Blaze Business & Legal

My firm, Blaze Business & Legal, is an innovative boutique management consultancy and law firm in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

I have 23+ years of experience as a strategic management consultant/business adviser, and senior lawyer specialising in construction law, contracting, major projects, risk, compliance, and procurement for business and government

I have acted as General Counsel, Procurement Adviser, Commercial Officer, Contract Administrator, Senior Legal Counsel and Strategic Adviser in different organisations - these roles have given me a depth of experience that is rare for most lawyers.

My knowledge of various industries allows me to effectively contribute to the overall strategic direction and performance of my clients. I have practiced in industries such as construction, property and development, retirement, government, Defence, ICT, infrastructure, civil, services, mining, water and wastewater. I have substantial experience in many forms of project delivery

I’m a strategic problem-solver who considers issues holistically from a combined legal, commercial and operational angle

I specialise in:

🔹drafting contracts
🔹providing strategic legal advice
🔹providing strategic procurement advice and drafting procurement documents
🔹drafting innovative contracts and other legal documents
🔹risk analysis and mitigation
🔹resolving problems for the organisation
🔹advising in relation to contract management
🔹analysing and advising in relation to compliance with policies and procedures and relevant laws 
🔹governance issues

Blaze Business & Legal specialises in construction law, commercial law, legal advice, legal advisory services, major projects, infrastructure, collaborative contracting, civil, mining, business advisory services, management consulting, change management, procurement, probity, risk analysis, risk advice, risk mitigation, compliance, governance, commercial advice, strategic advice and leadership development.

Managing Director

Blaze Professional Learning

I help Lawyers and Non-Lawyers work better with Contracts and improve their skills in Contract Planning, Contract Drafting, Contract Review, Contract Negotiation and Contract Management. I also work with Professionals to help them overcome their Imposter Syndrome.

Owner

Team Downer MSP

Commercial Manager

Australian Government Solicitor

I specialised in construction law, legal advice, legal advisory services, major projects, infrastructure, collaborative contracting, civil, government contracts, government advice, Defence advisory, procurement, probity, risk analysis, risk advice, risk mitigation, compliance, and governance.

Senior Lawyer

Defence Housing Australia

I acted as General Counsel of DHA and provided senior legal advice and high-level strategic input to the Board and Managing Director of DHA. Role included leading the legal team, managing all matters, supervising hire and performance of external lawyers and all General Counsel roles.

Acting General Counsel

Meyer Vandenberg Lawyers

Senior Associate

Airservices Australia

Senior Legal Counsel

Corrs Chambers Westgarth

Construction and Major Projects Group, Engineering Procurement Infrastructure Construction Division

Solicitor

Laing O'Rourke

Secondment to Laing O'Rourke in-house legal team

Corporate Legal Counsel

Thiess

Secondment as Acting General Counsel - NSW

Acting General Counsel - New South Wales

Helping you solve your Business Challenges:

💎 𝗢𝘄𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀: Know something is not right with your business, but you don't know who to ask for help? The structure doesn't reflect where your business is at now, things feel cobbled together and your procurement, contracting, compliance, risk management and governance need work. And it's all causing inefficiencies, compliance issues, loss of revenue and loss of sleep! You have 20 different problems in a giant ball that needs untangling. Let's chat, this is what I do!

💎 𝗕𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗠𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘀: Need help communicating your strategic direction to your CEO and implementing changes without causing waves? Or do you need a strategic adviser (who has also been a Board Member and is experienced in Governance) to help you work out the best future path for the organisation, then help communicate this to the CEO and get buy-in?

💎 𝗖𝗘𝗢𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗗𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀: Need a Chief Legal Officer or General Counsel but don't have the budget to hire one full-time? Need help solving specific problems and implementing solutions? Or need a strategic analysis of your organisation to work out the cause of your problem(s), then help fix them?

💎 𝗚𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗖𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘀𝗲𝗹: Having problems within your Legal Division or with internal relationships in your organisation? Fixing these is a speciality of mine. Need extra senior resources on a flexible plug-and-play basis? Need a Senior Strategic Adviser to carry out a discrete legal or compliance project for your Division or the organisation as a whole?

💎 𝗦𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗼𝗿 𝗠𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗴𝗲𝗿𝘀: Need help restructuring your Division, putting in place policies and procedures, implementing compliance, streamlining processes, or help putting in place tighter workflows with other Divisions (then documenting those workflows in diagram form)?

