Burdensome Contracts are Pushing Service Providers Away

APQC interviewed several small to mid-sized service providers to better understand the pain points and challenges that come from contracting with large, global customers. Service providers told us that the contracting process with these customers has grown increasingly burdensome over the past few years. From lengthy negotiations to onerous compliance requirements that don’t apply to them or their work, the hoops that these service providers are being asked to jump through are becoming unsustainable.

This article summarizes the feedback we heard in our interviews regarding:

• top contracting pain points and challenges,
• the symptoms that small to mid-size service providers are experiencing as a result, and
• recommendations for how to improve contracting with small and mid-size service providers.

A rigid, inflexible contracting process may be costing you, the buyer, more than you realize—but it doesn’t have to. Some of the suggestions we heard would be easy to implement and would make life much easier for your smaller service providers.