Handsam Release New Contractor Management Module

To help clients, particularly multi-academy trusts, to manage contracts across all of their schools and academies, Handsam Ltd is proud to announce the release of a new Handsam system module – the Contractor Management module.

This module is designed to deliver total visibility of all of a school/academy’s contracts firstly to users with the access rights to view them, but then also at trust level so reports can be run to see which schools/academies across the trust use which contractors for certain types of contract work – e.g. premises-related contractors for aspects such as Electrical Fixed Wiring, PAT testing, Gas Safe, Asbestos, Legionella, Grounds etc but also contractors such as sports coaches, music teachers, before or after-school clubs etc.

Database

This will then build into a full database of your trust’s contractors, the key benefits of which are that the diligence undertaken to assess their bona fides, accreditations, training, insurance and specialisms, plus staff DBS checks, etc only needs to be done once, at trust level, then it is available to all schools and academies, with email reminders prompting those checks and the impending end of contracts to be reviewed. This will reduce repetitive administration.

Key Benefits

• Comprehensive database of all the contractors across the trust

• Insurance, accreditation, training and DBS checks in one easy access portal

• Filter by specialism and contract end date

• Run reports on contract costs and overall spend to make comparisons and negotiate better deals

• Be alerted to expiring contracts

• Ability to comment on contractors to aid peer recommendation

Specialism

Users at school/academy level will then be able to associate each contractor with the specialism they contract them for and the duration and cost of the contract in order to maintain a full database of contractors, contracts, their cost and term.

Peer References

Users at school/academy level will also be able to search the database of contractors used by other academies and review who uses them for what specialism. The modules also offers the ability to log a comment against a contractor, this creating peer references amongst your trust’s schools or academies, benefitting all who are looking for good suppliers or to avoid problematic ones.

Centrally, the trust can also keep tabs on what process schools/academies are paying and even use that data to negotiate better, more cost-effective trust-wide deals or to prompt contractors to perform better, if adverse feedback is logged.

Approved Contractors

The module can also be used by trusts to create a list of ‘approved contractors’ which school or academies must stick to if that is what the trust requires. This can be either partial or total, depending upon requirements.

The Contractor Management module is available now. Please contact our team via info@handsam.co.uk if you would like to arrange a demonstration.