Top 5 reasons why your NHS Organisation needs a contract management solution

Most organisations have HR, Payroll and finance systems to manage the volumes of data, keep track of transactions and assist with building reports and dashboards, but it seems that procurement professionals are expected to get by using spreadsheets to manage agreements, suppliers and people.

The good news is that over the past few years Contract Management Solutions (CMS) have become widely available and, along with the advent of cloud-based solutions, they are now more affordable than ever and certainly less expensive than most other corporate solutions.

Here we examine the top 5 reasons why your organisation should consider ditching the spreadsheet and move to a modern, convenient contract management solution that's purpose built for procurement professionals...

1. Understand your organisation's spend commitment

With so many agreements in place with multiple parties, it can be very difficult to keep on top of spend commitment. Knowing which agreements are active, what's expired, how much each one is worth monthly, annually and for its lifetime is a task in itself. Spreadsheets can help but they are difficult to keep up to date and have limitations when it comes to setting alerts for key dates and sharing with more than a couple of people.

At the heart of a CMS is the ability to manage spend commitment. Specifically, being able to see a list of what's currently active, what's expired and what's coming up for renewal. Combined with the ability to look in an archive of old agreements and see historical agreements, you have everything you need to answer everyday queries from the office cleaner to the chief executive in a couple of clicks.

2. Provide an organisation wide platform for people to access their own information

A Procurement Department spends time answering questions from the wider organisation about existing agreements as well as chasing people regarding renewals or disputes.

A CMS can provide a central platform for all NHS organisation users to access their own agreement information. With controls to ensure the security of information and the ability to make users "read-only", procurement can still retain control whilst proving a "self-service" platform.

And these days with advent of online approvals and electronic signatures, it's even easier to get control of spend and the terms and conditions which are entered into without putting burden onto the procurement team. You can set up the rules within the CMS and let it take care of governance, interacting directly with people across the organisation.

3. Don't miss renewals or cancellations and get help with disputes

As well as traditional agreements that have specific end-dates, there's a growing set of agreements that are subscription based. These agreements need active management. What's more, it is expected that Procurement manage the agreements and the end dates of all the contracts and help to avoid expensive roll-overs. When it comes to a dispute with a supplier, procurement is usually the first port of call.

With an effective CMS in place, you are able to easily support the business with renewal management which helps avoid roll overs and can help with a particularly tricky supplier dispute.

It's not all about fire-fighting. A modern CMS allows you to proactively manage contract renewals so that you plan the work of the procurement team rather than it being a mad rush with only days to put a renewal in place.

4. Find that CCG, supplier phone number, or document - fast!

Simplify your contract management process, share contracts with the people you want, and never waste time looking for contract documents or supplier information again. Having everything in one place means that when you need the information you know where to look, where ever you are, using whatever device is to hand.

And because modern CMS are flexible, store your Clinical Agreements with CCGs alongside your regular supplier agreements - One place. One tool. Lower costs.

5. Initiate a more effective and structured Category Management Program

Structured Category Management is the most effective way to reduce your supply-side spend without compromising the quality of what's delivered. By effectively challenging suppliers as well as aggregating demand to a smaller supplier group, procurement professionals can deliver real cash savings to the organisation.

But do this in a systemic way procurement management need to have the data available. A CMS has this data to hand by default because it has all the agreement data for the organisation. The Category Management savings delivered by a CMS generally far exceed the investment in the CMS cost.

intelligentcontract.com is a modern Contract Management Solution which is already servicing a growing number of clients from the health care industry. We have templates ready to deploy to ensure your organisation can benefit from effective contract management. Deployment is typically achieved within 3-6 weeks including the upload of your existing agreements.

You can start using intelligentcontract.com from £29 per user per month.

Click on www.intelligentcontract.com to find out more, see a video demo or book an online demo to see how the product can help your organisation.

Contact us support@intelligentcontract.com or call Freephone on 0333 344 3905 if you would like more information, would like a free trial or would like a personalised business case.