Develop a tech-driven supply chain, across any border

Developing a supply chain regardless of whether across state or international borders doesn’t have to give you a headache. We can simplify the complexity associated with subcontracting and develop standard contracts and onboarding protocols that streamline your operation. We’re particularly adept in doing so where technology systems are taking the heavy lifting out of the equation, and your business relies on sophisticated integrations with a number of technology systems to handle transactions at scale.

Make your standard process robust

Standardised subcontractor agreements can go a long way towards removing the complexity from your supply chain, but everyone wants their contract terms to be the standard. Cutting through the differences between competing propositions and arriving at standard supply agreement takes a lot of time and patience, but it’s essential if you want to scale your operation.

We’ve found success in producing subcontractor agreements that speak to conventions in the industry. These positions are ones that many commercial operators will be familiar with already, such as adopting reasonable liability limitations, time-frames for payment or stipulations on quality and non-statutory warranties.

Laser focus on what matters

Once we’ve anticipated the concerns of your subcontractors in the usual areas, we can assist you to design your contract to have the key differences that matter to your product or service, and craft justifications for those differences. This narrows the focus of contract negotiations on what really matters, and helps you save time pleading your case for the terms you really need in your supply agreements.

You might have worked with legal counsel that don’t take this approach. You’d know because you would have spent a long time arguing over contract language that only had marginal relevance to the overall picture of your supply chain. You don’t have to tell us not to fight every little battle for you, we’re big-picture focused too.

When to consider SOPA issues

Security of payments legislation regulates the effect of contracts for construction. The definition of what is ‘construction’ does have some nuance to it (you don’t just have to be an on-site operation for it to apply). If you’re in construction, and especially if your venture crosses multiple state borders and creates materials that may be used in construction project, you should definitely consider the applicability of the scheme, wherever you sit within the supply chain.

Security of Payments legislation in Australia is handled at a State and Territory level, with each jurisdiction having its own local Act (often referred to as the ‘SOPA’). There have been significant efforts to unify legislation, and Artificer is watching eagerly as unification of the competing ‘East Coast vs West Coast’ approaches takes shape.

While the transition to uniform state legislation occurs, Artificer can help you navigate compliance with security of payments legislation to ensure you don’t have any surprises when you execute your vision for a successful project.

Build compliance into your standard suite

We create a clear picture of your supply chain and your purchasing footprint, along with your subcontractors and their commercial requirements. We can weave these considerations into your standard procurement contract suite, or create special arrangements with key subcontractors to ensure you’re freed to execute on your vision without any unwelcome surprises.

If you’re the principal contractor of a construction project, it’s essential you have a grasp on what rights your subcontractors can have to ensure that you don’t experience cash-flow problems or delays in execution of your project. This will be easy to discover if you are working from a standard form construct or design/construct contract, so the exercise is more about ensuring you’ve smoothed out any operational inconsistencies with the contract. Artificer can help produce the contracts and evaluate your operational plans to ensure you maximise your chances to avoid any interruptions in the execution of your project.

Handle payment disputes with ease

One of the key goals of Security of Payment legislation is to defer or expedite the substance of payment disputes while ensuring that organisations are able to maintain cashflow. This can be counter intuitive when there’s a complication in the work, because it means you have to follow a different dispute resolution process than you might otherwise. You can plan for this to an extent, But it’s also often the case that sometime unforeseen gets in the way of the work and you need to quickly get across the issue and negotiate the resumption of work.

That’s where we can help; we’re well versed in dispute resolution involving technical issues and can step through the problems to achieve a quick resumption of work. We’re also able to act for your organisation in the adjudication process, which requires parties to quickly gather and present their case, sometimes as quickly as within 35 business days. Let us show you how much easier it is when your legal team is digitally equipped to resolve your dispute.