How to Navigate Around Our Platform

This article is a guide to navigating our FastDraft platform.

This guide contains the following:

• How to navigate around our User Interface (UI) 
• Training Video: Login, Accessing Contract, General Navigation

How to navigate around our User Interface (UI)

Each page on the platform is made up of several different components. Let's walk through these now:

• Top bar
• Navigation panel
• Notification panel for RAG actions
• Toolbar
• Pages:
  • Dashboard
  • Registers
  • Reports

Top bar

You can use the top bar to do global searches. It’s always visible at the top of the interface. 

You can also use it to access menus for the preference page, admin panel and navigate back to your My Contracts page.

You can also use it to access our tutorials, latest Release Notes, or contact the Support Team for help. 

Navigation panel

The navigation panel is used to display the primary navigation in the sidebar of our platform. The panel changes dynamically in different areas of the platform.

In the contract management area, the navigation includes a list of links that you can use to move between sections of the application. When you are within a contract it will list the following menu group items:-

1. Analytics (dashboards and reports)
2. Workflows
3. Settings 
4. Smart lists

The sub items with these menu groups are configurable at a contract and system level so change dynamically between contracts, so whilst you can always access analytics within a contract, the workflows in a NEC Contract will be different to JCT or FIDIC contracts.  In an NEC Contract it might list Early Warning under workflows and Risk management under FIDIC or JCT.  Workflows can also be turned off in the admin panel if not required.

In the admin panel, the navigation panel list the following menu group items:-

1. Companies
2. Project
3. Contracts
4. Templates.

Notification panel for RAG actions

From any page within a contract, the user is able to click on the blue icon on the right-hand side of the screen which will open up the outstanding action list.

This panel will display all the outstanding actions for each Party, the notice reference number, subject line, the date the action is due by, a hyperlink to the notice for quick access and a RAG status (Red, Amber or Green).  All actions due within the next 7 days or overdue will be red, all actions due between 7 to 14 days will be amber and anything due 14 days + will be green.

Again this panel is dynamic so only displays roles relevant to the contract type.

Toolbar

The toolbar contains action buttons to do primarily actions, such as “Create”, “Draft”, “Print”, or “Save”. Plain buttons, which look similar to links, are used for less important or less commonly used actions, such as “Update”, "Close Risk", "Export", etc.

The toolbar also contains breadcrumb navigation, so you can see the hierarchy of documents. So for example if you were within a Compensation Event quote with a Compensation workflow on an NEC Contract, the breadcrumb navigation trail would display:-

Contract Name / Contract Workflows (e.g. Compensation Events) / Party subflows (e.g. Contractor Compensation Events) / Notice (e.g. CON-Compensation-00008) / Sub-notice (e.g. Quote-00009)

Create action button

At the top of every page with a contract, there is a “Create New” action button which will show a dropdown list of notifications that your specific set of permissions will allow you to create on that contract. The create action button is dynamic so changes from contract to contract, if you have different permissions on different contracts.

Contextual action buttons 

Notifications can be created on the Contract Management Platform either by selecting the notification from the green “Create New” dropdown at the top of every page or from within the corresponding Register. These primary action buttons are always coloured. Any secondary actions are displayed further down the page and are specific to the page you are on. 

Draft and sending notices

To ensure notices are not accidently sent, the creation of notices is done in two stages. When a new notice is created, it must be first be saved as a draft and then sent if you have sufficient permissions.

1. Draft Notification - After filling out the created form, the system will produce a draft Notification.  This will allow the user to make any changes to the notification before sending. After any change to the Notification press the blue “Save Changes” button to update the Notification. Attachments can also be added to the Notification by clicking on the “Attachments” tab and uploading files from your computer. Once you’re happy with the Notification click on the “Communicate Notification” button to notify the Notification.
2. Send Notification - Once a Notification has been communicated on the Contract Management Platform an email will be sent to the appropriate users, registers will be updated with appropriate actions and action dates.  No further changes can be made to the Notification.

Dashboard

The Dashboard will display the original and current total of prices and completion date as well as the Contractor's planned date for completion from the Programme. The number of outstanding actions for each Party are also shown, as well as lots of other relevant information about the contract.   

Registers

Each workflow group on the Contract Management Platform has a series of workflows and all of the notices within a workflow are displayed in a Register. When Notifications are created on the system, it will be added to the Register and display the appropriate information e.g. Sequential reference number, subject, date notified, date response required by, status, etc.  All timescales for response either from the contract or bespoke from the project contract data, are integrated into the system so that the RAG status will show when either Party is close to being late in responding or indeed are now late.

Reports

The Contract Management Platform provides a three tier approach to reporting for different user needs:-

• Contract or project team reporting needs are provided through a series of out the box reports, dashboards, registers and our RAG notification panel. The focus at this level is tactical and focus on project delivery and what needs doing next. These tools are provided out of the box and don't require configuration.
• Aggregated reporting - This is typically provided for framework managers, category managers, regional leads and division heads, who need a snapshot of data across a portfolio or program of contracts or projects and need to be notified of critical events. Again these reports are provided out the box through a dedicated aggregated reporting tool.
• Portfolio reporting - This is typically done through third party reporting tools via our API and allows data to be blended with data from multiple third party sources. For example Power BI might be used to report on a capital works programme with P6, providing schedule data from its API, the Contract Management Platform providing commercial data via its API and SAP providing financial cost data from its API, in a single Common Data Environment which is used by Power BI dashboard and reports.

Training Video: Login, Accessing Contract, General Navigation