Central repository for contract and supplier information

framework can store all contracts, attachments and supplier information in one easy to view central repository enabling easy access of all contract information, for any given project, at the touch of a button.

Managing multiple contracts in a central repository increases the visibility of all contract information including pricing, maintenance charges, purchase orders and other relevant financial data.

Many organisations struggle with finding a contract, this is before they can even start to embark on ensuring its compliance or maximising the contracts value. Introducing a central contract repository allows users to search for contract information by name, category or any given attribute.

Is it secure?

Ensuring secure access to data is imperative. framework utilises role assignments giving organisations the ability to design profiles that categorise different users. These roles are then assigned access rights and the areas of the application they are entitled to utilise.

In addition to role assignments and access rights, all users accessing the system will additionally be assigned a unique user name and password.

Furthermore, an Audit Log will report on all actions that occur in framework, and any changes made to a contract are also logged in the Contract History Details.

Find information

With an online repository all information is available through a few simple clicks with either the quick search or advanced search options.

Examples of data that can stored, found and reported on:

• Pertinent contract information e.g. expiry dates, value,
• Suppliers, products and customers
• Secure attachments - contracts, SLA’s etc
• Contract schedules
• Audit log of activities done by each employee
• Employees associated with each contract/supplier/product
• Communication history
• Linked contracts

Maximise contract management processes

Companies are realising that it does not make sense spending valuable time selecting suppliers and negotiating contracts just to let them sit idly on shelves, in cupboards or on personal hard drives.

Without effective contract management organisations lose out on time, money and resources. Recent research indicated that organisations using contract management software can reduce annual contract management spend by up to 50%.

framework will simplify and automate currently manual administrative processes, effectively reducing the time and resources required, whilst highlighting savings opportunities and tracking risks and obligations.

There are many ways framework can help organisations to maximise effective contract management:

1.     Contract milestone & renewals

framework ensures that there is sufficient time given to review, re-negotiate or cancel contracts in an effort to reduce costs and lowering the typical cycle time for each contract review and negotiation. Benefits include:

a) Email notifications of contract milestones such as contract review and cancellation dates
b) Categorise free text notes to store information such as contract review and legal notes
c) Add attachments to notes such as emails and internal documents
d) Store contract change history and audit log

2.     Schedules & variations

framework will allow you to create and manage changes to contracts either through contract variations or additional schedules. Contracts can also be “linked” for impact analysis and reporting

3.     Risk & compliance

Using framework, information relating to contract risks can be stored so companies can identify and control factors and potential threats that may have an impact on contract delivery. framework’s reporting also supports compliance with regulatory requirements which demand transparency and better controls of financial reporting processes

4.     Performance & value

framework helps you to realise value for money from your contracts through tracking the costs, benefits and savings derived. In addition, contract performance information can be stored, helping companies understand how to continuously improve internal controls and maximise contract performance.

5.      Task manager

framework allows you to assign specific tasks against a contract, supplier, product/service or invoice to enhance the strategic process in managing contracts. Each task can be assigned to a specific user or group, with automatic email notifications to alert users when a task is due, overdue or has been completed by another team member.

Recharge contract costs to internal & external parties

framework manages the recharging of contract costs to external and internal bodies. This is essential for companies who need to account, report and charge for the cost of a specific ‘unit usage’ of a product or service.

Proactively managing recharging costs:

• Improves budget accuracy and financial forecasting
• Provides meaningful impact analysis on a ‘what if’ scenario
• Allows you to track and reclaim any un-recovered costs
• Improves client costs management and quickly uncover savings
• Accurately split the cost of a product/service between clients or departments

How it works:

framework allows you to define clients, sites and account codes and apply these to a contract at the product level.

The system is then configured to calculate monthly proportional charge accordingly and monthly payment data can then be scheduled for export to third party applications if required. This function can be set up for both internal and external clients depending on the requirements of the business.

What it can do:

• Automatically generate payments for a given period
• Calculate part-payments
• Set up recharge templates
• Report on the impact a client leaving will have on the business
• Detail all un-recovered costs
• Bring changes on & off-line dynamically

Flexible data reporting

framework enables users to create any report required using a simple reporting wizard. All framework reports can be exported to Excel or a .csv file, printed or forwarded as an email attachment.

The easy to use reporting facilities of framework ensure that dynamic management reports can be easily created, accessed and manipulated, allowing management personnel to make better & more informed decisions.

