The Contracts Register is our ‘list’ of our known contracts containing summary details such as contractor, duration, expenditure category and contract owner. It may also include references to associated documents (e.g. copies of contracts, schedules or specifications) and other information. The corresponding reference to the Legal database (FileDirector) of contract documents is also recorded where it exists.

A contract register fulfils a number of important roles in supporting our:

• legal compliance and transparency
• forward planning for contract renewal
• management reporting and auditability
• risk management – particularly in the light of Covid 19 disruption

The information that it contains varies according to factors such as:

• Life-time contract value
• Potential risk of failure
• Contribution to core proposition

We have set the level for inclusion at £50,000 life-time contract value.

This is about 150 records in total. It is also restricted to third party contractors only. You should not add information on the following contracts to the register under any circumstances.

• Sales & Marketing contracts let with our customers
• Contracts let with individuals for the provision of a specific service – this includes interims and consultants contracted to undertake specific roles (e.g. projected related)

The completeness and accuracy of each record may vary for the following reasons:

• Contract information has been lost or will take time to locate as it is stored in multiple locations
• A contract may not exist – this is a risk in itself
• Contract owners have not had the time to update their records

We may lower the threshold in due course, meaning that more records will be added. In addition, you may also add new records to reflect risk as well as value.

It is a single shared access point for contract information for all our authorised users. This allows users to access information quickly and efficiently. It is also helps to:

• Support business continuity by facilitating a smooth handover when post holders move on
• Locate records of older contracts, which have often been mislaid
• Give managers confidence that they can locate information should an unforeseen emergency occur (e.g. a supplier goes bust)

File Director is primarily an electronic content management system, i.e. that it holds digitalised versions of contract documents and schedules.  The Contracts Register contains summary information only and exists as a management tool, a little bit like an asset register.

There are no plans to replace FileDirector.  The contract record may hold the FileDirector reference (in Notes) and may also store a copy of the contract and/or supporting documents.

Yes, in some cases.  Where we have the physical contract, we have appended a scanned version of the contract to the contract record. However, other related documents may be missing and you should consult the Legal Team’s FileDirector system.  There may also be a FileDirector reference in the Notes field, or a link to a drive where you can find related documents.

It allows you to record whether variations have been agreed. However, you should always send the details (documents, notes etc.) to our Legal Team for inclusion with FileDirector.

Anyone that has an interest in accessing our summary contract information. Typically, this would be:

• Contract & Relationship Managers
• Contract owners
• Directors
• Budget holders – particularly those looking for details of existing contracts

However, there are no hard and fast rules. It is an internal register only and does not contain any confidential or personal information.

See Table below.

Yes, the register is provided through what is known as ‘Software as a Service’ and has been through a due diligence process by the Technology Team. It is accessible only by invitation, usually sent by e-mail, which then requires a user to log-in and create a password in order to gain access. No third party access is allowed.

Contact the Procurement Manager, Ken Cole, colek@rsc.org. In most cases, a read all contracts access level will suffice. We will only give Contract Admin rights to users that are actually responsible for managing and dealing with contracts.

The Contracts Register is very intuitive and simple to use. There are help screens that explain various features, tasks and terms. The Procurement Manager (Ken Cole) can offer you a short overview briefing. 

You do not need to be logged in to the CRS to access the help areas, simply click on https://cr.lms.nipltd.com/cr-help/.

Anyone with Contract Edit access (or higher) can insert new contracts or amend existing records.  We will audit the creation of new contracts and any amendments to ensure that they are performed with the knowledge of the contract owner.

This scenario is likely to occur, particularly for older contracts where the commercial relationship dates back many years.  The important thing is to capture as much information as you know and then consult the Procurement Manager.  The field ‘Contract Exists’ is used to indicate whether a contract is in place or not.

The contract notes is a free text facility that enables us to capture useful information that may be of value in ensuring that managers have a good understanding of our contracts. There are limitations to the data that you can hold as standard in the Register, so we are using the Notes field to capture additional information about our contracts that we think will be useful.

The specific information that we are capturing is:

• FileDirector= reference or not applicable
• Critical Supplier= Y/N (note that critical suppliers must be identified as such by the procurement manager)
• Variations= Y/N

See Contract Register Field Descriptions for formatting information.

This is a facility that enables contract owners to be contacted to advise them that their contracts are due to expire. It can be set to suit individual circumstances with a range of choices ranging from one to eighteen months.

Forward planning is essential, whether it be for budgeting, business case development, contract letting or contract renewal. In the case of the latter two, better forward planning leads to better outcomes and contractor relationships. We recommend that contract alerts are set up for a minimum of three months.

