Case Study: Contract Management for a £3bn Programme

An enterprise-level Power BI application designed to centralise and streamline contract management for Northumbrian Water Group's £3 billion AMP7 programme.

Project Type

BI Solution

Tools Used

Power BI, Power Automate, DAX

Sector

Commercial

Programme Value

£3 Billion

Project Overview

Northumbrian Water Group (NWG) required enhanced visibility into contract performance across their AMP7 (2020-2025) and AMP8 (2025-2030) Asset Management Periods. While their existing Contract Bee system captured comprehensive contract data, it lacked the analytical depth and custom visualisation capabilities needed for strategic decision-making.

As the lead data analyst, our founder Sufyan Iftikhar designed and deployed a comprehensive Power BI solution that transformed how NWG's commercial teams monitor contract performance, manage compensation events, and ensure regulatory compliance across their £3 billion infrastructure programme.

The Business Challenge

Contract Bee's standard reporting couldn't provide the custom analytics, interactive filtering, and real-time insights needed by commercial managers, project teams, and compliance officers to effectively oversee 300+ active contracts. This resulted in fragmented, manual reporting processes, a lack of visibility, delayed compliance tracking, and an inability for senior management to get a quick, high-level overview of programme health.

The Solution: A Centralised Power BI App

To address these challenges, Sufyan developed and deployed a comprehensive Power BI App. This app served as a central hub, hosting a suite of interconnected dashboards tailored to specific business needs. By connecting directly to the Contract Bee API and other data sources, the app provided a single source of truth for all contract-related data, enabling self-service analytics and eliminating information silos.

This solution led to a 30% reduction in overdue compensation events and saved over 10 hours per week in manual reporting.

Dashboards within the App:

1. Contracts Overview Dashboard

Purpose: To provide project managers with a detailed, real-time view of contract compliance and performance.

Impact: Highlighted overdue actions and compliance metrics, enabling project managers to proactively address issues.

2. Executive Summary Dashboard

Purpose: To offer senior management a high-level, aggregated view of programme performance with time-based analysis capabilities.

Impact: Enabled leadership to quickly assess performance trends (weekly, monthly, quarterly), aiding in strategic decision-making and the optimisation of contract administration.

3. Compliance Deep-Dive Dashboard

Purpose: To allow for granular analysis of compliance data, identifying specific bottlenecks and root causes for delays.

Impact: Provided the evidence needed to address systemic issues, leading to a significant improvement in overall programme compliance and reducing the risk of contractual penalties.

4. Consultant Invoice Dashboard

Purpose: To create visibility over consultant invoices, tracking rates, hours worked, and resource allocation across projects.

Impact: Improved transparency and control over consultancy costs, ensuring accurate financial reporting and more effective resource management.

Development Methodology

Following agile principles, the project was delivered through a structured five-phase approach, ensuring stakeholder engagement and iterative refinement throughout the development lifecycle.

1. Requirements Gathering: Conducted stakeholder workshops with Senior Commercial Managers and Project Managers to define reporting requirements, identify key metrics, and establish success criteria.

2. Data Integration & Modeling: Established Contract Bee API connectivity, designed optimal data models, and created custom DAX measures for performance calculations.

3. Dashboard Development: Built interactive visualisations with advanced filtering, drill-down capabilities, and a responsive design for various user roles.

4. User Testing & Refinement: Conducted iterative testing sessions with end-users, gathered feedback, and implemented optimisations to enhance user experience.

5. Deployment & Training: Deployed the solution, implemented security controls, and delivered comprehensive training to ensure successful adoption.

Stakeholder Feedback

"The Contract Management Dashboard has transformed how our commercial team operates. What previously took hours of manual reporting now happens automatically, and the insights we're getting are helping us proactively manage contract performance across the entire programme. The real-time visibility into compensation events has been particularly valuable for maintaining programme budgets."

- Senior Commercial Manager, NWG AMP7 Programme

Key Outcomes & Business Impact

Enhanced Decision-Making: Executives gained confidence in strategic decisions through clear, concise data visualisations that highlighted critical insights.
Improved Operational Efficiency: Automation and centralised reporting significantly reduced manual effort, minimising errors and allowing teams to focus on higher-value tasks.
Proactive Risk Management: The real-time nature of the dashboards enabled early identification and resolution of project risks, ensuring smoother project delivery.
Increased User Adoption: Delivered targeted training programs that increased team dashboard utilisation by over 40%, embedding a data-driven culture within the programme.

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