Measuring Contract Management Process Maturity: A Tool for Enhancing the Value Chain - Rendon - Rendon - Conference Proceedings 2006

The contract management process is growing in importance as outsourcing continues to increase and suppliers become virtual extensions of our organization’s competence and capability. Yet, recent studies indicate that organizations are not managing the contracting process as the core competency that it is, nor are they achieving the strategic competitive advantage resulting from a mature contracting process. These companies are experiencing protracted contract development and negotiation cycles, improper contract approvals, limited contract visibility and control, and an inability to ensure supplier compliance with contract terms. The use of maturity models have emerged as a successful method for measuring and improving organizational critical core processes. This presentation will discuss a case study on the development and application of the Contract Management Maturity Model (CMMM) as a method for assessing and improving an organization’s contract management process capability. Introduction. The transformation of the contract management process from an administrative, tactical function to a strategic process integral to corporate strategy and directly contributing to the organization’s competitive advantage is requiring organizations to take a second look at this critical core process. Organizations that have successfully re-assessed their contract management processes have confirmed the fact that effective contracts depend, to a great extent, on the processes used to create those contracts. Recent research by the Aberdeen Group estimate that a $1 billion company with annual purchases totaling $500 million, of which $400 million is under contract, loses $18 million every year due to lack of proper supplier contract management. Additionally, a study conducted by the Hackett Group found that world-class organizations, those that treat procurement as a core competency, generate 133 percent greater return on their investment in procurement than the average companies. This translates to $3.6 million to the company’s bottom line for every $1 million in procurement operations costs. Finally, the Hackett Study revealed that procurement operations costs are 20 percent less for world-class organizations than they are for typical companies. Thus, in order to award and successfully manage effective contracts, organizations must have disciplined, capable, and mature contract management processes in place. But what are disciplined, capable, and mature contract management processes? How can an organization measure the capability and maturity of its contract management processes? This presentation will introduce the Contract Management Maturity Model (CMMM©) as a tool for measuring an organization’s contract management process capability and discuss the value in periodically assessing an organization’s contract management process maturity and using the results of that assessment as a road map for continuously improving organizational contract management process capability. The Contract Management Maturity Model (CMMM) describes an evolutionary roadmap an organization would pursue in improving its contract management process capability from an ad hoc (immature) process to a continuously improved, or, optimized (mature) process. Mature contract management processes describe organizational capabilities that can consistently produce successful business results for buyers of products, services, and integrated solutions. The CMMM provides its users with a framework or a guide for improving their respective level of performance. It provides a visual tool to help an organization assess the major steps which they must accomplish when either buying products, services, or integrated solutions, in either the public or private business sectors. The maturity levels reflected in the model allow an organization to assess their level of capability for each of the six major steps in their respective buying process. Why Measure Contract Management Process Maturity? Today’s current business environment has changed dramatically. The post-Cold War economy has given way to the Global War on Terrorism, and with it, the changes in the world market forces. The dynamics of today’s leading organizations have been significantly affected by the “exponential expansion of human knowledge brought about by an increase in emerging technologies, a growing demand for a broad range of complex, sophisticated customized goods and services, and the evolution of worldwide competitive markets for the production of these goods and services.” This new business environment has forced organizations to rethink their business processes and core competencies, focusing more on satisfying their customers, reducing costs, and decreasing product development time. These organizations, both private and public, have been forced to reengineer their business processes to account for these changing dynamics and to continue to remain competitive in the marketplace. The result of this business process reengineering includes a trend toward organizational flattening, corporate downsizing, and increased outsourcing. The trend toward increased outsourcing is resulting in organizations having to depend more heavily on external companies to help perform their work. By outsourcing services and production, organizations can downsize their large payroll burdens, yet still increase their business activity, through the use of contractors and suppliers. Today’s leading organizations must now manage an increasing number of contractors and suppliers who are performing mission-critical functions in their organizations. Thus, core organizational competencies must now include structuring, negotiating, and administering long-term contracts—what is known as the contract management process. The contract management process is now increasing in importance as contractors and suppliers become virtual extensions of the buying organization. As organizations increasingly rely on critical services and production contracts as a key to maintaining their competitive advantage, the organization's competence and process capability in contract management is now more important than ever. Although organizations have used process capability maturity models to assess, measure, and improve critical core processes, such as software development and project management, the application of capability maturity models to the contract management process is just beginning to emerge as a best practice. For more information on the CMMM, reference the authors’ book Contract Management Organizational Assessment Tools, available through the National Contract Management Association. Five Levels of Maturity The CMMM consists of five levels of maturity ranging from an ad-hoc level (Level 1), a basic, disciplined process capability (Level 2), a fully established and institutionalized processes capability (Level 3), a level characterized by processes integrated with other corporate processes resulting in synergistic corporate benefits (Level 4), and finally, to a level in which processes focused on continuous improvement and adoption of lessons learned and best practices (Level 5). Level 1—Ad Hoc. The organization at this initial level of maturity acknowledges that contract management processes exist; that these processes are accepted and practiced throughout various industries, and within the public and private sectors. In addition, the organization’s management understands the benefit and value of using contract management processes. Although there are not any organization-wide established basic contract management processes, some established contract management processes do exist and are used within the organization, but these established processes are applied only on an ad-hoc and sporadic basis to various contracts. There is no rhyme or reason as to which contracts these processes are applied. Furthermore, there is informal documentation of contract management processes existing within the organization, but this documentation is used only on an ad-hoc and sporadic basis on various contracts. Finally, organizational