How do I protect my Intellectual Property?

Making NDAs Easy

Buyers have an endless to-do list: follow up on active jobs that have been sourced, follow up on active quotes, cut purchase orders for new work to be sourced, send new requests for quote out to suppliers…then you get a hot job dropped in your lap that requires you to find a new supplier. Now. How do you find the time!?

The back-and-forth with new suppliers is painfully time-consuming when you have so much on your plate. Tease out whether the vendor is a good fit to do the work, send a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), take half a day to get the NDA back, then you can finally send a print to the supplier to gauge whether they can, in fact, perform the required work. Do this three or four times and you’re a day behind on your day-to-day tasks!

At times like these, it can be pretty tempting to circumvent the NDA process and just send the quote documents. Hey, we’ve been there with you, we understand; that’s why we have a solution for you! Sustainment streamlines the NDA process right through the platform to enable quick turnaround of signed NDAs with our digital signature process. It’s quick, secure, and gets you back to your day as quickly as possible!

An added benefit of handling NDAs through Sustainment is a full NDA management system with bumpers in place to prevent accidentally sharing intellectual property.

Sustainment's Digital NDA Process

Once an NDA signature is requested, a pending NDA icon will appear next to the company until they sign; once they sign, you can review and countersign. Upon both parties signing, an NDA icon will appear next to the company’s name. You can manage the NDA expiration date on the platform, which will enable the system to flag you when the NDA expires. If you have existing NDAs in place with some connections prior to joining the platform, you can simply add an NDA indicator rather than re-signing through the platform. You can even upload a scanned copy of the NDA that was signed, so all your records are in one place. An NDA icon with a piece of paper indicates a copy of the NDA is stored on the platform.If you have ever lost or had to search for an NDA to verify you have one in place with a supplier, this system will do wonders for your peace of mind – simply click the icon to view the stored copy directly on the platform.

One final tip: be sure to have the empowered individual(s) as users on your account to sign NDAs and enable the NDA process to move as seamlessly as possible.