Changes to the University's Contracts Register
The current University's Contracts Register (UCR) was developed using a platform that is no longer supported by ITDS. To mitigate the potential risks associated with an unsupported system, it is being discontinued.
The Legal Services and Records Services branches are working together on a solution to have the UCR functionalities incorporated into Content Manager.
New features recently added to Content Manager will allow saving information from ‘Legal Documents’ (LD) into a database that can be easily accessed by any area of the University.
What does that mean to me?
One step less to register your contracts in the University’s systems.
As per item 8 of the Contracts and Agreements Policy, all areas must register a summary of their contracts and agreements information on an Approved Contract Register.
The UCR has been used as the official register by many units across the University. In addition to that, item 14 of the same policy also requires that contracts and agreements are lodged as a LD with Records Services.
The new process will combine these two steps a single action. Once a new document is lodged with Records Services as an LD, it will be automatically registered into the Contracts Register.
What if my area doesn’t have or use an Approved Contract Register to record our contracts' details?
Please contact Legal Services as soon as possible to discuss your options; the University’s preference is that you use Content Manager.
When will this happen?
On 16 October 2023, the new Legal Document lodgement form will be published and the current UCR will be changed to ‘read-only’ access.
What if I don’t have a licence to access Content Manager?
Content Manager licences are available to all University staff required to have access to the application. Licences can be requested via this link.
What are the benefits?
Besides being a system supported by ITDS and a more efficient way to operate, Content Manager can generate tailored reports and dashboards to assist staff in managing their contracts. It will also provide compliance areas with an overview of the University’s Legal Documents, to more easily identify and respond rapidly to any issues or external auditing bodies’ requests.
The Records Services team can assist with setting up regular searches for areas as well as creating dashboards.
What will happen to the defunct system?
The current UCR will remain available for consultation until it is decommissioned in December 2023. A copy of the legacy database will be stored in Content Manager and will be available for review by request to Records Services at any time.
Q&As
A Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) will remain available to all areas thorugh this link.
If you have any further queries or concerns, please contact Records Services and someone in the team will respond as soon as possible.