ICN Differentiators
Considerations that differentiate us from our competition
Four Decades of Experience in the Field
For over 40 years, ICN has provided critical training and consulting in high tech procurement, vendor management, and negotiations, establishing a reputation that sets it apart from the competition. Our training and consulting services focus on several areas in high tech procurement — equipment, maintenance, services, leasing, software licensing and development, the science of negotiations and vendor management. Related offerings include large, multi-track conferences, products and publications as well as the sponsorship of an association for high tech acquisition professionals—CAUCUS.
Internationally, ICN has presented both public and customized, on-site seminars in countries around the world including the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Malaysia, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore. It is interesting to note that a large number of foreign attendees — from such countries as the Netherlands, Canada, the Philippines, Dominican Republic and Panama — participate at ICN public seminars held in the U.S.
A View from the Courtroom
First called upon in 1978 in the Schaeffer Brewing vs. EDS proceedings, ICN can claim longer and more extensive expert witness experience than any of its competitors. We help clients resolve disputes with vendors, participate in mediation and arbitration, and testify in state and federal courts across the country. This experience gives ICN an up-to-the-minute and unique perspective on industry trends and on how well intended transactions go awry.
Broader Scope of Experience
ICN numbers among its clients more than 350 of the Fortune 500 companies, many of whom are leaders in the international marketplace. A partial list of clients who rely on ICN’s consulting expertise reads like a who’s who of premier organizations: MasterCard International, Andersen Corporation, Farmer’s Group, Inc, PacifiCare, Wellpoint, Textron, TD Bank, Comerica, Royal Bank of Canada, Synopsis, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, Amerada Hess, American Express, International Securities Exchange and Capital One.
Most Experienced Consultants / Instructors
The ICN staff of consultants/instructors is a multidisciplinary team comprised of specialists with extensive backgrounds in such areas as law, finance, procurement, vendor management and information technology. Our staff professionals average more than two decades of experience in managing high technology products, services, projects and acquisitions from diverse perspectives. Each has the requisite experience required of a successful instructor. All are practicing professionals who regularly face suppliers at the bargaining table and help our clients negotiate strategies. Several are former supplier lawyers and sales people. Many are published authors on the subjects they teach. ICN instructors bring a truth-from-the-trenches perspective to all aspects of high tech consulting and training.
Recognized Leader
ICN has established its reputation and is a recognized leader in the high tech environment. Called “the industry’s leading bargaining expert” by Business Week, and “the expert to whom others turn” by Datamation, ICN founder Joe Auer developed the MAP™, a methodology which stresses acquisition negotiation as an ongoing process, not a onetime event. The MAP™ is widely accepted as the optimum strategy for minimizing costs and maximizing protection in the procurement process.
Our reputation as a leading authority is also established throughout the supplier community. When Electronic Data Systems (EDS) was involved in a lawsuit against Computer Associates (CA), it called on ICN — in the person of Joe Auer — to offer expert testimony.
Managed Acquisition Process™
ICN created the widely acclaimed MAP™, an acquisition-by-objective methodology that provides an orderly, professional progression through the procurement process to a successful conclusion. The MAP™ recognizes that a major procurement touches upon a full range of professional disciplines. Through a team approach, this methodology optimizes the evaluation, negotiation and procurement of high tech products and services and subsequent contract management. Competent high tech procurement is not an isolated event — it’s a comprehensive process requiring a wide range of professional disciplines and the ability to gain support of internal end users/clients and the sponsorship of senior management. Our years of consulting experience, in combination with the methodology of the MAP™, have allowed us to develop very powerful tools to apply in leveraging the key ingredients of a deal.