I use my combined strategic advisory, management consultancy and legal skills to help you to:

🔹Carry out major projects
🔹Manage and mitigate risk
🔹Improve your business
🔹provide strategic legal advice
🔹provide strategic procurement advice and draft procurement documents
🔹Make your processes more efficient and aligned with best industry practice
🔹Resolve Business Challenges
🔹Ensure compliance with relevant laws
🔹Draft policies and procedures 
🔹Deal with governance issues
🔹Improve cross-functional dynamics
🔹Improve your bottom line

Rachelle is the Owner of Brisbane Livewell Clinic, a wellness and natural therapies centre with 2 clinics in Brisbane.

Rachelle Hare

Pure Procurement

At Pure Procurement, I help clients translate their procurement strategy and objectives into technology roadmaps, supporting them in design, software vendor selection, implementation and operationalization.

I specialize in helping organizations integrate and optimize the following procurement technology categories:

• Enterprise ERP Systems such as SAP, Oracle, JD Edwards, Banner, etc.
• Source-to-Pay Suites such as SAP Ariba, Coupa, Ivalua, GEP, Jaggaer, Basware, Zycus, etc.
• "Best of Breed" Applications such as Axiom, Sievo, Fairmarkit, Tealbook, Sirion Labs, Archer, etc.
• Intake & Orchestration Tools such as Tonkean, Focal Point, Zip, ORO Labs, Tropic, etc.

Successfully harmonizing these platforms requires a deep understanding of procurement processes, operating models, innovative technologies, and the challenges of integration.

I deliver solutions tailored to your context that ensure seamless system alignment, streamlined workflows, and measurable business outcomes for your business.

Key Services:

• Procurement transformation advisory
• Procurement software vendor evaluation and strategy
• ProcureTech implementation services
• Advisory for ProcureTech software vendors (product-market fit, marketing, etc.)

Get in touch to discuss how I can help you succeed with procurement technology.

Consulting Principal

IBM Global Business Services

SAP Procurement Practice Leader, IBM Canada

Responsibilities:

• People Manager for SAP procurement practice employees

• Canadian sales pursuit leader for all things SAP procurement (SAP ECC, S4/HANA, Ariba)

• Delivery Executive for concurrent SAP ECC, S4/HANA & Ariba implementations

• Transformation roadmap architect

Senior Managing Consultant

• People Manager for Consulting by Degrees graduate program (see video)

• Project Manager for Ariba Buying and Invoicing modules implementation. Responsible for coordinating all activities related to supplier enablement, integration with ERP & upstream Ariba modules, functional configuration and development in Ariba and ECC.

• Functional MM/Ariba Architect & Subject Matter Expert (SME) for Canada, participating in go to market and sales activities

Managing Consultant

•  MM Consultant responsible for blueprint, configuration, testing and delivery of purchasing and inventory management functionality during Plant Maintenance module implementation.

• Development coordinator (ABAP) for a team of 5 near shore developers completing 20 deliverables spanning 4 SAP modules (FI/CO, PM, MM, PS)

• Functional lead for blueprint and implementation of Ariba Spend Visibility, Sourcing & Contract Management modules and integration with existing SAP ECC / MM infrastructure.

• Project Manager for pilot Change Request Management (ChaRM) implementation project.

Senior Consultant

• Team leadership Procure-to-Pay (Material Management) team (2 reports) over the course of 5 ERP implementation cycles while executing configuration, functional specification design for ABAP development, test planning & test execution activities.

• MM Consultant responsible for blueprint, configuration, testing and delivery of purchasing and inventory management processes during Plant Maintenance module implementation (see video)

Consultant

Leonardo Consulting

• Functional Design, development, implementation and operation of event management application for firm's annual conference

• Business Process Modeling (EPC notation) and review in OBPA/ARIS based on client requirements

• Market analysis of Business Process Management Suites (BPMS) used to help determine strategic direction of company in this space.

Process Optimization Intern

Your Digital Procurement Mentor | I help thousands of readers discover how top Procurement teams use technology to deliver results for their business. Join them for free below 👇

The key to a successful Procurement function is ensuring you have the appropriate people, processes and systems in place to enable you to reach your business objectives. As the “translator” between Procurement and IT, that’s where I come in.

Over the past decade, I’ve delivered 20+ large-scale Procurement system implementation projects across 9 industries and in most processes supported by the Procurement function (Spend Analysis, Sourcing, Contract Management, Purchasing, Accounts Payable & Supplier Relationship Management)

⚡ To help my clients be successful, I adapt my language, communication and presentation style to my audience. I can present business cases to the C-Suite. I can help managers identify and address root causes that hinder team performance. I can sit with a team of developers and figure out application integration issues.

