Before configuring the Contracts Platform, it’s important to understand how contracts are currently managed within your organisation. Taking time to assess existing workflows, responsibilities, and challenges will help ensure the Platform is configured in a way that improves efficiency and governance.

Consider how contracts are currently created, stored, reviewed, and monitored. For example:

• Spreadsheets and shared drives: Are contracts logged in spreadsheets or stored in shared folders? How easy is it to locate the latest version of a contract or identify renewal dates?
• Email-based management: Are contracts negotiated, approved, and stored via email chains? Does this create risk around version control, missed approvals, or lost documentation?
• Departmental ownership: Are contracts managed independently by different teams (e.g. IT, curriculum departments, finance, school office)? Does this limit organisational visibility?
• No formal register: If contracts are managed informally, what challenges does this create for risk management, budgeting, and compliance?

As you review your current approach, consider whether any of the following challenges exist within your organisation:

• Limited visibility of active contracts: Difficulty understanding which contracts are currently in place, where they are stored, and which teams rely on them.
• Missed renewal or termination deadlines: Contracts renewing automatically or expiring without review due to renewal dates being tracked manually or not tracked at all.
• Duplicate or redundant tools and costs: Multiple contracts in place for similar services because teams are unaware of existing agreements, leading to unnecessary spend.
• Unclear ownership or accountability: Uncertainty around who owns a contract, who is responsible for reviews, or who should take action when issues arise.
• Difficulty locating signed agreements: Time lost searching for final versions of contracts, amendments, or supporting documents across emails and shared drives.
• Inconsistent contract request, review, and approval processes: Contracts being agreed without a standard process, resulting in gaps in review, approval, or documentation.
• Increased risk from expired or non-compliant contracts: Contracts continuing beyond their intended term or no longer meeting safeguarding or data privacy requirements.
• Lack of linkage between contracts, vendors, and data processing activities: Contracts managed in isolation, without clear connections to suppliers, applications, or processing activities, limiting effective governance.

Once you have assessed your organisation’s current approach to contract management and identified key challenges, the next step is to develop a clear implementation strategy for setting up the Contract Platform. This step ensures a smooth transition and maximises the Platform’s value by aligning it with internal governance, compliance requirements, and operational workflows. Key considerations include: 

• Decide who will oversee and maintain the contracts register. Will responsibility sit with a central team (e.g. school office, IT, finance), or will individual departments manage their own contracts within a shared framework?
• Determine who will review and approve contracts before they are marked as active. Consider which teams need to be involved, such as finance, data protection, safeguarding, and senior leadership, depending on contract type, budget, and risk.
• Define how contract approvals will be managed. Will reviews follow a sequential process (for example, data protection or IT before safeguarding), or will multiple teams review contracts in parallel? Consider whether different approval routes are required for different contract types or risk levels.
• Decide how contract requests will be submitted and managed. Will users be able to request new contracts directly through the Platform, or will contracts only be added by administrators? Should requesters be able to track progress or view outcomes?

• Determine how notifications and alerts will be handled. Who should receive renewal, expiry, or review notifications? Should different teams be notified at different stages, for example in advance of renewal versus at expiry? Consider how reminders will support proactive contract management and prevent missed deadlines.

• Decide how contract visibility will be managed. Should contract requesters be able to access the Contract Platform? Should approvers log in to review and approve contracts directly within the Platform? 
• Define how contracts will be categorised and governed. How will contracts be categorised (e.g. supplier type, contract type, department, risk level)? Spend time agreeing consistent terminology to ensure contracts can be searched, filtered, and reported on effectively.
• Determine how contracts will link to other areas of the Platform. Will contracts be linked to vendors, applications, or Processing Operation Assessments (POAs)? How will these relationships support stronger governance and compliance oversight?
• Decide what documentation will be stored against each contract. Which documents will be uploaded using the attachment feature (e.g. signed contracts, amendments, schedules, data processing agreements)? Will version control be required?
• Identify whether financial information will be recorded and maintained. Will contract value, payment terms and status, goods received, renewal costs, and budget ownership be captured? Who will be responsible for maintaining this information?
• Agree how ongoing activity will be recorded. Will risks, issues, lessons learned, and tasks be logged using the Summary of Activities? How will ownership and follow-up actions be managed?

Spending time agreeing these foundations before launching the Contract Platform will help ensure consistency, clarity, and long-term usability across the organisation.

Once your implementation strategy is in place, the next step is to identify which contracts will be included in the initial launch of the Contract Platform. Taking a structured, phased approach helps ensure data quality, reduces risk, and allows teams to familiarise themselves with the Platform before expanding its use more widely.

Rather than attempting to upload all contracts at once, start with a defined subset that delivers immediate value and supports effective governance.

When determining which contracts should be included in the initial launch, consider the following:

• Core contracts already in use across the organisation: Prioritise contracts that support essential services or operations, particularly those relied on by multiple departments, whole school, or multiple schools (if applicable).
• Active contracts with upcoming renewal or expiry dates: Contracts approaching renewal or termination benefit most from early visibility and automated tracking, helping prevent missed deadlines or unintended renewals.
• High-risk or high-impact contracts: Include contracts involving personal or sensitive data, long-term commitments, significant financial value, or higher safeguarding, compliance, or operational risk.
• Contracts used by multiple departments or teams: These contracts often lack clear ownership and benefit from centralised visibility and accountability.
• Contracts with established approval or compliance history: Starting with contracts that are already understood and approved reduces complexity during the initial rollout.
• Contracts that are frequently referenced or requested: Agreements that staff (or faculty) regularly ask about or need access to are strong candidates for early inclusion.

