The International Association for Contract and Commercial Management describes continuous improvement as: "an ongoing effort to improve a supplier's products, services, and/or processes, generally aimed at a specific contractual performance measure" (IACCM, 2019).
Within technology contracts specifically, continuous improvement is a common concept and, as it is a core tenet of ISO20000 accreditation, a standard which many IT suppliers have existing practices for delivering it through public contracts. With technology suppliers used to the concept of, this chapter directs buyers to steer improvements toward measurable performance uplifts in a given contract.
Currently, continuous improvement efforts often fall down due to poor definition: an IACCM survey found 50% of buyers claim to define clearly continuous improvement outcomes, while only 28% of suppliers agree (IACCM, 2019).
It is therefore worth spending some time defining continuous improvement more closely.
The benefits of effective continuous improvement mechanisms need little explanation: they can be crucial mechanism for ensuring good quality and value for money throughout the lifecycle of a contract. In particular, continuous improvement mechanisms can help to drive innovation and new feature roll-outs in technology contracts, and so should be taken seriously.
Continuous improvement is good practice for any contract, but strong continuous improvement mechanisms are particularly important in contracts with longer durations, and contracts with a more limited or entrenched supplier markets: this can help to ensure that even less competitive markets are incentivised to innovate.
Continuous improvement contract clauses