Contracts are all about organizing and managing them. The value it brings is when contract management is rightly done.
When organizing contracts it’s done in a parent-child hierarchy in the order of master agreement followed by the child documents. The meticulous organizing helps you in order as well as in tracking and also identify the missing documents.
You will have the primary agreement as in a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA), to which there is a Master Service Agreement (MSA), under that would be all the relevant Statement of Work (SOW) for the common MSA which then hierarchies into respective Change Orders (CO). This organizing of in a Parent-Child Hierarchy level is the Contract Outlining Management.
Non-Disclosure Agreements
Non-disclosure Agreements are for the information that needs to be kept confidential by the party that signs it. This can be about the way a particular project is done, a technique used, and the duration the information is to be confidential.
Non- Disclosure Agreements helps to indemnify intellectual property rights,
Master Service Agreement
Master Service Agreement covers other legal formalities that need to be added according to the business criteria other than Non- Disclosure Agreements. Having a master Service Agreement make the next level of documents and procedures easier.
Master Service Agreement concentrates on the cost of the service, what needs to be done, timeline on when it needs to be completed and any other legal details that need to be covered.Making a Master Service Agreement makes the next level of documents to be focused on what it should do.
Statement of Work
Statement of Work details the separate workflows of the project that is being carried out. It tells about the particular project service or product, what needs to be done to get it completed, what details will be included in the project. What actually the goal or outcome of it, and when the particular outcome can be seen, delivered or given.
If there are multiple works flows for the project, different statement of works will be drafted with every sub-project management details.
Change Orders
Change Orders happen when new details will be added to the existing Statement of Work and which will take either more cost or even more timeline delay to get completed. That new changes need to be reflected in a new change order so that legal issues don’t crop up with the new changes.
When a Master Service Agreement is done in great detail, both Statement of Work and Change Order can accurately focus on what needs to be done to their respective workflow, timeline or changes.
To sum up, the four Agreements — Non-Disclosure Agreements, Master Service Agreement, Statement of Work and Change Order forms the basic outline to manage the contract efficiently.