As the initial phase of the rollout concludes, it’s important to review how the Contract Platform is being used and refine the setup before expanding further. Gathering feedback at this stage helps ensure the Platform supports real operational needs and remains easy to use.

Consider obtaining feedback through a short survey, informal check-ins with contract owners, or focused sessions with key stakeholders such as the school office, finance, IT, data privacy leads or safeguarding teams.

Example key success indicators include:

• Platform usage and engagement
  • Are contract owners actively accessing and updating contracts?
  • Are contracts being searched, filtered, and reviewed effectively?
  • Are renewal and expiry alerts being acted upon?
• Contract data quality
  • Are contracts consistently categorised and easy to locate?
  • Are key fields such as ownership, dates, and status completed accurately?
  • Is supporting documentation uploaded and easy to access?
• Governance and risk management
  • Are contracts being reviewed before renewal or expiry?
  • Are risks, issues, and tasks being logged using the Summary of Activities?
  • Are high-risk contracts clearly identified and monitored?
• Feedback from key stakeholders
  • Have teams identified gaps in information?
  • Is ownership clear for each contract?
  • Do users find the Platform intuitive and useful for managing contracts?

Before expanding the Platform to include additional contracts, ensure that existing contract records are complete, accurate, and consistent. Address any gaps identified through feedback, refine categorisation or workflows where needed, and confirm that ownership and review responsibilities are clearly defined.

Once the initial contracts have been added and reviewed, the next step is to determine how the Contract Platform will be used across the organisation and communicate this clearly to staff. Some organisations choose to launch the Platform broadly, while others use it to centralise and control how contracts are created, reviewed, and approved.

Before rolling the Platform out, consider whether a phased, pilot, or centralised approach best supports your existing processes and governance requirements. Organisations typically adopt one of the following approaches:

• Organisation-wide launch: The Contracts Platform is made available to relevant users across the organisation, with contract owners responsible for adding and maintaining their own contracts. In this model, clear guidance is required to ensure contracts are added consistently, ownership is assigned, and review processes are followed.
• Centralised contract management: The Contracts Platform is owned and managed by a central team, such as IT, school office, or finance. In this model, contracts are reviewed and approved centrally before being recorded as active in the Platform. This approach is often used where contracts must be approved before payment is made, orders are processed, or systems are implemented. For example, staff may be required to submit contracts for review, with IT or the school office acting as the owners of the Platform who are responsible for adding the necessary details once approved by the Senior Leadership Team. 

If your organisation chooses to run a pilot phase:

• Select a small group of users such as IT, finance, procurement, or compliance teams.
• Provide guidance on accessing the Contract Platform and using key features such as the Contract Management Log, Dashboard, and Summary of Activities.
• Ask pilot users to review contracts, validate ownership and key dates, and test renewal notifications.
• Gather feedback on usability, permissions, and approval workflows.

Feedback from this phase can be used to refine configuration, clarify responsibilities, and confirm that governance processes are working as intended before wider adoption.

Regardless of the operating model you choose, clear communication is essential. When introducing the Contract Platform, ensure staff understand:

• How contracts should be managed going forward: Whether contracts are added centrally or by individual teams, and what approval is required before a contract is considered active.
• Who is responsible for approval and administration: Which team (e.g. IT, finance, school office) acts as the final point of contact once approved.
• What this means for payments and procurement: For example, whether contracts must be approved in the Platform before payments are processed or orders are raised.
• Where to find guidance and support: Links to relevant Help Centre articles, internal guidance, or training materials.

Once you have decided how the Contract Platform will be used across the organisation, the next step is to assign user permissions. The permissions you assign should reflect whether your organisation is adopting a wider access model or a centralised contract management model. 

• 9ine Platform Administrators: Have full access to view, edit, and delete all contracts. 
• Authorised User: Access to create new contracts. 

Granting individual users access, does not automatically provide access to all contracts within your organisation, but it allows users to create a new one. They can only view items to which you are assigned or have permissions. A contracts permissions include:

• Owner
• Member
• Notified User
• Approver 
• Requester
• Attachment Reviewer

Your organisation’s 9ine Platform Administrator can manage these permissions via the User Management feature in the Platform header.

If you have purchased Contract Platform onboarding, our team can provide additional support, including:

• Dedicated Onboarding Sessions: Our experts can guide your team through the initial setup, user management, and best practices for structuring your library.
• Configuration Support: Need help with assigning permissions or setting up workflows? We provide step-by-step assistance to ensure everything runs smoothly.
• Data Import & Bulk Uploads: If you’re transitioning from spreadsheets or other systems, we can support you in migrating contract data efficiently.
• Administrator & End-User Training: Specialised training for administrators and general users to ensure smooth adoption. 

At 9ine, we are committed to ensuring that your organisation maximises the benefits of the Contract Platform. Whether you need help getting started, configuring the Platform, or ongoing support, our team is here to assist you at every stage of your journey. We understand that each organisation has unique requirements, so we offer tailored onboarding support to help you set up efficiently. 

We're here for you beyond the initial setup. Our support team is available to assist with any technical issues, questions, or additional configuration needs.

• Help Centre Access – Find detailed guides, FAQs, and troubleshooting tips for common questions.
• Email & Ticket Support – Reach out to our support team at [email protected] for personalised assistance.
• Dedicated Account Management – For larger implementations, we offer ongoing account management to ensure continued success.