---
id: KB-CL-012
url: https://app.codecontract.io/help/collaboration/when-the-other-side-will-not-change
idioma: en
categoria: colaboracion
subcategoria: externos
audiencia: usuario
nivel: intermedio
actualizado: 2026-08-13
tambienEn: [es]
relacionados: [KB-CL-009, KB-CC-012, KB-CL-020]
citadoPor: [KB-CL-016, KB-CR-020]
---

# When the other side will not change

_The supplier who only sends emails and the client who insists on their portal. Both have a way through._

**Responde a:** the supplier refuses to use the platform · the client forces us onto their portal · working with people still on email and spreadsheets · adapting to a client's tool

No organisation works alone, and not everyone will use the same thing. There are two distinct situations — those who will not change and those who impose their system on you — and they are solved differently.

## Case 1: the supplier still on email

The key point is that they **do not have to change tools**. No account, no password, nothing to learn: they receive a request, enter by their link, upload from a phone, done. If your request suggests otherwise, the problem is the message, not their resistance.

| What they say | What it usually means | What works |
| --- | --- | --- |
| "Just email it to me" | They do not want to register anywhere | Explaining there is no registration |
| "I'm not good with those things" | They fear it is complicated | An example or a two-minute call |
| "I already sent it" | They sent it to a person, not to the file | Asking them to reply on the same link |
| "I haven't got time" | It is not a priority for them | A concrete date and a clear consequence |

> [!IMPORTANT]
> The third row is the commonest and looks least like resistance. Receiving documentation in someone's inbox is exactly the problem you are trying to solve: if it ends up there, you have not moved forward even though the supplier cooperated.

## Case 2: the client who imposes their portal

There is no negotiation here and it is not worth attempting: if your client requires uploading to their platform, you upload. What is up to you is not doing the work twice.

1. **Your file remains the source** — Prepared, reviewed and kept here; whatever they ask for gets uploaded there.
2. **Record what you uploaded and when** — Their portal is theirs: if it changes or closes tomorrow, your evidence must be yours.
3. **And do not duplicate the review** — Review once, here. Their portal is a destination, not a second archive.

> [!WARNING]
> The expensive mistake in case 2 is stopping keeping copies "because it's already on their portal". When the relationship ends, that access disappears — and with it two years of your documentation.

## And the middle case

**En corto**

- A client who accepts any route: send them yours, with your branding.
- A partner with their own system: agree who keeps the whole.
- And a one-off collaborator: scoped access, nothing to set up.

> [!NOTE]
> None of this requires the other side to contract or pay. Whoever supplies or signs consumes nothing: consumption always falls on the requester.

**Can the request be sent from our domain?**

Yes, and it helps a lot with sceptics.

**What if the supplier emails the document anyway?**

Upload it to the file and thank them; what matters is where it ends up.

**Is it worth insisting they use the link?**

Yes, for the outcome rather than the principle: the link leaves a record and email does not.

## Ejemplos

**A twenty-year supplier refuses to "sign up to yet another platform".**

- They explain there is no sign-up and send an example
- He uploads from his phone in two minutes

→ He supplies as always and the documentation ends up in the file, not in an inbox.

**A twenty-year supplier refuses to use the link and keeps emailing.**

- Uploads their document to the file yourself on receipt
- Sends them the link on the channel they do use
- Shows them once what they gain: seeing what they are missing without phoning

→ The file is complete from day one and the supplier changes when they see the benefit, not under pressure.

**They are pressed and the relationship suffers.**

- Accepts their channel and adapts the record

→ The file moves without a commercial cost.

**The supplier says they have no time to learn another tool.**

- Shows them there is nothing to register for

→ The objection disappears in one sentence.

**They email it and nobody uploads it to the file.**

- Assigns somebody to upload it on receipt

→ The delivery is recorded even arriving another way.

**They are written off and left with no file.**

- Records whatever they send, however it arrives

→ No supplier falls outside the control.

**The contact person changes and the new one does use the link.**

- Tries again with every change of contact

→ The resistance was one person's, not the company's.

**Their way is accepted and nobody records why.**

- Notes the exception in their file

→ The team knows why that supplier works differently.