​​Managing the contract

You should put processes in place to manage contracts, relationships and delivery of successfully tendered contracts. To keep things running smoothly, you should:

• agree on a set of achievable key performance indicators (KPIs) and provide regular progress reports
• develop a plan that engages the previous service provider (if there is one) and your buyer, to ensure expectations are set and responsibilities assigned
• set up debrief and review meeting for the first month, and some ongoing regular, formal meetings
• discuss any challenges with the buyer as they arise.

Relationship management

It’s important to establish and maintain a constructive relationship from the start of the contract. Keep up regular, informal communication, as well as pre-arranged, more formal meetings.

Help maintain a strong relationship by:

• providing positive and constructive feedback
• listening, identifying and addressing problems promptly, and explaining decisions and actions in an impartial way
• adopting a structured approach to managing the relationship with your buyer.

Dealing with issues

With good relationship management, you should be able to deal with issues before they become a problem.

• Agree on a process for managing issues with the buyer at the start of the contract.
• Raise any issues early, and always try to resolve them directly with the buyer if possible.

Managing relationships and conflict

Monitoring and review

Monitor your progress against the contract and your KPIs, and check in regularly with the buyer to ensure they're happy with how things are going.

• Arrange regular performance review meetings.
• Work collaboratively with your buyer on future direction and strategy within the contract, such as a meeting every six months that looks to the future as opposed to day-to-day operations.
• If variations to the contract occur, make them visible and discuss how to handle them.

Reporting

Agree a reporting structure with your buyer which covers:

• regular operational review meetings (at least monthly)
• what reporting is required and the content of the reports, for example:
  • exception reports for unexpected events or major variations to KPIs
  • KPI measurement
  • budget considerations
  • project progress reports.

Documentation

Documentation becomes particularly important if there's ever an issue or dispute about what was agreed.

Document any important decisions, like:

• agreed timelines
• quality assurance
• termination procedures
• scope changes.

When you're coming to the end of the contract

Talk to the buyer well before the end of a contract about whether it will be renewed, and if it will have to go back through the RFx process.

If you have to go back through an RFx process, figure out what the buyer will need for future contracts.

For a contract that doesn’t need to go to tender, but can be renewed talk to the buyer about any learnings from the contract to date, and whether the buyer is looking to make changes under the renewal.

Leveraging your contracts

To get the most out of your current buyers, document your experiences as case studies. You can use these in promotional material and when applying for new tenders.