Contract Management

Contract management studies administering the agreement and the relationship after signature: compliance, variation, dispute resolution and monitoring what was agreed against what is delivered.

Contract management is the administrative foundation of the Part 3 regie capability; it differs from supplier management (the broader relationship, including performance and development) by confining itself to the document and the agreement itself. Both are needed, but conflating them produces oversight that only checks compliance and never develops the relationship, or the reverse: a managed relationship with no one watching the contract.

• Is the contract actively monitored for deviation, or only consulted when a dispute arises?
• Is there a distinction between who manages the contract and who manages the supplier relationship?

• IACCM/World Commerce & Contracting — contract-management practice and maturity models.
• ISO 41012:2017, the section on managing the agreement after award.

• Without separating contract and supplier management, deviation from the agreement is caught late, usually at escalation.

• Governance & Contract Management

• Contract compliance, variation control and dispute management

• Regieorganisatie — managing organisation / intelligent client function

  Contract management is a core component of regie, alongside — not instead of — supplier management.

• ISO 41012:2017.

The standards section arrives in Part 7.

• Contract management and supplier management treated as synonyms, leaving no one actually watching the document.

Little standardised evidence exists on which contract-management maturity level actually correlates with fewer disputes in FM-specific contracts, unlike IT or procurement contracts where more research has been done.

• World Commerce & Contracting, contract management maturity model.