Pub. 12 2021 Issue 1

www.wvbankers.org 20 West Virginia Banker Greg Schratwieser founded ICI in 1994. Greg has over 35 years of experience in building client business cases, overseeing vendor evaluations, negotiating core contracts, and converting financial service applications. Greg’s background has a strong emphasis on core processing and online banking and mobile banking deployment. He can be contacted at greg@ici-consulting.comor (800) 729-8237. Negotiating Price Price negotiation tends to be the most emotional part of the decision cycle for both buyer and seller. There are several important points to remember in this stage: • Prices are rarely etched in stone and are usually nego- tiable. If you position your company from the beginning with an organized plan, you can secure the best price. • Core processing salespeople are judged, promoted and often paid by the profit level that they can generate on a sale. Motivation is high to “close the deal.” You can use this emotion in your favor. • It is best to follow a logical process and keep your emo- tions at bay during the negotiation. • “The large type giveth and the small print taketh away.” Third-party interfaces can be very expensive during the negotiation and after implementation if there are workarounds, separate excel spreadsheets, labor-inten- sive processing and manual reports. The Final Core Processing Agreement Once there is an agreement on the final prices, a few last important points are considered. The length of the contract is very important as related to your organizations' long-term goals. For a longer-term contract, vendors will frequently offer lower prices with small annual inflationary caps. To protect your organization, you should attempt to put at least 40 to 50 additional terms and conditions, often with financial penalties, in the final contract. These contractual terms are imperative but often difficult to negotiate.  Continued from page 19 Advertiser Index Arnett Carbis Toothman..............................................IBC ATMSolutions................................................................... 25 Baker Group.................................................................... IFC Bankers Bank of Kentucky.............................................17 Bankers Healthcare Group............................................32 Bowles Rice......................................................................... 3 Greenbrier......................................................................... 29 Spilman Thomas & Battle.......................................... OBC S.R. Snodgrass................................................................. 33 Suttle&Stalnaker.............................................................. 11 WVBA Insurance Group.................................................24 YHB..................................................................................... 28 Zeno, Pockl, Lilly and Copeland................................... 21