Intelligent Automation Across Contract Management

Policies and procedures

Discuss about the Intelligent Automation across Contract Management.

There are many policies those have been implemented within the Australian National Archives in manner to manage the information or multimedia files being uploaded at the website. Some of the policies and act can be listed as Archives Act 1983, Archives regulations, Privacy Act 1988, Privacy Regulation 2013, and many more. These policies and procedures are capable of restricting the safety of the national archives and protecting the privacy and security of the individuals sharing the stories.

• How do you plan when to acquire products and services needed to complete project activities?

The primary phase should be the project initiation that will be emphasizing on the collection of all relative information and data in manner utilize them for the execution phase. Thereafter, services and products will be acquired for accomplishing the activities of the project.

• Who is involved in deciding when products and services are ordered?

The project manager and resource manager will decide ordering the services and products.

• What documents do you refer to when deciding on when to order products or services?

Contract plan, resource plan, checklist preparation, stakeholders sign-off should be completed before making the order for the services and the products.

• What are the effects of a product or service arriving early? What about if they arrive late?

Arriving early will be altering the storage and need of the storage location prior to the execution phase however; it will be helpful in starting the project early and thus, website can be transformed to common CMS earlier than the expectation. Late arrival will be affecting the overall constraints of the project and thus, the project will be delivered late.

• List the product or service that was being sourced here.

A CMS platform for the deployment such as word press, Joomla, Magneto, and others. The IT technician can execute programming for the development and hosting of the new platform of the website.

• How well did the project team member conduct the supplier analysis?

These are the most popular platforms for hosting the website at common CMS platform; the research resulted in the identification of feasible and effective services.

• Were there any gaps in their analysis? If so, please list them below.

No there was not any gap

• How could the project team member have performed the analysis better?

They could have considered more platforms suitable as per specification of the new relocation of the website those could comply with the existing website.

• Describe the methods used to procure the products and services for a project you are working on.

The most essential factors those have been considered for this analysis were description and category name, growth rate and present market size, degree of fragmentation and number of suppliers, industry profitability, and barriers to entry. Thereafter, lightning quick internet research was driven considering the online libraries and their journals. For the evaluation of the supplier strength porter’s five forces analysis was driven.

• What documents did you prepare to distribute to prospective sellers?

Due intelligence was conducted, financial record was recorded, business operations and legal documents were also prepared those needed to be spread among the buyers.

• What type of contract was selected? Why was this type of contract selected?

Cost reimbursable contract was selected as, it will be helpful for the Archive’s in agreeing for paying the contractors “or the cost of performing the service or providing the goods.”

• What policies and procedures within your organization did you use to assist in planning how products and services would be procured?

Planning procurement

Right to reserve the rights for sharing, privacy and security act, database maintenance act and others ore some of the policies and procedures those should be implemented within the organization.

• For a project you are currently managing, describe the steps you took to plan the contract administration process.

Orientation: it includes the face-to-face meetings with the individuals being affected by the contract management process and the department that is delivering the management work.

Plan: Planning the comprehensive objectives for the development of the implementation within the contract management process and the focus should be on delivering the cost-effective approach for the contract management.

Personnel: A single individual should be assigned with the roles and responsibilities for the contract management.

Process: Documentation of the processes involved in the contract management those will be responsible for handling all the contracts in the same way.

Training: The individuals responsible for the management of the contract processes should be trained with the qualities of the expertise in the same context.

Standards: developing the standards for the contract management

Measurement: Establishing the metrics in manner to assess and evaluate the effectiveness of the functions established within the contract management processes.

Auditing: There should be regular audit and monitor on the development and growth of the management processes imposed.

• What are the key performance indicators that your project team developed for the contract?

The effectiveness of the satisfaction level of the local community. The performance of the website will be another performance indicator for the measurement of the project development. Response of the visitors accessing the website traffic, and security aspects are another key performance indicators.

• What process did you develop to review the contractor’s performance throughout the contract?

Output of the project and evaluation of the resource type can be applicable for reviewing the performance of the contracts throughout the project

• What types of reports are required in administering the contract?

Fiscal (financial), Technical (progress), intellectual property (invention), and Technical (progress) are the types of reports required in administering the contract

• Who was involved in the contract administration planning process from your project team?

[Please fill a team member name]

What documented procedures do you normally follow in your organisation for:

• Going to the market with a request for tender?

Reception of the bids, opening of the bids, reviewing the documentation, checklist of technical evaluation, financial statements, and best combined offer documents.

