In this article, I discuss how Utah DHHS transitioned from fragmented contract management to streamlined, automated processes for multilevel approvals, compliance, and audit-ready records.
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If bottlenecks in your contract management are a headache for your government body, read on as I describe how Utah's Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) tackled their challenge head-on with the help of FlowForma's Process Automation platform.
The DHHS process involved six different stakeholders, which became problematic, especially as the approvals were handled via email. Imagine the chasing that they would have to do and the coordination across departments.
They also had a problem with data visibility. It was difficult to see the stage of a contract, what was approved and where the bottlenecks were.
In this article, I outline how DHHS tackled its contract management challenges with process automation, introduce the team as they describe their automation journey in their own words, and provide practical steps other government and public sector teams can follow to get the same outcomes.
Government contract management involves overseeing every stage of a public contract from planning and procurement to compliance, performance, and renewal.
Whether you're managing a federal contract management process or a regional one, the core steps remain the same:
The process can quickly become fragmented since these contracts often pass through multiple hands, including compliance officers, financial controllers, legal teams, and external vendors.
That's why digital process automation tools are increasingly being adopted: to bring visibility, structure, and accountability into a workflow that otherwise relies on spreadsheets and paper trails.
I regularly speak with government bodies, and I see the same challenge amongst many of them.
Government bodies tend to work at a slower pace compared with the private sector, and are therefore slower to migrate away from legacy platforms used to manage contracts.
Managing contracts with tools such as InfoPath, SharePoint Designer, or Excel might get the job done, but they weren't built for today's complexity. Most lack modern features like centralized dashboards, real-time updates, or automation logic.
Take Utah's Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), for example. Before adopting automation, they managed over 100 forms manually, including contract-related workflows. The result? Bottlenecks, inconsistent tracking, and compliance issues across departments.
By moving away from manual, paper-based processes, DHHS gained greater visibility across departments and improved audit readiness while staying independent from IT teams throughout the rollout.
Utah's Department of Health and Human Services is a large public administration body with over 6,000 employees across 150 offices. Its mission: to improve the well-being of Utah residents by providing accessible, high-quality healthcare and social services while promoting public health initiatives.
With a focus on modernization, the organization sought to replace outdated tools — particularly InfoPath and SharePoint Designer — and streamline processes that had become heavily paper-based and difficult to manage at scale.
In this webinar, Sarah Klenk from Utah DHHS shares the department's full automation journey — from the pain points that forced change to the processes now running on FlowForma across multiple divisions.
Sarah Klenk, Utah DHHS, introduces the department and what led them to seek a process automation platform.
The department's contract management process was one of the most painful bottlenecks. Previously, contracts had to go through six levels of approval, often taking months due to manual emails and coordination.
Now automated via the FlowForma Process Automation platform, approval times have drastically reduced. Contracts that used to take months to get signed are now approved within 1 to 5 days.
The department's internal audit office required comprehensive records of all contracts, including who approved each step and when. With FlowForma's audit trails, DHHS can easily track every step of the process, ensuring full compliance with internal policies and regulations.
The ability to capture and report on metadata — such as approval timelines and user access — has been a game-changer, saving time, boosting efficiency, and ensuring compliance.
"Our contracts used to take months to get signed, now they're approved within the FlowForma platform within one to five days. As soon as a director approves, the platform sends a notification to the next. It's so much faster."
— Sarah Klenk, Utah Department of Health and Human Services
The organization evaluated several platforms before selecting FlowForma. Key factors in their decision included:
Five benefits of automating government contract management
Utah DHHS reduced a six-level contract approval process that previously took months to a 1–5 day turnaround. Contracts are now processed and approved faster, freeing teams to focus on delivering public services rather than chasing approvals.
Every approval, amendment, and signature in Utah DHHS's contract process is now automatically timestamped and logged, giving their internal audit office complete traceability across hundreds of contracts without manual record-keeping.
"We love FlowForma Process Automation from a compliance perspective. The last time we were audited, there were no queries at all, because we could show exactly who approved what and when, with all the data and metadata we captured."
— Sarah Klenk, Utah Department of Health and Human Services
Before automation, Utah DHHS had no central view of where any contract stood. Now every stakeholder can see outstanding approvals, completed steps, and bottlenecks in real time — without chasing a single email.
By eliminating manual coordination across six approval levels, Utah DHHS freed up significant staff time that had previously been absorbed by contract chasing — time that now goes back into delivering public services.
Non-developer administrators can now build and manage workflows independently. The no-code interface means divisions can adapt and enhance processes themselves, reducing backlogs and enabling continuous improvement at speed.
