Contract Management and Supplier Relationship Software

Re: Soft Market Testing Questionnaire for Contract Management & Supplier Relationship System

The London Borough of Merton ("the Authority") is seeking to undertake a procurement exercise to procure a contract management and supplier relationship system/software to help manage contracts across the council. The system is intended to help support contract managers to performance manage contracts/services throughout the lifecycle of the contract. The system will need to enhance the contract management capabilities, and help the council to meet it legal obligations, specifically relating to Procurement Act 23.

The Authority would like to discuss the provision of Contract Management & Supplier Relationship System. There are a set of questions at the end that we request responses to.

Please note that this is NOT a call for competition.

About the Contract:

The London Borough of Merton currently has no dedicated contract management system in place. Officers rely on spreadsheets, Word documents, and siloed approaches, which creates inconsistency, duplication of effort, and limited visibility of contract performance. This leads to risks around compliance with the Procurement Act 2023, reduced assurance on value for money, and inefficient processes.

The Council is seeking a contract and supplier management solution to:

Ideally integrate with Merton's existing tools such as SharePoint, Nitro (eSign), E5 finance system, and Proactis. The Authority is particularly interested in digital solutions that can futureproof contract management, enhance performance monitoring, and provide assurance to senior leadership on delivery and savings.

The service objective are as follows:

1. Enhance governance and compliance

• Ensure compliance with the Procurement Act 23 and the National Procurement Policy Statement

• Provide clear audit trails, approvals and transparency across the full contract lifecycle

• Standardise contract management practices across Merton.

2. Improve contract performance management

• Enable real-time monitoring of supplier performance against KPIs, SLAs and social value commitments

• Dashboards and alerts to highlight risks, underperformance and opportunities

• Support proactive issue resolution and continuous improvement in supplier relationships

3. Enable strategic oversight and assurance

• Provide senior leaders with visibility of contract pipeline, spend, savings and performance

• Support data-driven decision making through integrated reporting and analysis

• Enhance assurance for the council, i.e. SROs, Audit and Scrutiny Committees

4. Streamline workflows and reduce manual processes

• Automate tasks such as contract renewal, variations and approval workflows

• Minimise duplication of effort and resilience on spreadsheets and siloed systems/practices

• Provide structured templates and processes for consistency

5. Support integration and collaboration

• Seamlessly integrate with existing systems (SharePoint, Proactis, Nitro eSign, E5 finance system, and other systems where necessary)

• Provide collaborative tolls for Procurement, Finance, Legal and service departments

• Facilitate information sharing and joined-up working across the council

6. Build Long-term capability and futureproofing

• Provide a scalable, flexible platform that can adapt to future contract management needs

• Include training, onboarding and change management support for officers

• Reduce reliance on manual interventions and build internal confidence in digital tools

7. Deliver value for money

• Ensure the system represents a cost-effective investment through saving, efficiency gains and risk reduction

• Enable improved contract outcomes, stronger supplier management and better use of resources

Questions Responses

a. Please describe how your system supports end-to-end contract lifecycle management, including procurement pipeline planning, contract award, performance monitoring, and contract closure

b. How does your system support compliance with the Procurement Act 2023 and the National Procurement Policy Statement, i.e. publication of notices onto the Central Digital Platform (CDP)

c. Please outline the dashboards, KPIs, alerts, and reporting tools available in your system to support contract managers and provide assurance to senior leadership

(please provide screenshots where possible)

d. How does your solution support integration with third-party systems, such as SharePoint, Nitro (eSign), E5 finance system, Active Directory, and Proactis?

e. What functionality does your system offer for workflow automation, approvals, and document management (e.g., variation tracking, savings reports, risk logs, templates)?

f. Please explain your approach to implementation, configuration, and user training, including indicative timelines and how you support change management and adoption across council departments

g. What is your pricing model (subscription/licence, implementation, support, training

h. What experience do you have of working with other local authorities or similar public sector organisations? Please provide examples, lessons learned, and how these could be applied at Merton

i. How does your system enable supplier relationship management, such as supplier portals, performance scorecards, collaboration tools, and innovation tracking?

j. Are you currently on a framework agreement? If so, please can you name which one(s)

k. Can you confirm whether your system is hosted, and if so, please specify the hosting model and the geographic location(s) of the hosting infrastructure?

l. Please confirm whether your organisation is ISO/IEC 27001 certified?

m. Does your system support Single Sign On(SSO) or Multi Factor Authentication?

n. Please explain your support model including but not limited to

Availability

Support channels

Response and resolution SLAs

Upgrades & maintenance

Change requests

o. What accessibility standards does your system comply with (e.g., WCAG 2.2)?