Who Else Is Streamlining Their Agreements?

Short answer: streamlining agreements is not about shorter sentences. It is about deciding which provisions are genuinely necessary, which are reflexes, and which belong in a policy. After doing thousands of SaaS and software deals, I can tell you most SaaS EULAs are four to eight times longer than they need to be.

Streamlining agreements is a problem software companies share with every industry that runs on contracts. The good news is that other legal minds have been at this longer than most software lawyers, and the methods they built translate cleanly to SaaS and software EULAs.

The Pathclearer Methodology for Streamlining Agreements.

The in-house team at Scottish & Newcastle (a beverage company based in Scotland) documented an approach to streamlining agreements they call “Pathclearer.” Graeme Colquhoun, their Head of UK Legal, laid it out in the Law Society of Scotland Journal piece A Clearer Way to Deal, and the team published a longer 8-page article with a template. The idea is simple: strip commercial agreements down to the substance that matters, and push operational detail out to policies and SOPs.

What Pathclearer Actually Does.

Three moves do most of the work:

• Lean on the default law. Where the common law or the UCC already gives you a sensible answer, do not re-draft it. Let the default rules fill the gaps instead of restating them in your paper.
• Build commercial affinity, not a legal straitjacket. The deal is held together by mutual benefit and the working relationship, not by a clause for every hypothetical. Reserve heavy drafting for the risks that actually matter.
• Clear away the mess. Cut the provisions that exist only out of habit, so the few terms that carry real risk (money, IP, and liability) are easy to find and easy to negotiate.

Scottish & Newcastle took this seriously. Some of their agreements dropped to two pages, and they let go of fixed terms, volume commitments, and even service level agreements and liquidated damages where the relationship did not need them. Ken Adams, a recognized authority on contract drafting, walked through the same example in Simplifying Contracts, and the vendor takeaway is the sharp one: give a vendor a few key paragraphs (termination, liability caps) and you can drop most of the rest without losing any certainty.

How to Streamline a SaaS Agreement.

You do not need to go all the way to a two-page contract to get most of the benefit. Here is where I start when I trim a vendor’s paper:

• Move the “how it works” out. Support response times, maintenance windows, and feature descriptions belong in a policy or an FAQ you can change, not in a contract you have to amend.
• Keep the commercial core tight. Price, term, the limitation of liability, IP ownership, and the warranty and indemnity package are where the risk lives. Spend your drafting budget there.
• Kill the reflex clauses. If a provision is in the template only because it has always been in the template, it is a candidate for the cutting room.

That is the same instinct behind Microsoft’s plain English EULA: write the agreement to answer the question the customer actually has, not to recite formalities nobody reads.

Why Streamlining Agreements Matters for Software Companies.

Software companies should look for ways to streamline their revenue-generating agreements (end-user, services, support, and channel) using approaches like this. Trimming them is not just about readability. A shorter, plain English agreement closes faster, survives procurement with fewer redlines, and holds up better if it ever reaches a jury. It is about removing language that creates risk without delivering value. If you want that done for your paper, it is the core of our SaaS contract practice.

For the foundational decision about which contract structure to streamline in the first place, see SaaS Agreement vs. Software EULA: Which Template Do I Need? And for the rationale on what belongs in a contract versus a policy you can change, see Contract or Policy? When Software Companies Should Use Each.

Streamlining Agreements: Common Questions.

What does it mean to streamline an agreement? It means cutting the provisions you do not need, moving operational detail into a policy you can change, and keeping the few terms that carry real risk. It is editing for substance, not just trimming word count.

Will a shorter contract still hold up in court? Yes, when it is drafted well. A tight limitation of liability, a clear warranty and indemnity package, and clean IP ownership terms do the protecting. The default rules of contract law fill most of the gaps you would otherwise spell out.

Which clauses should always stay? Price and term, the limitation of liability, IP ownership, and the warranty and indemnity package. Those four carry the money and the risk, so they earn their space on the page.

I hope this helps. Trust me on this one: the shortest agreement that still protects you is almost always the best one.

Resources:

• Write Better EULAs and SaaS Agreements
• SaaS Agreement Templates Are Too Important to Leave to the Lawyers
• Microsoft’s Plain English EULA: A Better Way to Draft
• Contract or Policy? When Software Companies Should Use Each

Disclaimer:

This post is for informational and educational purposes only, and is not legal advice. You should hire an attorney if you need legal advice, which should be provided only after review of all relevant facts and applicable law.