I am an engineer dealing with other companies(vendors). Our company has to sign a Non-Disclosure agreement(NDA) with the vendor before we start any discussion. Now, the NDA signing is a process that takes a few days of discussion on the clauses and multiple exchanges of mails.
I have to request our legal department to start a NDA process whenever we shortlist a vendor. My typical request mail goes like this:
Hello Legal team,
Please initiate a NDA with XXX Company (contact:Mr. YYY, YYY@XXX.com).
Our company will share technical requirements and we may buy products and
services from them.
Thanks and regards
Jay
I am sure there is a better way of requesting someone to start a process than saying 'Please initiate'.
Your suggestions would be appreciated.
Best Answer
Your quoted email message probably gets the point across to the legal team, and as such is probably not too bad. However I have minor issues with the request as you wrote it.
First, the non-disclosure agreement (NDA) is the conclusion of a process if negotiations, and you don't initiate the NDA, but rather the negotiations which result in the NDA. So I'd insert "negotiations leading to" after "initiate". Secondly I'd invert the second sentence so that "we may buy ..." comes before "our company will share...", thirdly, the NDA may be necessary because of business relationships which do not involve purchase, for example, sales to, or a joint venture with the other firm, and lastly, since sharing implies two entities (you can't share something with yourself), I'd change "company" to the plural.
The result:
"Start" or "Begin" are better choices than "initiate", only because they are shorter.