• Evaluating responses?

Response to the invitation on the tender responds at the particular needs of the national archives, documents related to supply of services and goods, and offers to the tender.

• Selecting preferred contractors?

The contractor who will be responsible for managing the needs and requirements of the proposed transformation will be selected as the preferred contractor.

• Developing key performance indicators for a contract?

The contribution made by the contracts on fulfilling the needs and requirements of the new platform for hosting the new platform of the website. Less budget, long run and fulfilment of the new proposed solution can be the most effective performance indicator.

• Monitoring contractor performance?

Market analysis

Contract performance will be will be monitored through the weekly progress report on the budget and the resources and resource quality being managed during the overall execution of them project

• Making changes to the procurement management plan?

Procurement Management Plan changes will be implemented during the monitoring process that will be evaluating the quality if the developed website including the performance and user interface of the website.

• Conducting reviews of procurement activities?

Checklist and weekly reports can be developed for reviewing the overall procurement activities.

• If your organisation does not have these documents, how does it effect the ease with which you conduct procurement in your organisation?

If the project has not these documents the monitoring, controlling and changes can ne monitored in an effective and efficient manner.

• Obtain a copy of the evaluation criteria used when you acquired a product or service for a project you are currently managing.

Criteria	Satisfaction level
Resources	High
Market Analyst	High
Business Goals	Medium
Customer satisfaction	High
Budget	High
User interface	Very High
Performance	Very High
Security	High
Quality	Very High
Resource allocation	Medium

• Describe the product or service you acquired.

Programming, hosting platform, database, server, domain, network and testing platform.

• What were the evaluation criteria you used to select the successful contractor? List them below.

Budget, resource quality, schedule and other constraints will be considered in the evaluation criteria.

• Comment on whether you found the criteria clear and useful or whether improvements needed to be made.

Some improvements need to be established, as the identified value will be an effective measure for the evaluation of the performance of the project.

• Which members of the project team were involved in developing the evaluation criteria?

[Please fill the tea embers name]

Interview a senior project or program manager in your organisation and ask them to walk you through a tender selection process.  Ask the following questions:

• What were the key stages or milestones and the timeframe for the tender?

November / December 2019 with a possible extension up to three years for the maintenance and hosting

• Who was on the tender selection panel and why?

Tender section panel was comprised of the market analyst, project manager, and executives of the government.

• What documentation was involved in the process (documentation from both the organisation seeking tenders and the tenderers in their responses)?

It includes the overall budget, schedule, and quality of the project. It includes the estimation of the overall accomplishment of the activities involved inn tendering of the project.

• What are the key things to remember when running a competitive tender?

Budget should be low, schedule should be minimum, every requirement should be fulfilled, and every stakeholder is happy with the decisions.

• What are the pitfalls that need to be avoided?

Resource over location, and little management within the budget can be avoided.

• Based on your experience as a project manager, outline what you think are the most important characteristics of a good contract.

Identifying the parties, being clear about the obligations of the parties, proper budget and schedule estimation, determination of risks, and picking up the right scenarios.

• What assistance do you normally seek or require when writing contracts?

Understanding the business contracts, written and verbal contracts, crucial objectives of a contract, structure and agreements of the contract.

• What are some of the common problems you may experience or have experienced as a result of a poorly written contract?

It will affect the budget, many interpretations on a single issue, lead to conflict, and every other dispute of the contract.

Think back to a contract you managed in the past.  Answer the following questions about how effective the contract management process was:

• What was the contract for? Were the key performance indicators for the contract?

The contract was for the relocation of the hosting platform of the national archives website to a common CMS platform. Key performance indicators were number of visitors, traffic on the website, and performance of the website.

• What were the key performance indicators for the contract?

Budget, efficiency, legal expectations, schedule ACV (Annualized Contract Value), (TRV) Terminated Contract Remaining Value, and Vendor Fraud.

• How did you monitor the contractor’s performance?

Contract administration planning

Coordinating the activities, conducting meetings on regular basis, reviewing and acting upon the requests, establishing the evaluation for the devises rating systems and contract, establishing surveys, rating system, and other criteria for monitoring.

• Who was involved form your project team in the contract management process?

[Please enter team embers name]

• How well did your project team members manage the contract?

It was delivered efficiently and effectively however; certain obstacles were the hurdle that was overcome with proper managerial and leadership attributes.

• What worked well? What went wrong or could have worked better?

