2011 Top Initiatives

IACCM’s recent study of the top initiatives for 2011 suggests that efficiency and effectiveness are both high priorities.

The study, conducted in December 2010 / January 2011, sought input from senior managers in Legal, Procurement and Contract / Commercial Management. The top initiatives in terms of efficiency are focused on empowerment and improved segmentation (of contracts and support). The underlying projects to enable these improvements are based on improved tools and systems, better templates and model contracts and increased focus on service priorities.

Groups are aiming to increase their effectiveness in part through that same segmentation and service prioritization, and in part through enhancing the skills of current staff.

There are some notable variations between the different functional areas. For example, new or updated risk management techniques are a relatively high priority for those in contract and commercial management supporting Procurement, but of lesser impratance to other groups. Legal sees developing new procedures as an urgent requirement, but has a relatively low focus on automation. Reorganization is on the cards for around 40% of respondents, and there is also strong interest in steps to improve contract outcomes.

Overall, it is clear that most groups face continuing pressure to change, but hope to address this in relatively conventional ways.  For example, process reengineering and outsourcing are not high on the agenda, even though workload is increasing and resulting in significnat levels of stress.

The test for many groups will be whether executive management will be satisfied with incremental change or willl demand a rather faster pace of performance improvement.

The full results of the survey will be issued this week and will be available in the IACCM member library.