“What contract do we have with this supplier, and how do we work with them?”
We see these questions being asked in many organisations, and this is typically a reason for it. Creating contracts and getting them out there to be used by the organisation is normally disconnected and not adequately factored into the end-to-end procurement processes.
When building the P2Connct platform, one of the vital building blocks and design criteria has been to empower users with relevant information and build in the elements of what many orders are done today - which is not only by ordering from a predefined catalogue with fixed prices and pictures of laptops and pens. In many businesses, many orders become more complex and require a certain level of information and guidance. If the platform being used in your company can’t help structure this need for sharing and information easily - and where the user is in the process - you spend resources supporting this need or, alternatively, collaborating inefficiently with suppliers and within the business.
Searchable content
You and your users shouldn’t tied down in restricted searching and based on generic fields not providing much value. Instead, it would help if you made your content searchable throughout the platform you have implemented. With P2Connct, you get a platform that works in tandem with your regular ordering platform or expand with our ordering features. Having a platform like P2Connct as a bolted-on solution to your current setup can help provide you and your organisation with the necessary buying guidance that is needed to bring visibility into which preferred suppliers deliver what service or product, which supplier contacts to engage with, contract elements and specific document and templates to use, and be guided into the next steps of the buying process - it being creating order in your current ordering platform, submitting an order on a supplier website and paying with a credit card, contacting an internal department for next steps or simply knowing which restaurant to use for corporate events. This makes P2Connct more than just a regular guided buying platform; we go beyond regular requests.
Usable documents
Now, a contract with a supplier will typically contain a lot of legal clauses to govern the relationship and collaboration, which is needed. However, the organisation might not need to get access to all information in a contract - due to legal reasons or simply because they don’t get any value from it. Consider extracting certain relevant elements and appendices from the contracts and make these available and searchable for your organisation. This will provide users with additional information and help guide them more efficiently when working with their chosen suppliers. This means that you can start sharing elements like payment terms, confidentiality information, guidance on how to work with the supplier or specific people to involve from your business and show searchable documents like NDAs, project templates or pricing sheets.
Contract Follow-up and Monitoring
Engaging in an agreement with a supplier also means following up on that relationship. We need to monitor how the agreement holds up when being used. We can do this in different ways. Besides monitoring spend on a supplier, we have built a natural step for rating and evaluating suppliers in P2Connct. This will allow you to get even more insight into how a supplier performs and the organisation perceives the supplier.
Of course, monitoring and following up on contracts and agreements is only one part of the metrics we recommend using in Procurement. We have written an article on the 6 Key Contract Performance Metrics for you to improve your contract work.
Contract Termination and Deactivate
An instrumental part of getting more value from your contracts is to have them activated and, of course, used by your organisation. However, the end of the contract life cycle is additionally essential. When a contract expires, it should also be deactivated from your systems. In our platform, you should not only store and decide on which relevant document you want to show, but we also have built expiration information. From that, you can determine what your next step should be - removing it from the view of the business or updating it with a new contract covering the next period. Contracts create value for the business and should be maintained efficiently.
Drive more value by activating your contracts
Having your contracts and contract elements hidden from the organisation will hinder you from operating more efficiently in procurement, business, and with suppliers. Instead, contract elements and relevant documents should be available to be used and seen where the user needs them, and they should be an instrumental part of the buying process. This will enable and empower your users to a degree where they can be treated like co-players instead of instruments to aim for compliant processes. We all need to work together for our companies’ greater good and create more value together. So do yourself a favour and create more transparency for your Procurement department and your organisation.
Are you curious to learn more about how we at P2Connct can help you activate your contracts and guide your users with a Guided Intake Platform? Get in touch with our team through chat or book a meeting here.