IWFM and NEC launch new NEC4 facilities management contracts

News

On 26 January, NEC is launching its new suite of facilities management contracts (FM contracts) during a one-hour webinar. IWFM has supported the development of the contract suite, in particular through the IWFM NEC Steering Group, which has made significant contributions over the last three years in terms of insight and workplace examples in the contract and its supporting documents.

This project builds on many years of collaborations with NEC on the NEC3 contract and has brought together parallel workstreams from both organisations. It combined NEC research to identify best practice in the facilities management industry - including stakeholder workshops with IWFM members, as well as consultations with specific stakeholders - with a need identified by IWFM volunteers within its International (ISIG) and Procurement Special Interest Groups for a new approach to FM industry standard contracts. In particular, the 2016 ISIG-supported Leaders Forum, Outsourcing Across Borders, outlined the rationale and benefits of an FM standard contract.

The full FM contract suite contains four contracts, six user guides and two flow charts, and is designed to be used for all types of facilities management procurement and delivery strategies. The new FM contracts and their supporting documents are a great step forward to enable the sector to offer more integrated and consistent procurement strategies, adding value to the supply chain and developing stronger, more collaborative, relationships and ways of working. They retain the NEC4 contract principle for parties to act ‘in a spirit of mutual trust and co-operation’. The contract also features three main pricing options and are modular in form with a range of secondary options available for selection. This allows the client to tailor the contract to suit its specific needs and allocate risk appropriately without the need to amend the standard contract.

These contracts will all initially be available as a prepublication edition via download from neccontract.com. The remaining documents, along with the first edition of the above documents and supporting guidance notes, will be available from June 2021.

NEC and IWFM are also working on a series of practice notes which will further help the FM community to use the contracts better. These practice notes will address region-specific issues and support users in dealing with emerging issues, such as the recent pandemic. Importantly, they will also provide guidance on important themes in the FM industry and how they can be adjusted and reflected in the FM contract.

As part of the launch, NEC is hosting a webinar with IWFM to share the key features of the new contract. More information about the FM contract and registration for the webinar can be found here.