Contract Management

The National Audit Office’s 2016 report on commercial and contract management issues in the public sector offers up a ‘gold mine’ of useful information for organisations across the public-private spectrum. Its segmentation of all the issues they identified into seven…

If you are looking for ways in which to improve your commercial and contract management, then you are in good company. The National Audit Office (NAO) has spent years reviewing the public sector market to identify where weaknesses in processes…

This article focussing on market management and sourcing, is the latest in a series of seven tasked with reporting and commenting on the findings of the NAO’s 2016 report on insights and emerging best practice in commercial and contract management.…

In a recent article titled ‘NEW National Audit Office guidance for supplier operating standards that could change everything’, we took a look at the most recent update of the Government Commercial Function’s (GCF) eight ‘Commercial Operating Standards’ and discussed their…

The National Audit Office (NAO) recently published an insightful report on the state of commercial and contract management best practice in the public sector. We have developed a number of articles on the subject matter contained within this report –…

Reports suggest that it has not been a good year for global outsourcing giant Capita. What with the company’s first profit warning in September, reported project issues and what seems to be a weakening market across some of its core…

A parliamentary enquiry into how the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) achieves value for money was recently undertaken, after which its Chief Executive, Malcolm Harrison, candidly suggested that due to a lack of appropriate focus initial expectations of the CCS had…

Rupert Soames, the CEO of Serco (and grandson of Winston Churchill), recently gave evidence to PACAC (the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee). This was part of an enquiry into the work of the civil service as a result of…

The National Audit Office (NAO) recently created an insightful report into contract management best practice, combining wisdom gathered from discussions with those who operate these relationships at the coalface. It features analysis from 26 recent reports on projects that ranged…

Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chair Meg Hillier described the UK Trade and Investments (UKTI) contract with PA Consulting as a “fiasco beyond belief” after UKTI auditors reported that poorly documented contract alterations had made it impossible for the organisation to…

If your outsourcer’s shares had taken quite a beating, with the company’s value dropping by a quarter or more over a matter of days, you might be encouraged to start asking questions of those in the know as to whether…

It has never been more important to ensure that your complex service delivery (outsourcing) relationships succeed. But how can this be achieved in an environment where it seems so commonplace that external service providers fail to achieve expected business outcomes.…

The collapse of UnitingCare – the multi-million pound collaboration between an NHS consortium and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough CCG to provide ‘older people’s and adult community services’ in the region – has had an unprecedented impact on the sector. It has…

With the recent announcement from the BBC that the NHS’s major complex projects management and procurement support force – the Strategic Project Team (SPT) – will be “closed down”, questions are now being asked and lessons must be learned in…

The NAO have reported that “A third of major government projects due to deliver in the next five years are rated as in doubt or unachievable unless action is taken to improve delivery” NAO Controller and Auditor Amyas Morse believes…

A PFI project being hailed as a model partnership, expected to deliver what it was planned to, and all for less than expected may not be something you often see reported in the media, but the Thames Tideway Tunnel (TTT)…

Megaprojects are large-scale public ventures, complex in nature, often taking many years to complete with the potential to impact on the lives of millions of people – they are projects on a scale that demands a very different management skillset,…

You will know from experience, as we do, that size and term can impact on the complexity of a project and the relationships that govern such a venture. And, as PFI agreements by their very nature tend to be sizeable…

Despite sticking to the letter of their contract, we see £500m of Atos contracts under review by Whitehall. Time and again you will hear us discussing the benefits of a well-worded contract, of the need for it to be clear,…

In the face of growing perceived threats to security and defence the e-Borders project was conceived to “create a joined-up modernised intelligence-led border control and security framework” tracking passengers as they travelled to our shores by air, rail or sea,…

Currently doing the rounds are rumours that 2016 could see a significant drop in demand for outsourcing services in the UK. Instinctively, when you see headlines like this, it’s reasonable to apply a degree of scepticism to such talk, but…

When faced with the task of sourcing a new provider for an important and complex project, there are many points that need to be seriously considered. However, in our experience, there is one key area in particular that is consistently…

It’s hard not to be susceptible to good marketing, but when it comes to bringing in someone who claims to be an ‘expert’, they need to be serious about their claims. Why? Because by representing themselves as an expert who…

To get your project back on track, clear communication with your vendor is critical. Following the key steps below will help to ensure that both sides are clear about your expectations, that the system will be fit for purpose once…

As regular readers of our articles will know, I tend to continually emphasise the importance of a strong Intelligent Client Function (ICF) team. I don’t do so without cause though because the evidence we see day in and day out…

How to plan a negotiation in an exit strategy? Many would assume that all that’s needed is to follow the roadmap set out in a contract or to prove some deviation from a contractual obligation so then the relationship could…

The early termination of any major commercial relationship for a high-visibility organisation will inevitably cause ripples in the marketplace. The effects of which – like the infamous ‘chaos theory’ that starts with a butterfly flapping its wings – are difficult…

The biggest risk in a new service delivery partnership Without exception, the single largest key challenge in moving into a new strategic partnering arrangement with a service provider is a lack of clarity and quantification over both parties’ expectations and…

In recent months, two major examples have been reported in the media which indicate that some relationships were made to last longer than others – the Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP) decision to extend their relationship with HP and…

Private sector service providers take a hefty 50% bite out of the public sector’s total annual expenditure on goods and services. The likes of G4S, Serco, BT and a few other members of the exclusive Massive Outsources Suppliers’ Club receive…

Preliminary Market Engagement (PME) is an incredibly useful step in the procurement process, especially when one of the more restrictive procedures is to be selected. However, essential though it may be, PME has until now been largely ignored. New EU…

With so many pieces in play on the metaphorical chessboard of complex service-provider relationships, to ensure success in achieving your business outcomes it is important to know how each will move. Who are the advocates, the obstructers and the fence-sitters?…

The degree to which organisations engage in the strategic commissioning process can greatly affect the future of their service delivery partnership, their relationship with the service provider, and can even dictate whether they save money or incur costs that they…

The pressure on procurement teams can be immense when considering project partners, and with vendor-side sales people pulling in one direction and often client-side policy pulling in another, deciding on how to pay for your project can be a challenge.…

September 2012 David Taylor Smith (Chief Operating Officer) Fired after Olympics blunder | May 2013 Nick Buckles (Group CEO) Resigns | October 2013 Richard Morris (Regional CEO) Quit in wake of the tagging controversy | June 2014 Eddie Aston (Regional…

Despite hopes to the contrary, we continue to regularly hear about the failure or abandonment of all too many projects. There are no shortage of uncomfortable headlines in the press about relationship breakdowns, cost overruns and deliverables left undelivered. These…

Once unquestioned as one of the UK public sector’s main service providers, Serco have had to face a number of challenges in their service delivery and management team of late. As a result, could it be said that Serco are…

The complexity and length of PFI contracts and the upward pressure on the unitary charge (due to inflation, the cost of contract variations and the contractors’ desire for profit, among other things) mean that multi-million pound deficits can accumulate if…

When it was announced recently that One Connect Limited, the £400 million strategic partnership between BT and Lancashire County Council, was to be wound down, it is likely there would have been surprised looks in the room for individuals not…

The need to control PFI costs is of paramount importance to any public sector organisation, yet often those responsible for PFI finance and the contract arrangements can work ‘in silo’ creating (inadvertently) a lack of cost control. Collaborative working, therefore,…