Kontrad's AI-powered solutions offer a SAAS platform to automate and streamline the competitive bidding process for architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) projects. Kontrad offers advanced bidding management, analysis, and collaboration tools to help project teams save time and money while implementing best industry practices and reducing risks.

Thanks to natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML), AI can extract and classify RFPs, contracts, and clauses for the procuring organization. The project team can immediately create, access, and manage a shared library using their own templates without the investment cost and time associated with implementing a generic contract lifecycle management (CLM) software.

If specifically trained for the industry, NLP can readily extract sections of template contract documents which the procuring organization can then use as building blocks to generate new RFP documents for specific projects. Fields may be recognized or tagged to automate the input of project-specific data. Bidders’ clarifications and qualifications can be easily submitted, extracted, and compared, easing the evaluation of bidders’ compliance with the RFP documentation. These functionalities substantially reduce the time required to prepare the RFP documents, hence generating return on investment both intangible (alignment with corporate procedures, risks mitigation, transparency) and tangible (cost reduction and optimized resources allocation).

In the AEC industry, contracting often means arranging for complex competitive tenders, which involves multiple collaborative steps between many different stakeholders located in various places, e.g. to prequalify bidders, release RFP documents, or respond to tender clarifications. Cloud-based Contract Management System (CMS) software facilitate collaboration around centralised repositories and a secured tender management system, hence providing a single and auditable source of truth, irrespective of the location of individual team members and tenderers.

In the AEC industry, a CMS should provide the immediate benefit of automating and streamlining the tendering process through digital workflows, without requiring that the customer invest the time and costs associated with an enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation. Instead of relying on customer’s expertise to configure its own process, a CMS designed for the industry should guide the project management team and bidders, through the various steps of the tender process, while ensuring compliance with best industry practices. With the support of natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML), the system should also alleviate the burden of assembling the RFP documents, clarifying the documentation with bidders, and compiling the final contract. Such features generate both long term return on investment (including alignment, transparency, compliance and risks mitigation) and immediate savings through cost reduction and optimized resources allocation.

Generic contracts management systems (CMS) automate business processes and build contract libraries for various types of contracts. However, implementation may require intense collaboration with the software vendor due to varying templates and workflows across industries, which may eventually reduce the expected ROI and lead to a disappointing outcome. By contrast, vendors providing industry-specific CMS offer a turnkey solution, which helps customers deploy best industry practices immediately, hence reducing the initial investment cost and increasing the ROI while reducing the risks associated with a subscription.