Commercial & Contract Management Blog

EPC Contracts: win-win negotiation opportunities during contract nego?

You have read books, articles, blogs on contract negotiation. Or, even better, you did a real training programme. All have praised the importance of win-win negotiations. There you find yourself in your next tough negotiation. All the discussions are on limits of liability, caps for liquidated damages, rights to terminate the contract etc. Subjects where a bit more protection for one party automatically means a bit less for the other party. You hesitate. Are those articles or training courses not realistic, not worth your time & money?

By Jan Bouckaert, ago

Contract negotiation – After a long day … 6 essential things to do

No doubt, we would all want to hear that, after a long day of negotiations, the best is to go out, eat some delicious food and have some beers in a bar because you deserved it. Negotiation is a challenge that can be compared to professional sports. It requires anticipation, recuperation, communication and these things take a bit of your precious time. This article provides 6 essential things to do after the formal meetings.

By Jan Bouckaert, ago

“Now, we can”, 100% renewable energy !

A few decades ago, making a statement as the title above, in my engineering environment, would not have been good to build your credibility. Now, things have changed. Wind and solar energy have reached a stage where their installation is economically viable.

Could we go all the way, thinking about a society where only renewable energy would be acceptable?

By Jan Bouckaert, ago

Contract Risk Management for SMEs made easy!

Unless less you are a contract expert with a solid experience and capacity to compare, in your head, against benchmark contracts, you will have a hard time to give a solid opinion on any contract and identify risk areas after a first reading,
This articles proposes a free tool to analyse contracts. For twenty questions, carefully chosen to cover the whole spectrum, the risk level of the answers is positioned on a scale from 0 to 5.
Based on the report that will be provided, you can then set-up a Risk Review board.

By Jan Bouckaert, ago

Freedom to optimize under an EPC Contract

Working on an EPC Contract brings higher risks for Contractors. They have to face all the circumstances that occur during the Project execution, with few exceptions, and still achieve the expected outcome or intended purpose. Is there anything that can counterbalance this exposure to make the project a success? Yes, the opportunity to optimize the EPC scope on the Project.

By Jan Bouckaert, ago

“EPC or not EPC, that’s the question”

EPC, standing for Engineering – Procurement – Construction, is a widely used term but not always correctly and these three words do not necessarily make us a lot wiser.
The relationship between Employer [or Owner] and Contractor, when an EPC Contract is correctly established, should be in accordance with certain principles listed in this post.

By Jan Bouckaert, ago