Summary
The Regional Support Office and Dutch embassies are aided by a cloud solution to gain a faster understanding on their payments. It takes care of a lot of back and forth calling, and eventually also in personnel expenses.
Challenge
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs centralizes the operational management of all Dutch embassies by establishing Regional Support Offices (RSO). An example is the lease of embassy personnel in Jakarta which is paid by the RSO in Kuala Lumpur. A copy of these agreements has to be sent by mail. It is often not even clear whether payments are made. Communications between embassies require much time . How can the RSO ensure they pay bills on time, and in the meantime notify the responsible person?
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Every hour of every day, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs promotes the interests of theDutch Kingdom abroad. The Ministry coordinates and carries out Dutch foreign policy at its headquarters in The Hague and through its missions abroad. It is likewise the channel through which the Dutch Government communicates with foreign governments and international organizations.
Contract Management Case Study: Our workload decreased by seventy percent
Content Case Study
What is the Case Study about
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs centralizes the operational management of all Dutch embassies by establishing Regional Support Offices (RSO). An example is the lease of embassy personnel in Jakarta which is paid by the RSO in Kuala Lumpur. A copy of these agreements has to be sent by mail. It is often not even clear whether payments are made. Communications between embassies require much time . How can the RSO ensure they pay bills on time, and in the meantime notify the responsible person?
Thinking of a good system
“I have thought for three long weeks on how to organize it.” explains Looise, “it is important that everyone enters the same information in the same way. Otherwise, it is hard to retrace.” Another aspect is the difference in societies: “We had Chinese and Malaysian men and women who had just finished school. They are accustomed to structure. So the system has to be put in place logically. This is step 1 till 5, and this is how to import a contract. This is step A till D, and that is how you know how big the payment is.”
5 calls for a simple payment
“We had to pay the bills from Afghanistan to New Zealand,” says Linda Looise , at that time Office Manager at the RSO. Centralization has saved the Ministry of Foreign Affairs a big sum of money, yet it also brings additional problems. The embassy in Seoul, for instance, sends a lease contract for a delegation. Looise : “this particular contract said: pay the warranty now because you’ll get the key tomorrow.”
"One contract management system worldwide’”
99%
Reducation in phone traffic each month
3 FTE
Instead of 8 FTE All AsiaPAC Embassies Have insight
7000%
ROI (Return on Investment)