I did these three videos about the Salesforce master subscription agreement. With each video, you have the opportunity to ask LegalSifter for a giveaway. Enough time has passed that I can now make available to you, without even that slight obstacle, the two analyses I produced that we used as giveaways.
Go here for a Word document containing (1) six extracts from the Salesforce MSA that are extensively annotated by me to describe the drafting shortcomings and (2) my reworked version of each extract.
And go here for a color-coded PDF of the Salesforce MSA flagging, and offering an explanation of, issues that anyone contemplating becoming a Salesforce customer might want to be aware of before signing the MSA.
These analyses show that even though Salesforce presumably had all sorts of resources to devote to creating a solid template, the result fell short. Why? Because the drafters, and Salesforce’s contracts leadership, are stuck in copy-and-paste artisanal dysfunction, even though we’re now in a position to identify and rectify dysfunctional contracts prose.
But Salesforce is hardly exceptional: this sort of dysfunction is the norm. And the dysfunction matters, because it causes delay and confusion, wasting vast amounts of time and money and causing contract disputes. Do better.
