Articles / Proposal and Contract Management with Proposal Kit /

The following situation is from a Proposal Kit Professional customer. It highlights the benefits to using our proposal and contract management as a system.

Next you will find an example of how a variety of Contract Pack documents can all be used during the course of a project. There are countless combinations of how the document collection can be used depending on your unique situation. The following is a fictitious example of how to incorporate many documents into the course of a project as a contract management system.

This example was designed to show just one possible use of the Proposal Kit material over the course of a project that ties together the entire system. The material works just as well for projects on a smaller scale with only a handful of documents used at any given time, and was designed with this in mind.

They use the Project Management Pack materials to interview the prospective client and gather the information needed to make their proposal.

Using the Estimate Pack spreadsheets they arrive at an estimated cost for the project which will involve building a web site, logo designs, training video and creation of a multi-media marketing CD-ROM.

Using the Proposal Pack templates, they create their final proposal to the client and include the Contract Pack "Pre-Project Agreement" to protect their proprietary design work done during the creation of their proposal and estimate. This helps protect them from having a prospect take their design work and reject their proposal, then turn around and hand over the design work to a lower cost bidder.

In this case, Florentine Design Group wins the bid based on their proposal showing the client how well they understand their business and needs by using the extensive collection of templates in the Proposal Pack.

Florentine decides to have the client sign multiple contracts, one for each major component of the project. They use the "Web Site Development Contract", "CD-ROM Development Contract", "Graphic Design Contract", "Video Production Contract", "Web Site Hosting Reseller"and "SEO Services" for the foundation of the project contracts.

Various Exhibits are selected to fill out with the project costs and specifications based on the proposal and design. "Exhibit A" is used to specify the payment terms for each contract, "Exhibit B" is used to specify the specifications for each contract, "Exhibit C" is used to specify what proprietary material Florentine is providing that they exclusively own. The "Contract Milestones Checklist" is used to list all of the payment milestones during the course of each project to reduce the risk of Florentine getting stuck with a large owed debt if the client fails to make payments while the project is underway. The "Specifications Definitions" attachment is filled out to limit the scope of the project and prevent miscommunication and expectation problems. For example, if a web site is quoted as "X" number of pages, there are limits as to how much material comprises a "page" as defined in the Specification Definitions.

Florentine is now ready to start work on the projects. The project has been accepted, all the initial contracts are signed and the client has made the initial down payment as specified in the contract's "Exhibit A - Payment Terms".

Florentine has to obtain photo and video releases from some models for use of their images and personal property for the web site, CD-ROM and video presentations. They use the "Model Release" and "Property Release" documents to obtain signed permission.

Part of the web site design is to deep link into another companies web site. Since this has been deemed to be a copyright violation in some cases, Florentine and their client play it safe by requesting permission to deep link into the other companies' web sites using the "Permission to Link" agreement.

Part of the CD-ROM design calls for quoting pages from other sources. To avoid copyright infringement issues since the CD-ROM is for commercial use, they use the "Permission to Quote Author" form to get signed permission from the original copyright holders.

Once the various projects have been started, Florentine uses the "Milestone Acceptance Signoff Form" to keep the projects on track, payments on track and the customer in the loop and signing off work as it is completed. This keeps everyone involved in the project and helps catch mistakes early in the development process.

During the course of the project, the client finds occasional problems in beta copies. They use the "Software Problem Report" to send the developers the issues to be resolved.

On occasion the client decides they want to alter the scope of the projects more than the original specifications called for, such as adding new screens to the CD-ROM and new sections to the web site. Florentine uses the "Contract Change Request Form" and "Exhibit F - Project Change Forms" to amend the contract, adjust the delivery schedule and ensure the client approves payment for extra work. This helps avoid cost and delivery schedule overruns caused by feature-creep.

Since the web site and CD-ROM will gather personal information from users, they use the "Privacy Policy" and "Disclaimer on Services Agreement" as publicly posted policies on the client's web site.

During the course of the project, some parts need to be subcontracted out to meet deadlines and for specialized work. Florentine uses the "Subcontractor Agreement" to sub out portions of the project and to ensure they retain ownership of the materials for their client.

As the CD-ROM part of the project nears completion, beta copies are sent out to independent testers. The "Software Beta Testers" agreement along with the "Bug Report Template" are used to manage the beta testing program.

As the projects are complete, each contract is finally accepted and signed off on. Florentine uses the "Project Acceptance Signoff Form" to get written approval from the client on each project stating it has been accepted and all parties agree the terms of the specifications have been met.

During the course of the projects, Florentine has maintained ownership of all their work as protection against non-payment or default by the client. Once all payments have been made and the projects complete, they use the "Project Copyright Transfer" agreement to transfer copyright ownership of the client's projects back to the client.

Florentine also will manage the ongoing maintenance of the clients web site on a contract basis. They use a separate "Web Site Maintenance Agreement" after the initial development contract has been completed.

This has been just one of an unlimited number of possible uses of the Proposal Kit materials and this example only included a portion of the available documents. This collection is designed for you to pick and choose from as you see fit for your business needs.

Click here for the complete list of all documents and templates included in Proposal Kit for web and other technology professionals!