How Speller Metcalfe Brought Greater Control to Contract and Subcontract Management with FastDraft™

The Hampton Dene Primary School redevelopment was delivered under an NEC4 Option A contract. 

For Speller Metcalfe, that meant keeping contract processes clear, obligations on track, and records in good order across the project team. On a scheme involving multiple parties, good delivery depended not just on programme and progress, but on having a reliable way to manage notices, approvals and contract actions as the project moved forward. 

The Challenge

Before adopting FastDraft™, Speller Metcalfe had often worked within client-mandated systems or relied on email and spreadsheets to manage contract administration. 

 That created a familiar set of problems for project teams. 

 In some cases, the system in use gave limited control over contract data and was not set up around the realities of managing subcontract packages. In others, key actions were spread across inboxes, trackers and separate records, making it harder to maintain a clear view of notices, approvals and outstanding obligations. 

This made contract administration harder to manage consistently across teams. Commercial staff had less visibility than they needed, project teams were more dependent on manual follow-up, and there was greater risk of deadlines, responses or supporting records being missed or handled inconsistently. 

The issue was not simply admin volume. It was the lack of one clear, structured way to manage contract and subcontract processes with confidence. 

Speller Metcalfe needed a better way to bring together obligations, records and reporting, while giving teams more control over how contract processes were managed in practice. 

The FastDraft Solution 

FastDraft™ gave Speller Metcalfe a more structured way to manage contract administration on the Hampton Dene project, with clearer ownership of notices, obligations, approvals and supporting records. 

Instead of relying on disconnected tools or systems designed around someone else’s requirements, the team had a platform better suited to the way contractor and commercial teams work. This made it easier to manage both upstream obligations and the downstream realities of subcontract administration in a more joined-up way. 

FastDraft helped Speller Metcalfe to: 

• Create a clearer process for contract actions: Notices, approvals and responses could be managed within one structured workflow, making the process easier to follow and less dependent on memory or chasing. 

• Improve visibility for commercial and project teams: Reporting gave the team a clearer view of risk, obligations and commercial position, helping them stay closer to the detail that matters. 

• Support better management of subcontract packages: With greater control over contract data and workflows, the team could manage subcontract-related processes more effectively than when relying on client-led systems or disconnected tools. 

• Reduce dependence on manual coordination: With the right information easier to access and act on, teams could spend less time checking, following up and trying to piece together the contract position from different sources.