Every objectives was developed in effective manner however; there was certain communication gaps that eliminated through regular meetings. Since the meetings were not very frequent, it could have been improved through executing regular meetings.

• How did the dispute arise? Who was involved?

Schedule of the contract was enhanced and was not delivered within the time, changes in the original plan was also occurred including manipulation in the specifications.

• How did you manage the dispute?

Addressing the issues promptly was the primary objective, disputed issues are generally collected during the project execution, and attribution or mediation were another approaches.

• What policies and procedures were available to assist you in handling the dispute?

Discussion with supervisor, facilitated conversation among the human resources, reviewing the department, reviewing panel, are the procedures and policies involved for handling the dispute.

• What was the outcome?

Management of the dispute was executed in an efficient and effective manner.

• What actions did you ask your project team members to take to resolve the dispute?

What is the topic, what the current situations are, what are the perspectives, and what are the curse of actions, and finally can we proceed with this were the questions.

• Describe how you reviewed the contracting and procurement activities on a project you worked on previously.

Analysing the procurement opportunities, developing procurement strategy, evaluating and selecting, implementing the contract, contract management and performance, and migrating the contracts are the steps involved for the procurement life cycle.

• Describe the type of project you worked on.

Computer software development

• What methods did you use to review the contracting and procurement activities used in the project (e.g. procurement audits, review meetings, project team interviews etc.)?

Procurement audits, review meetings, project team interviews, checklist, surveys, and documentation on the output of the learnings.

• How satisfactory was the contractor’s performance?

High level satisfactory was achieved.

• What issues, difficulties, or problems were identified in the review process?

Documentation and collection of the data were the difficulties those were identified during the review process.

• Who was involved from your project team in the review?

[Pleas fill team members name]

• What recommendations were made for future contracting and procurement activities as a result of your review?

Proper and regular interview and meetings with the stakeholders.

Bhattamishra, R., 2015. Driving Process Excellence through Intelligent Automation across the Contract Management Lifecycle.

Friesen, S.T., 2017. Techniques for centrally managing a credentialing life cycle for hospitals, providers, insurance payers, contract management, and claims data processing organizations. U.S. Patent Application 15/483,462.

Giorgio, A., Claudio, D., Saverio, G., Brendan, F. and Lorenzo, M., 2015. An innovative automatic certification tool for the assessment of Public Transport performances indicators and the management of service contract. RESEARCH IN TRANSPORTATION ECONOMICS, pp.1-15.

Graupner, S., Reynolds, E.S., Guijarro, J., Korn, A. and Smith, M.K., Hewlett-Packard Development Co LP, 2015. Automated contract management. U.S. Patent 9,189,741.

Haapio, H. and Siedel, G.J., 2017. A short guide to contract risk. Routledge.

He, B.Z. and Zhang, Z.Q., 2016. The Development for Contract Management System of BIM Technology in China. J. Eng. Manag, 1(008).

Khan, A.W. and Imran, M., 2017, August. A Comparative Study of Critical Challenges of Outsourcing Contract Management Identified through SLR and Empirical Study. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Advances in Image Processing (pp. 161-164). ACM.

Kravari, K., Bassiliades, N. and Governatori, G., 2016. A policy-based B2C e-Contract management workflow methodology using semantic web agents. Artificial Intelligence and Law, 24(2), pp.93-131.

Management, 55, pp.30-33.

Rendon, R., 2016. The Contract Management Standard: Foundation for Assessing Process Maturity. Contract.

Rendon, R.G., 2015. Benchmarking contract management process maturity: a case study of the US Navy. Benchmarking: An International Journal, 22(7), pp.1481-1508.

Smith, N., 2017. Roles and responsibilities in project contract management. In Contracting for Project Management (pp. 1-17). Routledge.

Suveiu, V., 2015. Contract risk management to survive & thrive in the 21th century. Contract

Wibowo, A., Tjahjono, B. and Tomiyama, T., 2016. Towards an Integrated Decision Making Framework for Aero Engine MRO Contract Management in the Productisation Context. Procedia CIRP, 47, pp.24-29.

Yan, P., Liu, T. and Huang, S., 2015. General contract management based on BIM5D. In ICCREM 2015 (pp. 187-196).

Yasin, A. and Liu, L., 2016, June. An online identity and smart contract management system. In Computer Software and Applications Conference (COMPSAC), 2016 IEEE 40th Annual (Vol. 2, pp. 192-198). IEEE.

Zhang, M., 2015. Study on the relativity between psychological contract and performance of the bookstore staff.