Latrobe City Council has become the first Victorian Local Government organisation to acquire Open Windows eTender Management, Contract Management, Grant & Procurement Management Systems on the Microsoft Windows Azure Contracts Cloud.

Latrobe City Council currently manages in excess of 110 contracts, ranging from service, capital and consultancy contracts to Quotes and Expression of Interests via a simple database.

Latrobe Valley is located only 90 minutes from the outskirts of Melbourne with a population of over 75,000 residents. It s made up of four major urban centres: Churchill, Moe/Newborough, Morwell and Traralgon, with smaller townships of Boolarra, Glengarry, Toongabbie, Tyers, Traralgon South, Yallourn North, and Yinnar.

Latrobe City Council went out to tender in July 2011, looking for a solution that would assist in streamlining their processes, as well as providing a clear audit trail of all contract and tender activities. The solution would provide a central repository of data and documents, visible audit trail, and contractor financial information as well as detailed reporting and process management capability.

After a thorough evaluation process, Latrobe City Council selected Open Windows to provide an end-to-end Contract Lifecycle Management solution on the Microsoft Windows Azure cloud to replace their manual contract and tender processes.

“We have been working with all levels of government for over 17 years, and understand that legislation is constantly changing. That is why our solutions are built so that they are flexible enough to adapt quickly to these changes” says Adam McInnes, Open Windows CEO.

Benefits of Open Windows Contract Lifecycle Management include: reduced exposure to litigation; proactive management on financials and reporting; process compliance with policies and regulations; holistic view of contract and tender information; the ability to capture and review contractor performance, as well as manage relationships; and streamline contract and tendering processes with a clear audit trail.

Latrobe City Council plans to roll the solution out in stages initially managing tender and contract management, with subsequent phases employing grant management and capital works in late 2012.