Standard contract & spend reports

framework comes with a selection of pre-defined reports designed to help users simply and effectively report on contract renewals, review and spend. Reports include:

• Contract summary
• Contracts due for review
• Contracts due for cancellation
• Supplier summary
• Supplier contact summary
• Budget forecasting
• Invoices due
• Annual spend by supplier
• Annual spend by contract category

Flexibility

The intuitive reporting wizard within framework allows users to create bespoke reports using any of the data held within the database. A user can either create a report for personal use or make it globally accessible.

Data and reports can be exported to Excel or a .csv file and viewed as a Pivot Table for interactive graphical analysis of data. Additionally, users can print reports or forward them as an email attachment.

Reports can be scheduled to run at specified time periods and users can be assigned to receive the report, automatically via email.

Enhance supplier management processes

framework’s central repository will improve supplier management practices by providing contract and procurement executives with improved visibility to company wide supplier information and communication history.

framework enables full management of supplier relationships due to all contracts regarding a particular supplier being linked within the central repository. You can also store supplier approvals, performance, risks and SLA’s to ensure you make more informed decisions going forward.

By providing quick and easy access to current and historical information, framework helps you to cut contract negotiation cycles in half, reducing contract administration costs.

Benefits to centralising supplier management:

• Direct access to all supplier contracts
• Review previous discounts, terms and conditions and costs
• Central supplier contact database
• Improved communication between all parties
• Expose different supplier pricing structures throughout the organisation
• Supplier profile, risk and performance information
• Attachment of supplier tender documents
• Direct link to supplier website
• Full supplier communication history
• Graphical supplier spend analysis

Manage supplier risks

Your procurement team will have scored suppliers based on a variety of metrics often including Political, Economical, Social, Technical, Legal and Environmental factors (know as the PESTLE model).

As Corporate Social Responsibility in Procurement is high on everyone’s agenda, tracking this information to ensure suppliers adhere to your procurement policies is important.

All this information can be stored within framework, which can be configured to fit in with your organisations assessment matrix.

Flexible, fully configured and user friendly

framework is easily configurable and so flexible it can meet all your company’s contract management needs, no matter what industry you are in, and whether you apply it to a small department or your entire organisation.

We will work with you to fully understand your business needs, then configure the system accordingly to meet your requirements. As part of the standard implementation we will also import any data currently used from other sources to ensure the system is up and running from day one.

framework's intuitive and user friendly interface provides simple navigation of the comprehensive contract and supplier data repository.

framework provides a quick and easy way of accessing contractual information, and a customisable, easy to use reporting application.

Online help is available throughout the system and simple online tutorials ensure employees do not require extensive, time consuming training.

• Immediate implementation
• Rapid configuration
• User friendly interface
• Quick and easy import/export routines
• Wildcard search & find
• Simple report wizard

Online invoice reconciliation

It has been reported that around 15% of supplier invoices are inaccurate.

With framework's quick on-line verification, you can easily check a received invoice against the forecasted spend amount, ensuring that invoices are accurate prior to payment and they are based on what is contractually agreed.

Tracking Invoices

framework tracks invoice statuses. The status can be modified at each stage of the authorisation and payment process, enabling approved personnel access to the information they require.

Budget Forecasting

It is invaluable for every organisation to be able to forecast what the future expenditure is likely to be in any given area of the business.

framework creates forecasting spend schedules for each contract, each amount being accurate to the contracted payment terms.

framework's flexible management reporting allows accurate business intelligence and spend forecasting.

Monitor Savings

Rationalising suppliers and renegotiating contracts can yield significant savings and reduce year on year costs.

framework logs the savings you have made from renegotiations. Reviewing these logged savings can help to justify future spend and enable proactive decision making.

Document Management

Documentation relating to the contract, supplier or product can be attached to framework ensuring all details can be referenced immediately.

When a file is attached in framework, it is uploaded and stored in a secure location. A sequence suffix will be appended to differentiate between the different files avoiding file duplication. A file storage structure shows the available directories in an organised manner where attached files can be stored.

Restrict access to contract and supplier information

Keeping contracts in a central repository is essential to better contract management, but keeping sensitive information secure is fundamental to good business practice.

Secure

framework is a secure repository with 3 levels of authentication information required to access the system: Company, Username & Password. The password can be tailored to your company password policy and will lock out after a specified number of access attempts.

Roles

Within framework you can limit access to individual contracts and suppliers by assigning roles to individuals or groups. When setting up a contract or supplier you can simply select who you wish to have access.

Locations

Locations are provided within framework and exist to enable different data partitions within the same database. One partition is completely independent from another and all definitions are isolated.

This enables an organisation to keep contracts belonging to different business units or sensitive contracts separate. User logons can then be assigned to the different locations to indicate whether the user can access the location or not.