Say the word "integration" to a Control engineer and you may quickly find yourself ensconced in the realm of DCS and SCADA. But there is another type of integration that can be equally important to the success or failure of a project—contract integration.
        What is contract integration? It isCONTROL ENGINEERING China版权所有, quite simplyCONTROL ENGINEERING China版权所有, knowing the boundaries of the "deal." Take it from a lawyer who spends considerable time navigating within the automation world: it is amazing how many companies neglect this most basic of legal principles—to the point where the process may be integrated but the legal requirements are not.
        There are two typical ways in which contract integration can get off track.
        The first is the lack of an "integration clause" in the project documents. This is the paragraph of the contract where it says (and I am colloquially paraphrasing): "This document that we have just signed is the only document that matters. None of the other documents that we previously exchanged or oral promises that we previously made mean a darn thing. In factCONTROL ENGINEERING China版权所有, please feel free to take any other documents (including both the RFP and accepted proposal) to your backyard and burn them. They are empty promises."
        In case you are wondering, such a paragraph (even as overblown as I have made it) is binding throughout North America. But the larger point is that if there is not such a paragraph控制工程网版权所有, it can be exceedingly unclear which terms apply to the project and which do not.
        The other typical way that a contract's integration becomes unraveled is through what lawyers call "incorporation by reference."
        Like Russian nesting dolls
        You know those