How Brandsdal cured its "allergic reaction" to automatic renewal of contracts
Kolbjørn Ertzeid, CFO
About Kolbjørn Ertzeid
Kolbjørn Ertzeid is the CFO of Brandsdal Group.
About Brandsdal Group
Based in Kristiansand, the pearl of Southern Norway, Brandsdal Group has enjoyed almost fairytale growth over the past 15 years. The best-known members of the Group – and most important turnover generators – are Blivakker.no and Cocopanda. The former is the leading online store in Norway for cosmetics and hair care products, while Cocopanda is its corresponding initiative in Europe.
“Complete Control makes it simple for all our employees who work with administration of contracts with suppliers to keep track of expiry dates and other important aspects of these contracts."
Kolbjørn Ertzeid, CFO
Background
"We had a two-fold problem as regards keeping track of all our contracts."
Challenges
"First, we had to deal with the combination of storage methods and the changing role of the employees in our businesses. When someone left the Group or moved to a new position, it was quite a challenge to follow up on the contracts we had entered into. So we were looking for a smart solution to this person dependence."
"Second, we had problems with automatic extensions to ongoing contracts. Each of these contracts was only small measured in hard cash, but for a CFO in particular it’s hugely frustrating not to have a solid overview of them all. And, of course, put them all together and they add up to a significant sum."
Improvements
"Complete Control makes it simple for all our employees who work with administration of contracts with suppliers to keep track of expiry dates and other important aspects of these contracts. They receive reminders by email. And if they fail to react to these, they are sent more reminders and warnings. If all else fails, I receive a phone call. This is what I call ‘waterproof protection’ against inadvertent renewal of contracts."
Solutions
Kolbjørn Ertzeid relates that full overview and control of these ongoing contracts provided a quick and measurable return on investment (ROI) once Brandsdal Group started using Complete Control software.
“Admittedly, it took quite a bit of work to enter all the contracts, and if you promise not to tell anyone, we will concede that a few old contracts still haven’t made it into the system. However, we have established better habits, which means that we now enter all new contracts we conclude. As a result, our contract archive is becoming more robust on an ongoing basis, and person dependence is now consigned to the history books. It’s also useful to link related contracts together more appropriately – the service contracts for fork-lift trucks, for example."
The process
"One of the strengths of Complete Control is that it is a simple tool. You don’t need any training to start using it. And the few times we have needed a hand, we’ve received good and rapid support from our fixed contact in House of Control. So kudos to our customer success contact.”
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