User Survey: the Benefits of an Online Collaborative Contract Change Management System

The Contract Change Management (CCM) system is an on-line collaboration tool, which supports the contract change management process of NEC (New Engineering Contract) form of contract. It is currently used in practice on a wide range of live civil, power and building projects in the UK. Anecdotal evidences show that the system helps construction projects in saving costs, reducing risk and increasing predictability. The aim of this study is to ascertain these benefits through first-hand feedback from its users. Key questions are: Does CCM help the contract change management process of NEC projects? What are its main benefits? Is there any difference between the views of different types of users, such as clients, contractors, or consultants? To achieve this aim, a questionnaire survey was conducted amongst 260 CCM users with a response rate of 33%, or 85 valid replies. The results have shown that most users are very positive and consistent in their responses. Process supports, such as audit trail and communication records, received the highest positive replies. Answers to benefits related to cost saving and business improvement are more mixed. Amongst the different user groups, clients and consultants are more positive towards the system than contractors.