Contract management - an essential part of the day job
The recent release of the IPA’s (Infrastructure and Projects Authority) suite of guidance and toolkits for public sector organisations managing PFI expiries, highlights the need for careful preparation before contracts expire and associated assets are returned to public sector management.
Contract review and its day to day management is often only an agenda item due to the imminent expiry of a contract or the realisation that expiry is on the horizon. It should however be a primary and central aspect of the operational management of any contract, whether complex PFI with multiple stakeholders or more contained between an organisation and its supplier.
The public sector has traditionally focused on well managed pre-signature procurement processes but placed less emphasis on post signature contract management. Indeed, contract management is still in its infancy in terms of being recognised as a profession in its own right and is often not identified as a separate discipline within public sector buying frameworks. The result is that contract management teams are often less well resourced and lack the skills and technology required in a fast moving environment to ensure their contracts are performing to expectations and to have the evidence to challenge suppliers when they don’t.
It is therefore pleasing to see the emphasis the IPA is now placing within its PFI Expiry Toolkits on contract management as a fundamental and essential element of PFI delivery and we are hopeful that buying frameworks will similarly now separate it out from procurement and consultancy into a category of its own.
JCM’s Contract Management as a Service (CMaaS) combines cloud technology and contract management expertise in one simple monthly payment to support inhouse contract management teams to manage and access all relevant documentation, track supplier obligations against invoicing, keep track of assets and manage and lower risk.
Brian Clark, CEO
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