Case study: State and local government
Driving contract management efficiency through people and processes
Table of contents
A large urban school district manages over $30 million in contracts annually in support of educating students. Confident that a new contract management system could streamline operations and improve operational efficiency, the district engaged Eagle Hill to assess its contract management practices, identify business and user requirements, and recommend solutions to close critical gaps before making a major technology investment.
Our holistic assessment revealed an unexpected insight: while leaders viewed a new system as the solution, nearly 75% of improvement opportunities were unrelated to technology. The real barriers stemmed from operational inefficiencies, skill gaps, and misaligned workforce practices. We provided targeted recommendations and a prioritized roadmap to address these fundamentals. By resolving these issues first, the district positioned itself to realize the full value of its future contract management system.
Goal
Strengthen compliance, clarify processes and roles, drive operational efficiency, better align contract management with strategic and budgetary priorities, and inform the selection of the new contract management system.
Unconventional consulting—and breakthrough results
stakeholders engaged to capture perspectives on the current state
contracts analyzed to pinpoint how to align staff capacity with top priorities
recommendations developed targeting 4 strategic priorities
The challenge: Piecing together the full picture with limited documentation
Our review focused on assessing the district’s contract management policies, procedures, records, and its procure-to-pay process to identify opportunities for strengthening institutional capacity and optimizing back-office operations. However, obtaining the necessary documentation proved challenging. With the district intensely focused on meeting new regulatory requirements, documenting processes had taken a back seat. Recognizing that a comprehensive document review wasn’t feasible, we shifted our approach and relied heavily on stakeholder interviews to understand the true current state.
The roadmap to success: Listening, validating, paving the path ahead
We assessed the district’s challenges across people, processes, and technology, guided by our deep back-office optimization and operational efficiency experience. From the start, we prioritized engaging stakeholders in a way that respected their demanding schedules, regularly sharing emerging insights and validating what we learned. By the time we delivered the recommendations, district leaders had already seen the evidence take shape. As a result, there were no surprises—just a clear path forward.
Our approach blended stakeholder input with data-driven analysis, uniting frontline insight and objective evidence. We listened closely to the people doing the work, then validated their perspectives through targeted analysis—creating a credible, well-rounded view of the current state. Key activities included:
Engaging stakeholders across the organization
We interviewed stakeholders from 11 offices across 10 different roles, providing a comprehensive, real-world view of contract management practices and revealing strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for improvement. We also conducted four focus groups to engage staff more deeply. These sessions surfaced day-to-day challenges at every level and helped cultivate staff buy-in for the recommendations.
Analyzing workforce capacity data across contracts
To validate stakeholder perspectives, we analyzed over 1,000 contracts across five data sets. This analysis revealed periods of high strain, forecasted resourcing risks, and highlighted opportunities to better align staff with mission priorities. These insights pinpointed key operational efficiency constraints within contract management workflows. It also gave leaders confidence that the findings were grounded in evidence and informed how we prioritized recommendations and structured the roadmap.
Getting to the real problems with root cause analysis
Stakeholder discussions and data analysis surfaced 72 improvement opportunities. Using root cause analysis, we focused on addressing underlying problems rather than symptoms, identifying 13 root causes. Most opportunities stemmed from training gaps and misaligned roles and responsibilities—six root causes alone accounted for nearly 70% of all challenges. This insight allowed us to target recommendations for maximum impact.
The path forward: Setting the stage for contract management success
In assessments like this, our goal is to deliver insights that organizations can both understand and act upon. With this in mind, we developed 11 recommendations to address root causes and drive meaningful improvement. Our focus went well beyond technology, covering four strategic areas: processes, roles and ownership, training and knowledge, and technology. These areas reflect stakeholder priorities and provide a holistic framework to strengthen contract management and enhance back-office optimization across the district.
We also created a four-phase roadmap that organizes recommendations by level of effort, impact, and urgency. The roadmap guides the sequencing of actions and resource allocation, with each phase outlining specific steps, expected outcomes, and estimated implementation timelines.
By the end of the project, district leaders had a clear understanding of what to do next and how to move forward. As one stakeholder explained,
We now have something that we can share that allows us to show the path and where we’re headed, where we’re going, what we’re working on, which is super important.
Jane Doe, Sit Amet
This clarity gave leaders confidence and a concrete roadmap to strengthen contract management, improve back-office optimization, and build long-term operational efficiency across the district.
