On May 13, I posted a request for information on Chase Cost Management. Thanks so much to all who respnded -- your comments were very very helpful. This is another time when "if you really really need to know -- Ask a Librarian! " Below is a summary of the responses I received:
#1 "I had dealt with Michael Feit several years ago and he did some nice work for us on our Lexis/Westlaw contracts. He then went to Chase Cost Management but I recently heard he had left and gone to Lexis. I don't know who they have at Chase now with the knowledge to do this. You may want to ask who is doing the analysis and what their background/experience is."
#2 (Long) "In my former job as Library Manager for another firm, I dealt with another consultant doing the exact same thing but not this particular consultant. Please take what you can use from the following info. My consultant was dropped on me and I dealt with them for 4+ years. Not all was bad but after 1/2 million dollars was spent with them for online only, it was a very painful topic for me. They also implemented savings for Fedex costs and records storage cost.
Avoid all of them if you can - if you can do the negotiation you are better off to do it yourself. Depending on the size of your contracts, when you have paid them a huge chunk of change, you are going to realize all that money could have been saved just as easily by you.
Get references from Chase Cost Management and ask to speak to other law firm librarians that used them. If they are not willing, then ask why.
Depending upon the interpretation by your general counsel, your firm may not believe that they are violating the terms of the confidentiality agreement you have signed with Wexis.
Negotiate the commission. While they may want 50%, you should not necessarily give them that for the 2nd year. Work a deal based on reaching a milestone based on the cumulative sum of the savings; for example, if you reach $125,000 of total savings after their percentage is 50%, then the next tier should be 25% of the savings until you reach $250,000 of the savings.
Note, you should know what you are spending with the vendor. I then recommend that you calculate what the average cost per attorney is for your firm. Just take the sum spent on Lexis (or Westlaw) for 1 year and divide by the number of your attorneys. Do that same process for several years back. Determine the percentage growth that the vendor has received over the last 5 year span. Then see what Lexis or Westlaw wants for the new contract. Now when you make comparisons, you have a "real number" to work from. You don't have to share that number with the vendor but use it as your benchmark for not increasing that number more than a reasonable percentage. It doesn't really matter that some of your attorneys will never use either service. Wexis will not tell you this and I have never been told it, but it stands to reason that they are looking for a specific sum per each attorney across America. If you have any kind of flat-rate contract, then you need to know the savings you are getting from your contract.
Wexis will likely become aware that you are dealing with an outside consultant, because the typical modus operandi is that where you have done all negotating verbally over the years, the outside consultant is going to want to switch to a written format. That's the only way of proving that their language was used to seal the deal with Wexis. The vendor that I used had very strident language. Lexis knew from the language alone that there was a consultant involved because they used the same language for other law firms. With the consultant I used while one of the principals had been a librarian, they had not been an active one for several years. There was not a good understanding of what my firm needed from Wexis."
#3 One idea you may want to consider is to hire them on a fixed fee basis rather than on commission and for a specific report rather than on an ongoing basis.
Barbara
Taft /
Barbara J. Davis / Director of Library Resources
Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP
425 Walnut Street, Suite 1800
Cincinnati, Ohio 45202-3957
Tel: 513.381.2838 * Fax: 513.381.0205
Direct: 513.357.9403 * Cell: 513.253.6888
www.taftlaw.com<http://www.taftlaw.com/> / davisb@taftlaw.com
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