Who is managing your contract?
You negotiated hard. You got a good deal. You signed the contract.
Then what?
For most organisations, the contract went into a shared drive, the supplier got started, and everyone moved on. The relationship ticks along. Invoices get paid. Nothing alarming comes up.
But nothing alarming is not the same as getting full value. In most cases, there’s a significant gap between the two, and most organisations never measure it.
What the research actually shows
World Commerce and Contracting (WorldCC) published research in early 2026 that should sit uncomfortably with most business leaders. Organisations lose an average of 11% of total contract value after signing. Not through poor negotiation. Through poor management once the contract moves into delivery.
For an organisation with $500 million in contracted spend, that’s up to $55 million a year. It doesn’t disappear in one dramatic failure. It leaks out through missed price adjustments, untracked performance obligations, unauthorised scope changes, and contracts auto-renewing on terms nobody went back to check.
A 2024 Deloitte and DocuSign study across 10 countries found that poor agreement management costs close to $2 trillion in global economic value annually. A separate Icertis survey of more than 1,000 C-suite leaders found that 90% of CEOs are leaving money on the table after contracts are signed.
These aren’t procurement statistics. They’re business performance statistics.
What's actually behind it
WorldCC’s research identified a consistent pattern they call the post-signature exit. Procurement and legal, the people with the commercial expertise to manage a contract, exit the moment the deal closes. The operational team takes over without a commercial briefing, without clear accountability, and often without having read what’s actually in the contract.
Tim Cummins, President of WorldCC, put it plainly: “The 11% gap is not caused by poor negotiation. Most value is won or lost during delivery, governance, and relationship management.”
WorldCC has also documented 10 specific pitfalls behind this pattern. The ones that appear most consistently include unclear scope and goals, poor handover from the deal team to the delivery team, contracts that nobody can read or understand, and weak governance after signing. None of these are exotic failures. They’re structural, and they show up in organisations of every size.
What good contract management actually looks like
CIPS, the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply, breaks post-award contract management into three areas. For a business manager holding a supplier contract, these are worth understanding.
The first is service delivery. Is the supplier doing what they agreed to do, at the quality and performance standard written into the contract? If you’re not measuring this against what was contracted, you’re assuming. Assumptions are expensive.
The second is supplier relationship. This isn’t about keeping things cordial. It means maintaining an open, honest working relationship that includes real feedback when performance falls short. CIPS is clear that this requires deliberate, regular attention, not just goodwill on both sides.
The third is contract administration. Are amendments being documented? Are key dates tracked? Do you know when your contract comes up for renewal? Do you know which obligations fall on your organisation, not just the supplier? This is usually where contracts go quietly wrong, not through bad intent, but through nobody keeping a systematic eye on the detail.
Questions worth asking at your next supplier meeting
You don’t need a procurement qualification to manage a contract well. You need to know what to look for and be prepared to ask.
Are you delivering everything that’s in scope? Not “is everything okay?” That’s a catch-up. This is a contract conversation.
How are you tracking against the KPIs? Ask to see the actual data, not a summary presentation. Suppliers on top of their performance can show you. Those who aren’t will need time to find it.
Have there been any changes to how you’re delivering the service? Suppliers change staff, processes, and subcontractors. Material changes should be documented and communicated.
What do you need from us to do this better? This one shifts the dynamic. The answer tells you more about supplier engagement than any questionnaire.
What’s coming up in the next 90 days that we both need to be across? Good contract management builds in forward visibility. Most organisations only look backwards.
A realistic note to finish on
None of the research above is a criticism of business managers. Contract management is almost never taught to the people who end up responsible for it. You’re handed a contract and a supplier relationship, usually without a briefing on what active management actually involves. The assumption is that someone will figure it out.
Most of the time, nobody does.
The gap between what was promised in the contract and what’s being delivered is real and measurable. The businesses that close it don’t always add more procurement resources. They make sure the people holding supplier relationships understand what managing them involves, and have enough confidence to follow through.
If you’re holding a significant supplier contract right now and you’re not sure whether it’s actively managed, that’s worth finding out sooner rather than later.
Amanda Branley is the CEO and founder of The Procurement Coach, a Perth-based coaching and advisory practice. She holds FCIPS, is a CIPS Direct Associate Tutor and has judged the CIPS ANZ Excellence in Procurement and Supply Awards for three consecutive years.
To talk about contract management in your organisation, get in touch at amanda@theprocurementcoach.com.au