City of Edinburgh select CCM service for NEC contract support

Management Process Systems Limited (MPS) has announced that their leading Contract Change Management (CCM) system, which supports the NEC form of contract, has been selected for another important project in Scotland.

Following the successful implementation of CCM on the Glasgow White Cart Water flood prevention scheme for Halcrow and Carillion, as well as many other projects across the UK, the City of Edinburgh Council selected the system for Phase 1 of their Water of Leith Flood Prevention Scheme.

The £11.4m project is for construction of flood defences along the Water of Leith in Edinburgh. The works comprise:

Structural floodwalls

Floodgates, demountable defences, glass panels and window shutters

Strengthening works to existing walls

Surface Water pumping stations and drainage works

A lifting bridge at Stockbridge Colonies.

Other ancillary works.

The Project Manager for the scheme is Arup supported by Turner & Townsend. Lagan Construction has been awarded the contract to construct phase 1 of the works, which covers that part of the river between Bonnington and Veitch's Square (Stockbridge). Work commenced on site during March and is anticipated to take some eighteen months to complete.

City of Edinburgh Council said: “We wanted a robust process in place right from the start of the project in order to minimise any unexpected surprises, facilitate administration of theNEC3 Contract, and the management of change.”

The CCM Software as a Service (SaaS), provided by MPS, is specifically designed to manage the contract change processes set out in the NEC form of contract, versions 2 and 3. CCM is currently used by an extensive range of clients around the UK, on civils, power and building projects. Based on NCE Consultants File rankings, CCM is used by most of the top engineersand project managers in the UK. Key benefits include timely agreement of change, quality assured contract administration, the early completion of final account, improved contract management discipline, instant visibility of risk and change issues, improved change management, quality assured processes, consistency, instant access to risk spend data, rigorous audit trail, and instant availability of Excel reports over the web - all leading to reduced risk and reduced costs. University of the West of England proven benefits include potential savings of £52,000.

Brian Bainbridge of Arup, the Project Manager under the NEC3 Contract said: “The simplicity and overall transparency of the system was instrumental in establishing a high level of co-operation from all participants within the Project Team at a very early stage of the project.”

The CCM service is delivered through an agreement with IBM for Server Managed Services.This agreement includes data centre, hardware equipment and software products, internet services, security and support services.

Robin Wilkin, Operations Director of MPS said: “MPS are very pleased to be working with City of Edinburgh on this project. A large number of flood prevention schemes across the UK have benefitted from CCM which is now recognised as the established industry leader in NEC contract management systems. We are also very pleased that Lagan Construction has joined a number of major national contractors to gain the business benefits of CCM. MPS led the industry ten years ago in developing an NEC Contract support service. Our focus continues to be both innovative in exploiting Cloud technology and in providing support for previous versions of the NEC Contract. The now extensive CCM customer base ensures that their feedback results in a service that reflects their business operating needs. Key requirements are a fast start up, ease of use and simplicity – not to be confused with, or a part of, other services. We are pleased that first class project management consultants such as Arup and Turner & Townsend are extending their use of the system. We look forward to continuing partnerships with colleagues in Scotland.”