Legal services for Serviceware

Business background

Head quartered in Germany, Serviceware operates internationally, supplying sophisticated strategies and software solutions to large enterprises across the globe.Their SaaS (Software as a Service) IT financial management system allows businesses to run their IT spend through

the Serviceware software so businesses can manage and control these costs efficiently.

Ronnie Wilson, Group Executive Vice President, heads up the international side of the business and is responsible for supporting the internationalisation of the company – growing the business through sales and partnering.

Legal services required

Ronnie was looking for a lawyer to support his UK/International sales and business team with commercial contracts. Because
of the complexity of the solution, the high expectations of
his team and the international scope of the business, finding the right lawyer has not been easy. Ronnie was looking for someone with specific domain knowledge, but also with the breadth of experience to deal effectively with the complexity inherent in operating across multiple jurisdictions.

Why The Legal Director?

Having had previous experience working with TLD’s CEO Ed Simpson, Ronnie approached him with his requirements.

Amanda Heath, a senior lawyer with vast experience working with various companies in the technology sector, was the ideal solution. Knowing that TLD works hard to find the right cultural fit for its clients, Ronnie has appreciated the efforts that Ed made to find a lawyer with both the relevant expertise and the right character traits to fit into his team.

Ronnie also cites the benefit of access that the TLD service model provides as a decisive factor in his using their services: “That’s the beauty of the TLD way”, he says, “We have the benefit here of a high-quality, corporate lawyer without having to full-time employ them.”

Legal services provided

Amanda’s principal remit is to support the sales team with commercial contracts, negotiating legal terms with the customer. To this end, she works closely with the UK teams and regularly liaises with the head office in Germany, who supply the service, to deal with issues around information security or data usage.

As Amanda points out, these are complex, involved contracts: “They are sophisticated purchasing terms. They’re big contracts with huge companies and they’re international.” There are many challenges that come from operating in lots of jurisdictions and accommodating different companies’ approaches and Amanda is skilled at adapting Serviceware’s legal contract process and pushing back on unacceptable terms.

To negotiate effectively in this arena, it’s imperative to have
a good knowledge of how cloud services are delivered,
how it works technically and a sound understanding of data protection implications. “There are cross border data issues. There is lots of legislation around the use of personal data and this varies from country to country. I need to be aware of how the data can be used and I need to understand the supply chain and the risk.”

Alongside this specialist commercial contract support, Amanda also helps the UK operations with a broad range of legal
issues that affect the team. She has advised on HR issues and
is currently helping to draft the Commission Plan terms and conditions for the sales team. And when additional support has been needed, she has facilitated bringing in the relevant expertise from TLD. She recently brought in Employment Law expert Kate Palka to help, which was of great benefit to Ronnie: “Amanda manages to be the pivotal point for the specialist knowledge that we require and that was very helpful in dealing with some HR issues that we had.”

Benefits to the business

Ronnie describes Amanda as “an extension of our sales effort” and believes she adds “true value” to the sales process. “When we are involved in contractual conversations,” he said, “she is very legal but very commercial in the way she deals with procurement departments and legal departments of other companies.”

The size of the businesses that Serviceware contracts with means that Amanda is often obliged to contract on their terms. As an experienced and tenacious lawyer, Amanda still manages to secure the best possible terms for Serviceware, ensuring that unreasonable or unfair terms are removed. Ronnie cites the example of the trend of ‘Termination for Convenience’ clauses – clauses which large companies attempt to introduce into the T&Cs when purchasing software to minimise their commitment.

Ronnie says: “Amanda is very good at addressing this and protecting our legal position and that assists the sales efforts. She sticks to her guns, and we’ve managed to negotiate these things out of contracts.”

He is impressed with the level of service he gets from Amanda: “There’s a lot that she brings to the table. Culturally she’s a very good fit with us. She’s one of those people who just gets stuck in and gets things done. She’s very proactive which really helps me to address specific things that the company needs “to address.”

The Serviceware team are senior level, have high expectations, and as Ronnie said, “are very demanding”. Amanda has consistently shown an impressive level of commitment to help bring in large contracts, even being available for support on Christmas Day. Though she is not an employee, she is invested in the success of the business, and this is apparent to everyone she interacts with who, according to Ronnie, “all have respect for her opinion and her view”.

“Culturally Amanda is a very good fit with us. She’s one of those people who just gets stuck in and gets things done.”

About The Legal Director

The Legal Director is the most transparent, cost-effective way of embedding a senior lawyer within your business — at a fraction of the cost of employing a full-time Legal Director or engaging with a traditional law firm on an ad hoc basis.

We match one of our lawyers to your business needs and he/ she then performs as a member of your senior management team, just like an in-house lawyer.

Do you require similar legal advice or legal services?

Call us on 020 3056 8538,
Email us at info@thelegaldirector.co.uk
or send us an enquiry.