Statement of Work Contracts

[malvolio]

There was a lively discussion on this in another place recently, which rapidly got bogged down in arguments about how an SOW could be framed in, say, an Agile environment. What people missed was that the SOW is merely a part - albeit an important one - of recognising that we are service providers, not temporary workforce, meaning it can only work in a clearly B2B contract and IR35 cannot apply. That is the real shift that needs to happen.

However, cynical old me thinks that most agencies will merely stick a nominal SOW on the end of their usual pseudo-employee-with-false-get-out-clauses contracts and think that will suffice. When they risk getting stuck with NIC bills they weren't expecting is when we will see the world start to change - but again the most likely outcome is that agencies will only work with umbrellas…

[Hobosapien]

It will take a major event in the not too distant future to make that happen.

Keep an eye out for such an event in Monday's Budget re IR35 and the private sector.

Maybe it will be the shake up the contracting sector needs to update the current modus operandi where clients have relied on agencies that barely know the sector or IR35, and have just gone along with inappropriate contracts as a way of getting access to relatively cheap flexible resources when considering the alternatives of taking on employees or using a consultancy.

It's a shame initiatives such as the Contractor Alliance never really took off (as far as I'm aware), so clients would become more comfortable using direct contractors with properly defined B2B style contracts to protect them from IR35 and the clampdown on 'disguised employees', which is what in part has driven them to use agencies, until now.

So there may yet be a role for SOW based contracts, or other forms of contracts to ensure contractors are engaged as a service and not part-employee, in the upcoming battle for clients to deliver projects on time and to budget without being bogged down in red tape and uncertainty. There's enough of that already as we head into 2019.

[ShandyDrinker]

You expect a major shift in 2 months??

No, I didn't expect a major shift at all as changing the predominant model, certainly in the IT sector, is going to take a lot of work and changing of mindsets among all concerned. It will take a major event in the not too distant future to make that happen.

In seriousness though this is not new and people have been talking about statement of work contracts for a long while but it's amazing how few organisations (larger ones in particular) want to go down this road.

Hope springs eternal.

I did a SOW style gig last year, direct to the client and I felt it worked really well. It was a fixed price piece of work that I invoiced in three instalments.

Having worked on this basis with direct smaller clients I prefer it seems to keep clients much more focussed on the deliverables.

Ultimately I think for the contracting industry to survive that the SOW will become the predominant way of staying firmly outside of IR35.

[ladymuck]

I did a SOW style gig last year, direct to the client and I felt it worked really well. It was a fixed price piece of work that I invoiced in three instalments.

[northernladuk]

You expect a major shift in 2 months??

[ShandyDrinker]

Resurrecting this thread from back in April.

Has anyone seen a major shift in agencies and/or clients moving away from your typical 3/6/12 month project based contracts to proper SOW based contracts.

Andy - I am curious to hear how the pilot for this is going, or has gone?

[malvolio]

Excellent news, Andy. A step in the right direction for a change!

Incidentally, have you see this latest publication?

[Andy Hallett]

We roll out our pilot for this product later in the month. Just going through the process of signing off the client and contractor terms. Would be interested in hearing of experiences people have had with these.