Following case study reflects our value proposition and success factors with one of our key customers:
About Client:
Our client, is a direct broadcast satellite television provider in India, using MPEG-4 digital compression technology and is a joint venture between an Indian conglomerate and an American multimedia mass media corporation. It has more than a lakh employee across the country.
Project Summary:
Challenge – Different types of agreements in large numbers are executed by our Client for its internal functioning. Since our client is a DTH operator who broadcasts different channels on its platform, an agreement is required with all Channel Providers regarding the content and quality of the programs in that particular genre for a particular channel. Since the Client is regulated by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, all rules and regulations of TRAI and MIB as well as DoT are applicable on it. Hence, the regulatory approvals submitted by the Channel Providers has to be valid and in accordance with the guidelines. Separate level of checks was required to be adhered to. Further, the Client had limited legal resources who found it difficult to cope with the influx of Access Agreements and other similar agreements. Also, regular interaction with the Business, Content, Finance and Tax teams were required for the proper understanding of the business deals and to analyse the changes in the standard templates. The Client required a system to review, analyse the risks and negotiate the contracts with minimum liabilities for itself.
Client succumbed to following set of challenges:
- Large volume of Agreements;
- Stringent timelines affecting the Business;
- Co-ordination and approval required from different stakeholders;
- Difficulty in tracking contract termination, renewal, and other dates;
- Limited legal interpretation skills resulting in wrong interpretation of terms and conditions by other stakeholders;
- No database for earlier negotiated agreements;
- Relevant departments clueless about their change in obligations or other negotiated positions with respect to a particular Agreement;
- Procurement of large number of stamp papers for execution of contracts;
- Proper printing of the agreements for execution.
MM Solution – MM team proposed a solution targeting each of the challenges our team diagnosed during the scoping of the project. MM appointed a trained resource to cater to the requirements of the Client. On the basis of the information received from the Business team, the resource became responsible for overall activity carried out in Access Fee Agreement Review, Red Lining and Negotiations and is required to ensure that all regulatory records maintained are complete and accurate. Also, thorough check of the regulatory papers is undertaken by the MM team. MM further took up the review and negotiations of similar agreements to Access Fee Agreements, so that consistent understanding flows through all the agreements. Also, for the ease of the legal team MM collated all data from previously negotiated agreements and prepared an alternate clause library. Further, the pre-execution process being cumbersome, with valid regulatory papers and standard printing format, MM took up the pre-execution process for the Client.
Success: All the challenges cited above were turned into a viable solution and successfully delivered to client. In addition:
- MM team is applauded by client to keep up with the constantly changing client guidelines and legal updates.
- MM team provided a weekly tracker regarding the current status of the Agreements in order to apprise the Client of the latest position which helps in judicious decisions.
- Considerable time gain and efficiency achieved through the Alternate Clause Library.
- Streamlining of the process with collaborative approach undertaken with all stakeholders.
