The History of Contract Admin
May 10/19
by Michael Copas
In 2019, a search for contract administration software in Google will present you with a long list of contract management software. That same search for contract administration software in Wikipedia gets a note saying “the page does not exist”, and a search for contract administration repeats that result. So, what happened to this activity that represents 25-35% of a design professional’s fee?
In 1984, when Statslog was a new software, it was designed for two tasks:
monitor and record progress of the Work;
and document changes to that Work.
The operating system of choice was (Gary Killen’s) CPM operating system. It was originally presented on an Osborne Executive—a 28 lb (54Kg) portable computer with a 5”x4” (125mm x 100mm) black and green screen. Contract Administrators were at least 50 and almost exclusively male. There were no CCDC Standard forms, and contracts were almost exclusively Fixed Price. IBM PC was introduced just two years earlier, and Apple Macintosh was introduced that same year, with great fanfare. The impetus for this action was the founders had just completed a project in which the project cost doubled, the project time almost doubled and there were 5,000 disputed change items with only three signed change orders. The disputed changes were valued at $2M. The change control list was done by hand as were the totals.
In the subsequent 35 years, Statslog has changed platforms five times; thus, the name of our software—FIVE.
1984–89: SLG 0-CPM and SLG 1-DOS, a time when Statslog was a popular choice of personalities in the Liability Insurance world. The company had a booth presence at several US AEC (Architecture/Engineering/Construction) conferences. Forms were developed in Parisian and Quebecois french. Statslog was used to administer mine construction in Tunisia and Chile.
1989-94: SLG 1-DOS, and SLG 2-MAC. It was a time when Statslog was engaged in Canadian embassy projects in China, South Korea, and later four others.
1994-99: SLG 3-DOS for countless schools, hospitals, apartments and condos. Form standards like CCDC introduced in 1996, and RAIC Chops forms in 1998, have all been emulated by clients to suit their purposes. CCDC contracts have grown from Stipulated Sum, Unit Price and Cost Plus to 17 other types of standard agreements. Clients have developed their own in-house agreements by the hundreds.
1999-2004: SLG 4-WIN Y2K and a rapid expansion of all kinds of software.
2004-09: SLG 4-WIN. Profession in acquisitions and merger expansion; new competitors arrive.
2009-14: SLG 5-WIN NET. Worldwide recession hits contract administration in 2011. Collaboration became a new buzzword.
2014-19 was SLG 5-WIN NET plus OOTB (Out-of-the-Box). Statslog settles down after two epochs of major structural changes to professional practice. The OOTB forms and reports are designed to populate FIVE by Statslog; but, are effectively Statslog 6, because they provide an array of standard documents not seen before. These forms are designed to record on a form approval of changes, and automatically make a list of those approvals/non-approvals. They are also designed to allow easy independent recording of progress of the contracted and approved change Work. Lastly, it allows, when used successfully, easy search options to find an specific item of interest. Also, if used effectively, can define what, who, where, when, and why any change was made. OOTB presents forms already created for effective contract administration, but may be altered, adjusted, re-purposed to look like your existing forms, or the standard forms used by your institutional or governmental clients.
In the early months of 2019, a search for contract administration software in Google will present you with a long list of contract management software. That same search for contract administration software in Wikipedia gets a note saying “the page does not exist”, and a search for contract administration repeats that result. Even when you enter construction contract administration you get the same note.
So, what has happened to this activity that represents 25-35% of a design professional’s fee? Google and Wikipedia searches agree that contract administration is now part of contract management and not a separate activity.
The Google search has two advertisements, both for scheduling software. The first four products are paid placements, then there is a Wikipedia definition of Contract Management Software. Including a definition of Contract Administration: Contract management or contract administration is the management of contracts made with customers, vendors, partners, or employees. The personnel involved in contract administration required to negotiate, support and manage effective contracts are often expensive to train and retain.
Followed by eleven (11) “Best 10 lists”, and “Product Reviews” and finally the beginning of the 175,000,000 results from this search.
A search of Wikipedia, after the none results noted above, gives a full throat response to change management and expands the definition, already shown above, under the title of contract administration, by adding Contract management includes negotiating the terms and conditions in contracts and ensuring compliance with the terms and conditions, as well as documenting and agreeing on any changes or amendments that may arise during its implementation or execution. It can be summarized as the process of systematically and efficiently managing contract creation, execution, and analysis for the purpose of maximizing financial and operational performance and minimizing risk.
More searches of the Best 10 lists, get a shorter list of products but again mostly contract or contract management. Only if you really search will you find a Capterra listing for Contract Administration Software. There you find a list of 800+ products all claiming to do this activity. A cursory glance shows them to be actually, based in accounting, scheduling, email traffic, word processing, or spreadsheet technologies.
Michael Copas is a co-founder of Statslog Software Corporation, which has been providing continuing service to contract administrators in the offices of design professionals since 1984.