In recent years, more attention has been paid to lawful and efficient purchasing, ensuring community funds are used and spent in a transparent and responsible way. Purchasing must make a positive contribution to the university’s all-round performance level. The concrete objectives related to purchasing must correspond with the objectives of the college and/or university of applied sciences. Purchasing must also support good governance and be based on the principles of equality, motivation and trust. It must also support administrative and official integrity, for example by following the established codes of conduct, thereby avoiding, among other things, conflicts of interest. Last but not least, purchasing needs to operate in a socially responsible way, as well as supporting and following up on social return, while also being innovative, limiting or avoiding risks, complying with the law and regulations, contract compliance, etc.

This increases the importance of contract monitoring and contract management. Correct registration, monitoring and management of contracts is the main objective when it comes to contract management. Good contract monitoring forms the basis for contract management and enables more efficient processes. Good contract management ensures that all parties involved in an agreement fully comply with their obligations, so that the operational objectives of the contract and the objectives of the university are met.

ContractSoft supports different roles at a University or a College institution, such as:

• Facility (responsible for, for example, property management, housing, security, energy, telephony, etc.)
• HR (responsible for, for example, hiring (permanent and temporary staff), contracts, etc.)
• Purchasing
• Finance (responsible for, for example, insurance, car lease, etc.)
• Legal affairs (responsible for, for example, legal documents, advice, inheritances, etc.)
• ICT
• Dean, rector, promoter, etc.
• The Board

Phased approach

Not every institution is in the same phase in terms of contract maturity. The Netherlands Purchasing Center (the NIC) has developed the NICV model together with the Hanze University of Applied Sciences.

When an institution is in phase 1 or 2, it is best to start with Contract Monitoring only. ContractSoft supports municipalities in these phases with its Contract Registration, Contract Management and Control modules and Real Time Analytics.

Contract management can be introduced starting from phase 3, whereby the full functionality of ContractSoft can be implemented and used.

It often happens that departments are in different phases within one institution. It is possible to differentiate per department. It is important to define a good and phased approach and implementation.

Contract registration and monitoring

Contract registration and management involve the support of the administrative process, registering and managing contracts within your institution. In addition to this, also the physical and digital management of contracts, so that the right information is available at the right time and in the right place.

What position does Contract Management occupy? Practice shows that the organization of contract management must be in line with the purchasing organization within an institution. We distinguish between:

Within ContractSoft it is possible to follow different models at the same time, whereby a transition (from one model to another) can be supported.

Who is responsible for contract management within your institution? In terms of use and management we recognize the following roles (with the associated tasks and responsibilities) that can all be defined in ContractSoft: Contract Owner, Purchasing Advisor, Controller, Legal Advisor, Contract Manager, Application Manager.

Contract management

ContractSoft supports your contract management process. On the basis of the input that has been acquired, signed contracts and changes, this is very clearly recorded and managed. All parties can be monitored to ensure that everyone is fully in compliance with the conditions laid out in an agreement, so that the operational objectives of the contract and the objectives of your institution are being met.

Managing a contract therefore costs time and money. Institutions must make a choice in terms of which contracts are eligible for contract management. Risk analysis is one of the methods that can be used, but also a “simple” cost-benefit analysis. Usually each institution has its own mix of methods to select contracts for contract management.

Who is responsible for contract management within your institution? In terms of use and management we recognize the following roles (with the associated tasks and responsibilities) that can all be defined in ContractSoft: Contract Owner, Purchasing Advisor, Controller, Legal Advisor, Contract Manager, Application Manager.

The implementation of contract management determines how the purchasing organization is organized within an institution:

Using ContractSoft enables your institution to:

• Better use the qualities and skills your supplier has to offer
• Gain more insight into a supplier as a whole instead of each contract, which means there is more insight when it comes to the added value of this supplier in your organization
• Promote a more streamlined collaboration, harmony and satisfaction between a supplier and your organization
• Improve supplier relationships
• Improve internal and external communication
• Better prevent commercial, financial and legal risks
• Signal and implement cost savings. For example, by working more efficiently, less aftercare/repair work, timely insight into any additional work, contract savings)
• More insight into risks
• To obtain better monitoring and control options
• Increase knowledge power towards suppliers and provide better input to prepare for discussions and negotiations
• A better division of the distribution of time and capacity to suit the interests of the contract and supplier

In summary, at ContractSoft

• Everything is stored in one centralized system, giving each department insight into its own department and overall insight into the organization.
• Storing the workflow per contract type to make sure procedures that have been agreed are followed. Delays will be avoided, thanks to the notification options available in ContractSoft. Reviews are made by the right people.
• Thanks to the workflow, a contract can remain visible. The various dashboards provide insight into who has the contract. There is also an alert system built into ContractSoft if a contract remains with someone for too long (monitoring of deadlines).
• ContractSoft offers alerts when contracts have to be canceled or when contracts are about to expire (and need to be renewed). ContractSoft also offers various dashboards for insight and overview with regard to these contracts.
• In case of illness, a team leader can transfer the contracts from their dashboard to other colleagues with one mouse click, so less time is lost. This also provides insight into the workflow and the workload of the various people in the teams.
• All financial obligations and rights are included in overviews (based on the period that the organization requires) within the dashboards.
• Thanks to ContractSoft, the connections between the various contracts can be established with the underlying relationships (for example, partner agreement, under contract, etc.).
• The dashboards ensure that contracts that have been set up with a particular party, the status of these contracts and how the negotiations with those contracts transpired, is immediately visible.
• All communications stored alongside with the contract, all types of files can be stored in the ContractSoft documents system and version updates are carried out automatically. Access rights and insight can be defined per user or user group.