running.
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No way out
The data goes in easily and comes out as a support request. The question of how to leave is asked the day the firm wants to, which is the worst day to ask it.
Also under Steer
- IT roadmap A 12- to 24-month plan tied to your projects, people and growth, reviewed regularly.
- Budget and costs What you spend, what it buys and where to save or invest, with licences sized to reality.
- Risk report What’s protected, what’s open and what it costs to close, in plain language for management.
- IT planning for deals What a merger, carve-out or new entity means for IT, planned before the legal date.
- The incident rehearsal Your incident plan walked through with leadership before it’s needed: who decides, who tells whom.
Questions we get
Do you review contracts with other IT providers, too?
Yes, including our own. A review is written to be checked, and every question on it applies to our contract as much as to anyone else’s: what it costs over the term, what it ties you to, how you would leave.
Is this legal advice?
No. We read a contract for what it means for your IT and your costs: term, notice, data, exit, fit. The legal assessment of its terms stays with you and your lawyer.
Can you also deal with the vendor for us?
Yes. Where we also run your IT, dealing with the internet provider, the phone system, the printer supplier and the software vendors is part of it. For a one-off decision, we can take the questions to the vendor and bring back the answers.
When should a contract be reviewed?
Before you sign a new one, and before the notice date of an existing one, not after. The review puts every renewal date on the roadmap, so the question comes up in your steering meeting in time.
Start
A contract on your desk?
In a first call we go through what you’re about to sign or renew, what it needs to fit into, and what a review would check before you do.
- No first level
- No surprises
- Pilot before you buy