managers and contract management personnel are not held accountable for adhering to or complying with any basic contract management processes or standards. Level 2—Basic. Organizations at this level of maturity have established some basic contract management processes and standards within the organization, but these processes are required only on selected complex, critical, or high-visibility contracts, such as contracts meeting certain dollar thresholds, or contracts with certain customers. Some formal documentation has been developed for these established contract management processes and standards. Furthermore, the organization does not consider these contract management processes or standards established or institutionalized throughout the entire organization. Finally, at this maturity level, there is no organizational policy requiring the consistent use of these contract management processes and standards on other than the required contracts. Level 3—Structured. At this level of maturity, contract management processes and standards are fully established, institutionalized, and mandated throughout the entire organization. Formal documentation has been developed for these contract management processes and standards, and some processes may even be automated. Furthermore, since these contract management processes are mandated, the organization allows the tailoring of processes and documents, allowing consideration for the unique aspects of each contract, such as contracting strategy, contract type, terms and conditions, dollar value, and type of requirement (product or service). Finally, senior organizational management is involved in providing guidance, direction, and even approval of key contracting strategy, decisions, related contract terms and conditions, and contract management documents. Level 4—Integrated. Organizations at this level of maturity have contract management processes that are fully integrated with other organizational core processes such as financial management, schedule management, performance management, and systems engineering. In addition to representatives from other organizational functional offices, the contract’s end-user customer is also an integral member of the buying or selling contracts team. Finally, the organization’s management periodically uses metrics to measure various aspects of the contract management process and to make contracts-related decisions. Level 5—Optimized. The final and highest level of maturity reflects an organization whose management systematically uses performance metrics to measure the quality and evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of the contract management processes. At this level, continuous process improvement efforts are also implemented to improve the contract management processes. Furthermore, the organization has established lessons learned and best practices programs to improve contract management processes, standards, and documentation. Finally, contract management process streamlining initiatives are implemented by the organization as part of its continuous process improvement program. These five levels of maturity allow an organization to assess its level of capability and effectiveness for its critical contract management process. The CMMM gives the organization a greater degree of visibility and granularity into its contract management process by dissecting the process into six key process areas. Furthermore, the CMMM provides a representation reflecting the contract management buying processes, as well as the selling processes. The following provides a brief description of the six contract management key process areas. Contract Management Key Process Areas. The CMMM provides the organization with a detailed roadmap for improving the capability of its contract management processes. In order for the organization to have an accurate and detailed assessment of its process capability, the model reflects the six contract management key process areas as well as key practice activities within each process area. 1. Procurement Planning: The process of identifying which business needs can be best met by procuring products or services outside the organization. 2. Solicitation Planning: The process of preparing the documents needed to support the solicitation. 3. Solicitation: The process through which a buyer requests bids, quotes, tenders, or proposals orally, in writing, or electronically. 4. Source Selection: The process by which the buyer evaluates offers, selects a seller, negotiates terms and conditions, and awards the contract. 5. Contract Administration: The process of ensuring compliance with contractual terms and conditions during contract performance up to contract closeout or termination. 6. Contract Closeout: The process of verifying that all administrative matters are concluded on a contract that is otherwise physically complete. The Benefits of the Contract Management Maturity Model. The CMMM provides maturity assessments at the program office level (for organizations with multiple program/product management offices) as well as at the contract management functional level. Thus, the assessment results will provide various perspectives on the organization’s contract management maturity level. The results may indicate that the organization has varying levels of process capability maturity for each contract management key process area. Between program offices, some process areas may be rated at the “ad-hoc” level, while the same process area in another program office are may be rated at the “optimized” level. In addition, from a contract management functional-wide focus, some process areas may be rated at the “ad-hoc” maturity level, with deficiencies in established processes, standards, documentation, and management accountability. Yet, other process areas may be rated at the “Integrated” maturity level, with process integration with other organizational core processes and with the use of efficiency metrics to make management-level procurement-related decisions. These maturity assessment results provide a wealth of insight to the organization in terms of which contract management key process areas need to be improved and which program offices to direct its improvement effort. These assessment results also provide insight on adopting and transferring process capability activities from the program offices with higher level maturity (integrated and optimized) to the program offices with lower level maturity (adhoc and basic). Furthermore, the assessment results will provide the organization with a roadmap of additional needed training and education for improving its contract management process capability. For example, an organization with low maturity level (ad-hoc or basic) in the source selection key process area, will know that it needs to provide additional training or policies and standards in the areas related to the key practice activities for that specific process area. This is the true value and benefit of the contract management process capability maturity model—the continuous improvement of the organization’s contract management processes. The use of the CMMM for assessing and improving corporate contract management process capability is a significant addition to the contract management body of knowledge, and one that is seriously overdue. The importance of contract management as a business process will continue to increase as organizations, both government and commercial, increasingly depend on external organizations for expertise to perform complex, specialized segments of their responsibilities. This increasing dependence on external sources requires an effective and capable contract management process. As the corporate contract management function increases in importance, the need for a systematic approach to assessing contract management effectiveness and competence, as well as for continuously improving the contract management process, will become critical for an organization to maintain a competitive advantage. The CMMM and its related assessment tool could be effectively implemented by any organization, government or commercial, wishing to improve its contract management process capability.