Running Head: CONTRACT MANAGEMENT 1

Contract Management

Name

Institution
 CONTRACT MANAGEMENT 2

Contract Management

A draft contract refers to an agreement that has yet to be finalized. For example, during

the process of a transaction, the first agreement to be drawn up is referred to as a draft contract.

In a draft contract, the precise wordings as well as terms are yet to be agreed upon by all parties.

In essence, this is a short-form document which outlines what both parties may agree to. In most

of the contract negotiation processes, the draft contract gets reviewed by the legal representatives

of the parties involved before presentation to the parties for final execution (Turner, 2017). The

legal experts or lawyers may have technical experts in their teams to guide them as well in their

evaluation of the contract.

Most contracts contain standard key parts or elements. The first part of a contract

usually includes the parties to the contract. One of the parties is the entity that is paying for a

particular service or product while the other party is the supplier or service company. The next

part is known as the agreement segment. This part includes a general statement on what the

product or service provider is supposed to do for the purchaser. It also expressly states whether

other parties are to be expected to complete part of the work as stated. The third part could be

referred to as the terms section (Rendon, 2017). This section contains more detailed information

related to the deal. It spells out exactly what kind of services or items that are expected from the

entity carrying out the work. It also includes the price, payment details, as well as the length of

the contract and when the items or services are to get delivered. The final part contains the date

and signatures. This is the section where the contract is signed by both parties when it is

eventually executed (Turner, 2017). It shows that the supplier or seller has agreed to the terms

laid down in completing a specific task.

 CONTRACT MANAGEMENT 3

An executed contract refers to a legal document which has been signed off by the parties

necessary for it to be deemed effective. Such a contract is normally made between at least two

entities or parties. Such contracts specify that a particular party will offer goods or a service to

the other one and are not deemed to be comprehensively effective until all the involved parties

have appended their signatures. Some executed contracts have the requirement that the

signatures ought to be witnessed (Turner, 2017). The copies of the contract are supposed to be

provided to all the parties involved or spelt out in the contract wording.

Debriefing unsuccessful suppliers involves meeting with them to explain why their

proposal to supply an item or service was deemed unattractive. While carrying out the

debriefing, the following are some of the strategies to be employed. One should outline his

debriefing goals in writing both internally as well as to the supplier (Rendon, 2017). These goals

could include pointing out the weaknesses in their proposal, showing that the supplier was fairly

treated, answering any of the supplier’s questions as well as getting any feedback, if available,

from the supplier (Rendon, 2017). One should also offer any helpful information to the supplier

which may include the strengths in his proposal, as well as reasons for not accepting his

proposal. However, it is crucial to protect any confidential information which may include

names of other suppliers, as well as the specifics of other proposals.

Having an accurate lessons learnt file after the completion of a procurement process is

important. This is because the procurement managers could reduce procurement costs through

learning from previous processes and implementing the successes witnessed while at the same

time minimizing the risk of past failure (Rendon, 2017)s. These lessons learned could also be

employed when decreasing the process’ planned duration.

 CONTRACT MANAGEMENT 4

Contract administration includes all the activities that are related to monitoring

suppliers, performance of the service providers as well as contractors to ensure the fulfillment of

their contractual obligations. It begins with planning which kicks off during the initial bidding

and selection process. This involves nomination of a strategy for carrying out periodic

performance reviews. Contract administration concludes with an inspection as well as

acceptance of the works, services as well as goods supplied prior to the official date of

termination of the contract. The author of the article Enhancing Contract Management states that

of the most effective techniques when it comes to contract management and administration is to

link the contract’s pricing to some form of public price index (McGuiness, 2013). This is

especially crucial where the prices of the critical components of the products are likely to change

during the life of the drafted contract. In such a case, the customer ends up giving price security

by recognizing that the suppliers hedge their prices whenever they are requested to quote long

term fixed prices that are linked to the goods or services supplied.
 CONTRACT MANAGEMENT 5

References

McGuiness K. (2013). Enhancing Contract Management: Tight budgets make effective contract

management an imperative Summit Group.

Rendon, R. (2017). Contract management competence.

Turner, J. R. (2017). Contracting for project management. Routledge.