This puts me in a unique position to generate value for you as I can optimize discreet processes but will also identify and mitigate the dependencies and potential impacts of changes on the rest of the procurement function.

👉 Here are the processes I can help you with:

▪ Procurement Department Org. Design & Policy Development
▪ Spend Analysis
▪ Sourcing
▪ Contract Management
▪ Operational Procurement
↳ Catalog Management
↳ Requisitioning
↳ Purchasing Approvals
↳ Purchase Order / Scheduling Agreement Processing
↳ Goods Receiving
↳ Inventory Management
↳ Accounts Payable
▪ Special Purchasing
↳ Consignment
↳ Subcontracting
↳ Third-Party Orders
▪ Business Networks / Portals, Supplier On-boarding and Supplier Enablement
▪ Supplier Relationship & Performance Management
▪ IT Management of Procurement Applications

If you have Procurement technology projects in the works and are looking for someone who will help you ‘deliver the goods’, get in touch.

⚠ Learn more about my philosophy:

GO HERE: pureprocurement.ca

⚠ Join my newsletter and learn about Digital Procurement trends, opportunities and best practices:

GO HERE: newsletter.pureprocurement.ca

►Specialties◄

» Industries «
Aerospace
Automotive
Banking
Pulp & Paper
Mining
Rail Vehicle Manufacturing
Real Estate Management
Telecommunications
Public Sector

» Software «
SAP Enterprise Central Component (ECC):
Materials Management (MM) Module,
Plant Maintenance (PM) Module
SAP S4/HANA Logistics
SAP Ariba Spend Analysis
SAP Ariba Sourcing
SAP Ariba Contracts
SAP Ariba Buying and Invoicing
SAP Ariba Commerce Automation
SAP Ariba Supply Chain Collaboration
SAP Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance
Ivalua Suite
Coupa Suite
GEP Suite
Jaggaer Suite

Joël Collin-Demers

Software contracts are the Wild West of procurement.
And YOU are getting taken for a ride... 🏇
 
Look, I get it.

I'm the first one to tell you need software to run a high-performance business.

And drafting custom contracts for every SaaS purchase? Completely unreasonable.
 
So you use vendor paper.
 
Against Microsoft, Salesforce, or Oracle? You have zero leverage anyway.
 
But here's what kills me:
 
When you DO have negotiating power, most procurement teams accept vendor terms without a fight.
 
They're leaving massive protections on the table.
 
Protections that cost nothing at signing but can save you hundreds of thousands later.
 
Here are 8 critical clauses to negotiate when you can:
 
1/ Auto-Renewal Opt-Out Window (90 days minimum)
↳ Short 30-day windows are designed to trap you. Get 90+ days to review performance and plan your exit if needed.
 
2/ Data Portability Specifications
↳ Vendors love proprietary formats. Specify the format, maximum timeframe, and guarantee access to YOUR data.
 
3/ Price Increase Caps
↳ Without caps, vendors hit you with surprise hikes at renewal. Link increases to objective measures like CPI.
 
4/ Usage Metric Definitions
↳ "What's a user?" seems simple until you get hit with overage charges. Define it VERY clearly in the contract (Or any other usage metric you'll be billed on).
 
5/ Service Credit Automation and Reporting
↳ Manual SLA tracking means you'll never collect. Require automatic calculation, reporting, and application of credits.
 
6/ Indemnification Scope & Exclusion
↳ Clarify who pays when IP claims arise. Vendors should defend you and strictly limit your negligence obligations.
 
7/ Security & Compliance Representations
↳ Vague language makes YOU responsible for their compliance failures. Mandate specific certifications and breach notification timelines.
 
8/ Assignment / Change of Control
↳ Protect your exit path if they're acquired (especially by a competitor who wants to sunset their software). You need the right to terminate and get pro-rated refunds if the service changes materially.
 
This graphic breaks down why each matters and the protection it provides.
 
Remember: These clauses cost nothing to negotiate upfront.
 
But skipping them? That can cost you big later.
 
Did I miss any others? Which of these clauses has saved you from a bad situation?

Let me know in the comments 👇
_________________________

P.S. Ready to change how you approach software negotiations?

I help companies choose and implement ProcureTech solutions for a living. Every Sunday, I share the best practices, trends, and frameworks I use to ensure technology purchases drive value... Not unexpected liability.

Subscribe here for free: https://lnkd.in/eY_MeE8Y

Your Digital Procurement Mentor | I help 11,500+ readers discover how top Procurement teams use technology to deliver results for the business. Join them for free below 👇

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