The Contract Administration Initiative committee continues its progress toward simplifying and improving the process for contracts at SMU in three major areas:
1. After an initial request for information, the Contract team identified potential vendors for contract administration tracking software. Vendors made presentations and the OE2C Executive Committee approved the Contract team’s recommendation of Selectica for campus contract tracking. The team is now working on completing a contract for the recommended software.
2. The Contract team has also restructured the process for contract administration. Deans and vice presidents identified contract leads for each area who will initiate and execute contracts in order to increase efficiency without compromising the University’s interests. A training program is being developed for those given the new responsibility with support from the Office of Legal Affairs, Law School experts and corporate partners.
A second part of the team’s process recommendation was to identify a senior contracts administrator who would be responsible for monitoring contracts from initiation through execution, working closely with the Office of Legal Affairs to ensure that all contracts meet SMU standards, and assessing the ongoing efficiency of the process. Melanie Bailey, formerly in the Office of Legal Affairs, has been assigned this new role and now reports to Chris Regis, vice president for business and finance.
3. Finally, in order to improve standardization throughout the contract administration system, team members are cataloging and organizing existing contract templates for use across campus. The newly streamlined templates will be uploaded into the tracking software once a final system has been approved and installed.
