What does Claims Management mean?
You can obtain more money armed with a briefcase full of paper than you can with a gun.
A good claim is an offer that the other side cannot refuse.
A claim is a legitimate entitlement. The claim document plays the role of an offer that the other side cannot refuse. The reason for the claim, as well as the effects ,are presented systematically and credibly, so that the other side recognizes their own involvement and responsibility.
Proper documentation is the key factor!
However, securing and evaluating a claim is rarely a simple task. Once you have a solid basis for a claim, there is a need to quantify the claim as early as possible. More and more contracts allow the customer to reject claims that are not filed in accordance with the contract.
In many cases, the claim recipient's defense strategy exists to deny all allegations that are not supported by documentation. The successful outcome of many claims negotiations depends heavily on having the right documents and the right evidence. Deficiencies in these documents can regularly only be compensated for by concessions made by the claimant.
Documentation means effort. The Contract Academy explains with examples which documents are required under which circumstances.
Test your knowledge of contract and claims management!
In contract management, "knowledge" is the decisive variable. Success requires employees to act correctly in good time. Our training therefore focuses on different levels of contract management and provides targeted knowledge tailored to the desired function.
With our self-test you can anonymously check whether you already have the knowledge for the respective certification. At the beginning of the test you will be asked for your name and email address. This is so that we can send you the result to your email address. The data is only saved on your computer and is not used by us.
Good claims managers are invaluable
The demand for talented claim management staff far exceeds availability. Therefore, the trend is towards defining own employees within the company as contract managers. However, solid training is regularly lacking, so that the full potential in orders and projects is regularly not exploited.
Serious problems can usually only be overcome by involving external professionals. But this happens regularly at a point in time when a lot of the course has already been set. The actors can often only react and limit the damage.
The knowledge of one's own claim options already leads to cost-optimal behavior within the framework of normal project work. Often concessions are made because there are uncertainties about one's own possibilities. Knowing your own rights and obligations immediately leads to costs being reduced and additional work being paid for.
The Contract Academy has concentrated on preparing this knowledge in a comprehensible and practical way.
How does claims management help improve results?
Contracts usually have a technical and a commercial part. The technical details and the associated price are often negotiated for a long time. The commercial regulations, on the other hand, are often treated casually. Particularly in the commercial part, important decisions can be made as to what risks are to be represented by which party.
In fact, projects and contracts cannot be separated.
A contract defines which duties and risks each party bears. For example, a strategically developed and optimized service description, the service obligations and the associated risks can be clearly delineated.
In the term Claims Management, the emphasis is on management.
This means that a project contract should be designed with foresight. This also includes considering the instruments of contract and claims management before signing the contract. Claims management does not begin after, but before signing the contract.
An example:
The timely cooperation of the client plays an important role in the cost-effective production of a project. Typical is the approval of planning documents by the client. But how does this approval process work? How much time does the client have to check the documents? What does it mean if the client rejects the plan and requests changes? These topics and others are dealt with in the Contract Academy.
