London Borough of Bexley future-proofs its commissioning cycle with Proactis Contract Management
Bexley Council strengthened contract oversight with Proactis, centralising 233 contracts, automating alerts, and boosting efficiency and transparency.
Sector
Public Services
Residents Served
250,000+
Employees
4,500+
System Integration
Unit4 Business World
Customer Since
2015
How Proactis Helped
“We take a long-term view of our procurement strategy to not only ensure we're improving efficiencies for today, but that we're also future-proofing our operating model. And we see technology as a core building block to that, so with Proactis we chose a provider that can grow with us.”
Caroline Allen, Supplier Relationship Manager / Purchasing Manager, London Borough of Bexley
Established a single, central electronic repository for all 233 contracts managed across the Authority
Delivered full visibility of contract data to all relevant managers and the Procurement team from one system
Introduced automated alerts for key contract dates including review milestones, renewal windows, and documentation expiry
Reduced risk across the contract portfolio by ensuring no critical dates or compliance requirements are missed
Minimised the manual time and effort involved in contract management and tracking
Created a comprehensive audit trail for all contract activity, improving accountability and governance
Provided a highly flexible reporting capability across all contract data fields
Delivered a scalable solution with the flexibility to evolve alongside the Council's changing needs
Overview
The London Borough of Bexley serves a population of almost 250,000 residents and takes a long-term, future-focused approach to its procurement strategy. Having been a Proactis customer since 2009, the Council extended its existing Proactis Sourcing solution to include Contract Management - establishing a central electronic repository for all supplier contracts and delivering full visibility, accountability, and automated alerts across 233 contracts managed by 90 staff. The result is a significantly more efficient, transparent, and risk-aware approach to contract management across the Authority.
Challenge
The London Borough of Bexley is a borough in south-east London serving a population of almost 250,000 residents. The Council takes a long-term view of its procurement strategy, with a clear focus on future-proofing its operating models and commissioning cycle through the adoption of technology.
With 233 contracts managed by 90 managers across the Authority, the Council had limited centralised visibility of contract documentation, key dates, and performance. Contract information was held in various formats, was not always easy to locate, and the knowledge held by individual managers was not accessible to the wider Procurement team. This created risk around contract renewals, compliance milestones, and health and safety documentation.
The Council required a solution to centralise contract storage, standardise management across all contract types, provide automated alerts for key dates and events, and give the Procurement team - and appropriate officers - a single, transparent view of the entire contract estate.
Solution
Having already implemented Proactis' sourcing tool at the front end of its tendering process, the Council extended the solution to include Proactis Contract Management. The implementation enabled the Authority to establish a central electronic repository for all types of supplier contracts, standardising organisation-wide contract storage, management, and audit trails.
All contract data - including terms and conditions, health and safety documentation, and insurance records - is now visible to the relevant contract manager and the wider management team, with a full audit trail maintained throughout. The system's reporting capability allows any field held in the system to be reported on, providing a highly flexible and comprehensive view of the contract portfolio.
Automated alerts notify the relevant team members of important upcoming dates, including contract review milestones, renewal windows, and the expiry of health and safety or insurance documentation - removing the manual effort previously involved in tracking these events.
“Overall, as an Authority, we are challenged with becoming self-sufficient so using a contract management solution is a really good mechanism to minimise the time and effort within that particular process. Proactis has been a real driver for us to ensure that we capture all the data we need and make it transparent within the system.”
Caroline Allen, Supplier Relationship Manager / Purchasing Manager, London Borough of Bexley
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