Yes, where there are:

• Commercial relationships in the contract with more than one Department
• Business owner (usually a Department) and a Technology owner (this is only for technology systems whether cloud hosted or held locally)

The main business owner should always be listed as the primary owner.  This person will receive an e-mail alert when the contract is due for renewal.

A search on ‘owner’ will show all contracts where there is a match on primary or secondary owner.

This is a non-validated field that to provide a unique link to Netsuite later. Our long-term goal is that budget holders and users should be able to review spend against an individual contract rather than just a supplier as at present. As an example, if you work in Global Marketing and wish to enter a new contract, the reference that you use would be:

SAM = Your department, i.e.  Sales and Marketing

MAR = Global Marketing

With the next available number (four digits)

Therefore, you would enter SAM/MAR0014 if 14 were the next free number

Please do not worry if you get it wrong or are unsure. The Administrator will correct any errors during housekeeping.

You can find full instructions on how you should compile references in Contract Register Field Descriptions.

The Category is a procurement classification which stipulates what was acquired through the contract. The Category schema is a reduced version of the established procurement standard, ProClass. The department name denotes who owns the contractual relationship.

Click on the Categories option on the main header menu.  This lists the  ProClass classifications that we are using at RSC.  Some classifications are at header level only, and some drill to 2 or 3 levels.  Clicking the diagonal arrow icon next to the description will list all contracts for that category (and any sub-categories).

Alternatively, a keyword search in the Contract home page can be used.

Click on the Columns option on the bottom left of the contract list; you can then add and remove other columns to enhance your view.  Please note that your view is not saved and this action will need to be repeated for further searches.

The free text search box can be used on its own, or with additional advanced search options.

Here are some examples:

Technology
This would show any contract where the word ‘technology’ existed in any of the text fields (e.g. Title, Reference, Supplier Names, Categories, Notes etc.).

Technology Salesforce
This would show any contract containing BOTH words (in any text fields).

“Critical Supplier=Y”
This search would treat the text inside the double quotes as a whole phrase (note that punctuation is ignored) and would look for Critical then Supplier then Y in any single text phrase.

The Free Text search can also be used in conjunction with the Advanced Search options.

This is to provide visibility and support communication between departments for forward planning and future joint working. It is common for more than one department to be interested in the same contractor or even the same contract.  However, there are two exemptions where you should not hold information on the register under any circumstances:

• Sales & Marketing contracts let with our customers
• Contracts let with individuals for the provision of a specific service – this includes interims and consultants contracted to undertake specific roles (e.g. projected related)

The contracts entered on the register are those with a total lifetime contract value of £50,000 or more. You should enter details of any new contracts let exceeding this value onto the register.

However, please feel free to enter details of contracts of lesser value if the contract is:

• Going to be running for multiple years
• Is an identified critical supplier as agreed by the Procurement Manager
• For a high profile service or outcome that is critical to the RSC’s reputation
• Let with an overseas contractor, where the service is being undertaken outside of the UK

Please do not enter details of sales contracts where the RSC is the supplier rather than the client.

Once both parties (RSC and the contractor) have signed and dated the contract. Also, please remember to send electronic copies of terms and conditions, statements of work and specifications to our Legal Team so that they can be stored on FileDirector.

Yes, please do. We will review the register, which is a generic service, each year to capture new information and give users a better experience whether it be through searching, carrying out tasks or reporting. Please contact the Procurement Manager, Ken Cole, colek@rsc.org should you have any ideas for future improvement.

A register is primarily a summary document designed to support

• legal compliance and transparency
• forward planning for contract renewal
• management reporting and auditability
• risk management

A contract management system supports the direct, day-to-day management of individual contracts, capturing documents, knowledge and specific information related to those contracts.

. Yes there are two programmes:

• A half-day programme called Contract & Relationship Management – the basics.
• A half-day programme called Specification Writing

Please register with our Procurement Manager if you would like to attend.

We are now corporate members of IACCM – the International Association of Commercial and Contract Management, which gives us access to research, and education programmes related to contract and relationship management.

There are four things to think about if you intend to use the IACCM resources:

• Completing your registration and spending half an hour exploring what is available to you on their Website iaccm.com. The research library is very useful, and copies of papers can be downloaded at no cost
• Signing up to a few Webinars where you are interested in the advertised topic. The good news is that you can still work and listen to contributions and you receive copies of the material used after the event
• Thinking about what you would personally like to get out of our membership both for your department and professionally,  bearing in mind there is no one size fits all here
• Identifying people in your team who might benefit from some of the on-line learning and training available

 You should always check with an appropriate Manager / Director and Legal Services before taking any advice or using any legal documents obtained via IACCM.