Silicon Reef Case Study

Levelling the playing field 

Silicon Reef came to Law 365 as they were growing rapidly and negotiating significant deals with bigger clients. 

They found that the large enterprise clients had legal advisors and expected Silicon Reef to have the same.  In sales terms, this is called, ‘matching the buyers' table.’

It's very hard to get the terms you want if you are ‘out-gunned’ during negotiations.  Silicon Reef were finding it difficult to play ‘hard ball’ with their clients when negotiating contracts.

They were in a challenging position of wanting to get the deal closed and win the business, so found themselves all too often conceding on points in order to keep the customer happy and get the deal over the line.

Silicon Reef needed a legal partner who could match the buyers' table, so they could negotiate a fair contract and take the stress out of negotiations.

Law 365 with their Microsoft expertise was the perfect choice.

Speeding up the sales cycle

Law 365 started with a thorough review of all contracts and the overall sales processes.  A complete new set of templates were created, including the following:

1. Microsoft-specific Managed Services Agreements for the increasing amount of support work being undertaken.
2. New Professional Services (Consultancy/Project Work) contracts, designed to be fair and rapid to negotiate.
3. Mutual Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) allowing the sales team to respond quickly when a potential customer wanted to share confidential project details.
4. Letter of Agreement (LoA) -- a short form letter that makes it even faster to close a small deal but still provides the key protections needed.

All templates specified Digital Partner of Record (DPoR), Claims Partner of Record (CPoR) and Partner Admin Link (PAL) ensuring that Silicon Reef were able to claim any rebates available from Microsoft.