Finland's largest metro project to use ContractZen Contract Management
The West Metro organization chose ContractZen's contract management system in a competitive process.
The West Metro project organization (Länsimetro LLC) is an extension to the Helsinki Metro system in Finland, and it manages 2.5 billion euros of infrastructure and real-estate assets. The West Metro organization chose ContractZen's contract management system for the contract management of these assets in a competitive process. The system includes all contracts, with real estate and general management being the main drivers.
The West Metro organization is responsible for building, maintaining, and developing systems, tracks, and stations west of Helsinki in the direction of Espoo. This is a result of an immense construction and automation project, with many contracts to be managed. The West Metro organization is jointly owned by the largest cities in Finland, Espoo and Helsinki.
One of the goals of the West Metro project has been to build metro stations that are distinctive, attractive, architecturally comfortable, and durable in terms of materials. This has required the company to make significant investments in the quality of design and the selection of partners for design, construction, and maintenance. The needs for cooperation in construction and maintenance are continuous, with numerous service providers each responsible for their part that must be finely coordinated.
The company has a large number of contracts and related work orders. A centralized contract management system enables managing that contract base so that the need for up-to-date information can be met without delay during the various stages of the project.
Responsibility and accountability require investment in contract management
At the starting point, the West Metro organization wanted to clarify its contract archive and overall management while minimizing administrative work. They successfully moved from several locations for contracts and work orders to a single unified view in ContractZen.
“The challenge we had with contract management was that the documentation was stored in different places, and there was no big picture of the status of the contracts and how they were managed. Implementing a new contract management system was necessary to manage the contracts better and get the big picture,” says Mari Mannila, Administrative Director of Länsimetro LLC.
On top of that, responsibility and accountability are essential for the West Metro project. The centralized contract depository is crucial in achieving this objective.
"Responsibility is an inherent component of large publicly funded projects." Every euro spent and every asset under our administration must be meticulously maintained. Contractual concerns are crucial. "We want to ensure that certain we are a responsible owner"- emphasizes Mannila.
Flexibility for change, agility in everyday business
ContractZen is now consistently used in the West Metro organization for all types of contracts. In the initial stages of implementation, the company decided that all contracts be registered into the system.
In addition to infrastructure asset management, ContractZen is also widely used for other agreements in the organization, such as various purchase and service agreements in different areas of the business.
"We export every email agreement to ContractZen. No matter how and where it was originally agreed to."
Effortless entry of contracts and straightforward availability of information are crucial to using contract management in real life. At West Metro organization, ContractZen is used by the administration and anyone who handles contracts or needs contract information on their work mobile and computers. Flexibility to adjust to ever-changing business situations was why they chose the ContractZen solution.
Always up to date, easy to use
The benefits of the system create the foundations for well-functioning corporate governance.
“With ContractZen’s contract management system, contracts are now in good order and centralized. It is easy to enter new contracts into the system, ensuring that the contract archive is continuously updated.” sums up Administrative Director Mari Mannila.
The benefits for the Western Metro project include:
- Better contract management
- Contract repository that is always up to date
- Finding information quickly to support decision-making
- Peace of mind with the help of automatic reminders
- Monitoring of responsibility and accountability aspects
“From a usability point of view, all contract information I need is now always instantly available. Automatic alerts for due dates provide security when remembering does not depend on your calendar or memory. We also utilize various tags that facilitate categorization and data retrieval. We have also created and added personalized tags to the system,” continues Mari Mannila.
“We are very pleased that, out of all the alternatives available, the West Metro organization chose ContractZen to manage its large contract base. We have invested significantly in the easy and agile implementation to make it effortless for our customers. As a result, our customers can immediately start enjoying the benefits without complicated IT projects. Ultimate scalability means that customers can start with just one person and minimal investment and then scale up according to their own needs and schedules.” sums up Markus Mikola, CEO of ContractZen.
Mari Mannila, Administrative Director of Länsimetro LLC, sends greetings to every colleague working in the corporate governance area:
“Feeling that contracts aren’t under your control is stressful. ContractZen relieves this headache. At first, this requires gathering the information, but once it has been done and the everyday practices have been agreed to, there is one less thing for you as the manager to worry about.”
Picture: Länsimetro / Timo Kauppila, Indav
