Legal And IT Procurement Must Cooperate

More and more technology procurement contracts – for software, hardware and services – are being handled by “IT Procurement,” with Legal out of the loop, according to corporate software consultant David Ochroch. It’s a trend, he says, that risks subjecting the company to unacceptable liabilities, but the reality is that technology and technology products are evolving so rapidly that the pressure to go along with it is hard to resist. The solution is to establish a cooperative arrangement between Legal and IT Procurement, an arrangement that will preserve Legal’s influence over contract standards, but leverage IT Procurement’s technical knowledge. “This arrangement,” says Ochroch, “enables the business to get its technical contracts reviewed more quickly and can make a better internal case for intelligent delays, especially where those cloud contracts fall short in areas of cyber and data security standards.”