Creating a Contract Workspace (IT)
This section is for a user that wishes to create a Contract Workspace in the NC eProcurement Contracts Tool for an IT contract. By default, the user who initiates the CW becomes the ‘Project Owner.’ An IT contract is defined as a contract with a vendor that falls under the authority of the NC Department of Information Technology. A Contract Workspace (CW) is a container for all information and documents pertaining to a contract with a single vendor.
For more detailed step-by-step information regarding this topic in a printable format, see the following job aid.
The first step in creating a Contract Workspace is to click on a 'Contract Workspace (Procurement)' link and fill in all the Contract Attributes. These attributes act as the framework for the contract.
After filling out the Contract Attributes fields, the Project Owner should navigate down the screen to the ‘Select a template’ section. The Template options displayed are based upon the selection made in the ‘Entity’ field. For IT contracts, the Project Owner should first select the ‘Agency Contract Process’ template. The Project Owner will then be prompted to answer additional questions that are used to include/exclude different objects in the CW.
After clicking ‘Create’ on the ‘Create Contract Workspace (Procurement)’ page, the CW is saved and the Overview tab is displayed. This screen contains information about the contract captured on the previous ‘Create’ page. From this screen, Project Owners can access five other tabs for the management of the CW: ‘Documents’, ‘Tasks’, ‘Team’, ‘Message Board’, and ‘History.’ At this point, the CW is in ‘Draft’ status.
The phases and tasks are located under the ‘Tasks’ tab. The purpose of phases and tasks are to provide a road map for the Project Owner to navigate the contract lifecycle and to track the progress made throughout the CW. There are several types of ‘Tasks’ in a CW:
The ‘Team’ tab lists the CW ‘Groups’ and its ‘Members’. Each ‘Group’ can have different roles that specify permissions for users in that group and the actions they can perform. ‘Groups’ will populate by default based on the Attributes entered when creating the CW. It is possible to edit the non-NCDIT assigned ‘Groups’ within each CW should the need arise.
The ‘Documents’ tab is a central storage location for all documents related to a contract. By default, it includes folders for ‘Contract Document - IT’, ‘Procurement Exception Folder’, ‘Standards Exception Folder’, ‘Security Exception Folder’, and ‘Additional Documentation Folder’. Users can upload applicable documents in these folders needed over the contract lifecycle to have all important contract-related documents to be in one place. Project Owners can upload new documents and replace existing documents. All documents are version controlled.
The final step in creating a CW is to ‘Publish’ it. This freezes the current version of the CW so no further editing is possible unless an ‘Amendment’ is initiated.
When a contract has fully expired or been terminated, the Project Owner should mark the CW as closed under the ‘Contract Attributes’ section of the ‘Overview’ tab.