Report of the City Treasurer.

This report updates the committee on the recent launch of the Council’s Contract Management System and how the Council manages major contracts.

The committee considered a report of the City Treasurer which detailed the recent launch of the Council’s contract management system and how the Council managed major contracts. 

Key points and themes within the report included: 

• The background to the procurement of the contract management system, which was a ‘software as a service’ product from Atamis; 

• The functions of the system and how these would be used to manage the Council’s contracts; 

• Main issues and next steps for implementation;  

• How the rollout of the system would be promoted and the longer-term developments;  

• How the Council had been strengthening the governance of major contracts; and 

• Highlights of the Council’s major contracts in the last quarter.  

Some of the key points and queries that arose from the committee’s discussion included: 

• Noting that over 1,100 contracts had been added to the new system, and querying whether this was the majority of the Council’s contracts; 

• Who was responsible for monitoring contracts and what contingencies were in place if this person was unavailable; 

• The driving force behind implementing this change; 

• How officers would monitor whether the system was used to its full capacity;  

• Noting that Atamis’ user guide was substantial, and querying whether Council staff were expected to read this; 

• What feedback had arisen from testing and how this had been addressed; 

• How governance was built into the system;  

• Who was responsible for contracts commissioned jointly by the Council and partners;  

• Whether the new contract management system allowed for issues with capacity and skills to be flagged with a supplier, specifically referencing the Housing Maintenance and Repairs contract; 

• How the benefits of implementing the system would be evaluated; 

• What was meant by a call-off contract; and  

• How much money the Council would save by implementing the new system.  

In introducing the report, the City Treasurer stated that the Council spent a significant amount of money through its contracts and that the investment in a new contract management system allowed for greater efficiencies, with some benefits already being realised.  

The Strategic Lead (Commissioning) stated that the implementation of a new contract management system was integral to ensuring compliance with upcoming procurement legislation and was critical to the future management of contracts. He acknowledged that this was a significant change, and that training had been provided to users in addition to user guides and ongoing support from the Integrated Commissioning team. The Procurement Programme Manager stated that the main motivation in implementing the new contract management system was to gain an overview of contracts and spend and that work was ongoing to ensure that the system met the requirements of all departments that managed contracts. She highlighted that the new system enabled the monitoring of spending and key performance indicators (KPIs).  

Members were advised that over 400 members of staff were currently using the system with over 1000 contracts being migrated over. These constituted the majority of the Council’s contracts, with 10% yet to be added to the system.  

The Procurement Programme Manager explained that each contract had a designated manager and a senior responsible officer, who would both receive alerts when monitoring information needed to be uploaded. She also explained that the system had the functionality to generate a report on usage so gaps in skills and knowledge could be identified. An alert system was also in place to flag if a contract was not monitored in a certain amount of time.  

In response to a query regarding what had driven the change, the Strategic Lead (Commissioning) explained that the driving force for the new system was the need for greater oversight of contractual performance at senior management level and for data collection. It was also critical for the Council to have a contract management system as upcoming procurement legislation would introduce requirements for greater transparency around contracts. The Council would be required to report on the performance and spend of contracts and a system was required to facilitate this. The Deputy Chief Executive reiterated the point made that this would ensure greater compliance with regulations and the Executive Member for Finance and Resources stated that a system which enabled savings and managed performance and risk was good for the city and its residents.  

The Strategic Lead (Commissioning) explained that there had been significant engagement with directorates and that some users could generate reports on how the system was being used. Meetings were held quarterly with management teams to discuss contracts and spend and the system would be used to generate reports for these meetings. The Deputy Chief Executive and the City Treasurer were also championing the system within the Senior Management Team and provided quarterly reports to SMT on the Council’s contract portfolio.  

In response to a point raised by the Chair regarding Atamis’ own user guide, the committee was informed that the Council had developed its own user guide for the system which consisted of less than 30 pages. A bespoke user guide had been created to tailor this to Manchester’s system and other training resources were available, such as a recorded training session and a dedicated Teams channel for officers to raise questions or issues.  

The Procurement Programme Manager advised that initial feedback included aspects that needed to be added to the system such as required fields and that this was addressed straightaway. There had not been any feedback that the system was difficult to use, which was positive, and assurances were provided that technical issues had been resolved.  

In response to a query regarding how the system would improve governance, the Strategic Lead (Commissioning) highlighted a wider change as a result of new legislation that required the publication of procurement pipelines 18 months in advance. A pipeline module was being used within the new system and future contract commissions would be submitted with a field to confirm whether it constituted a key decision, which could improve operational planning and transparency to members and residents through the Register of Key Decisions. It was confirmed that April 2025 was the internal deadline that Integrated Commissioning and Procurement were working to publish procurement pipelines as the legislation required that pipeline notes were published within 56 days of the start of the financial year.  

Regarding contracts that were commissioned by both the Council and partners, the Strategic Lead (Commissioning) explained that all contracts over the value of £30k were to be entered into the contract management system.  

In response to a specific query regarding the housing repairs and maintenance contract, the Strategic Lead (Commissioning) endeavoured to raise this with the Housing Services team. He stated that it was the responsibility of contract managers to manage the relationship with suppliers and that, as the system monitored KPIs, issues such as overdue jobs could be flagged. The Strategic Lead (Commissioning) also noted though that Atamis was not a case management system, which would be more appropriate for issues relating to specific jobs and cases. The Procurement Programme Manager also confirmed that risks could be assigned to contracts to be monitored.  

The Strategic Lead (Commissioning) informed the committee that the contract management system had an annual cost of £80k, which included implementation fees. He stated that it was difficult to ascribe financial savings to the rollout of the system but endeavoured to report back to the committee early next year on the use of the system, risks and key metrics.  

Members were advised that a call-off contract referred to any contract entered into with an organisation from a framework of pre-approved suppliers.  

The Executive Member for Finance and Resources stated that cost benefits would be dependent on the wider Council budget and funding settlements from government. He stated that the system would lead to benefits through greater efficiencies and service delivery. The City Treasurer also highlighted the advantage of increased visibility of contracts and the ability to be proactive in contract renewals. 

Decision: 

That the report be noted.