Contract management was just the starting point. Since deploying FlowForma, Utah DHHS has automated a wide range of critical processes across the department:
The organization has currently automated approximately 30% of its processes, with plans to expand department-wide. By starting with cross-departmental processes, they have created champions in each division who are eager to adopt the platform and automate their own workflows.
"The plan is to keep moving and working with all the different divisions, automating one process at a time. The more processes we move to the FlowForma Process Automation platform, the more managers love it and support us 100%."
— Sarah Klenk, Utah Department of Health and Human Services
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Insert clip: Sarah on all the processes DHHS has automated (~15:00–20:00 in webinar)
Suggested caption: "Sarah Klenk walks through the full list of processes Utah DHHS has automated with FlowForma"
While government contracts differ in scope and requirements, many include repetitive, rules-based tasks that are ideal candidates for automation.
Here are the most common contracts government teams can streamline:
3 types of government contract management
These contracts are widely used in public infrastructure projects, product procurement, and service agreements. The terms are clear: a set amount is paid once work is delivered.
Automation helps here by triggering tasks tied to milestones, like sending invoices when a deliverable is marked complete or logging shipment details as equipment is dispatched.
These are common in research, emergency healthcare response, and federally funded grants, where expenses can shift over time. Manual oversight of allowable costs can quickly get overwhelming.
Automation solves that by flagging out-of-scope expenses, tracking receipts, and alerting teams when compliance thresholds are about to be breached.
Used frequently for IT consulting or maintenance work, these contracts depend on precise time logging and material use. Automating time entry approvals, rate validations, and invoicing ensures nothing falls through the cracks, even if the project runs over months or involves multiple teams.
To achieve scalable results across departments, government teams must establish a strong foundation for contract management.
Best practices for government contract management
Here's how to improve contract management for government with automation:
If your contract still begins with a static PDF or email template, you're already a step behind. Smart digital forms capture cleaner data and minimize manual input. Fields can auto-fill based on vendor IDs, department codes, or previous contract history, saving time and reducing input errors from the start.
This video shows how FlowForma makes it easy to build digital forms that drive workflows:
Not all contracts require the same approval process. High-risk contracts may necessitate legal review, while low-value renewals can be automatically approved. This is where workflow logic becomes essential.
FlowForma allows teams to design no-code workflows that manage routing, escalation, and deadline alerts without the need for programming.
Contracts should include essential elements like required clauses, version control, and pre-signature validation. Embedding these checks directly into the workflow makes it easier to stay compliant with regulations such as FAR, GDPR, or internal policies.
Additionally, maintaining digital audit logs helps streamline external reviews and reduce compliance-related stress while managing risk.
To make the setup even easier, FlowForma's AI Copilot provides intelligent suggestions during workflow creation. It helps users define processes faster by recommending logic based on existing workflows.
Whether you're building a new approval route or updating an existing one, the Copilot improves accuracy and saves time by reducing manual effort and potential errors.
In this interactive demo, you'll see how FlowForma Copilot can build a government contract risk management process in minutes. With just a simple text prompt, Copilot builds out a process prototype that can be adapted for any government organization. This demo clearly illustrates how AI-powered process automation can greatly boost productivity while strengthening compliance and risk management.
Also read: For more on how automated workflows support business process compliance, this article by FlowForma offers helpful insights.
Automation only delivers value when it's actively used. Securing buy-in from key stakeholders — such as contract owners, department heads, and legal teams — is essential for successful implementation.
One effective strategy is to start with pilot projects that demonstrate clear, measurable benefits. When internal champions share tangible wins, like shorter approval cycles or improved reporting accuracy, it builds momentum and encourages broader adoption across the organization.
"Be patient, get buy-in from managers, and help stakeholders visualize what the end result looks like. Once managers see it working, they support you 100%."
— Sarah Klenk, Utah Department of Health and Human Services
Every process has friction points. Are approvals delayed by legal? Are renewal reminders sent too late? Monitoring key metrics — such as SLA breaches, turnaround time, and contract volume — helps optimize workflows over time.
For example, the A14 Integrated Delivery Team in the UK, a joint venture between Costain, Skanska, and Balfour Beatty, automated several workflows with FlowForma, including Material Requisition Requests and Permission to Dig.
This shift to FlowForma created a centralized data hub accessible from remote locations, improving speed, consistency, and ensuring a digital audit trail for every action.
Explore how the A14 Integrated Team used FlowForma to digitize field requests and centralize operations on the go.
Want to see how contract automation works? This short video shows what government contract automation looks like in action with FlowForma:
It all starts with a digital form. FlowForma allows contract owners to create forms tailored to the type of agreement, whether it's a grant, procurement request, or vendor contract. Smart fields can auto-fill using existing databases, pulling in vendor IDs, department names, or budget codes.
Once the form is set, users define the routing logic. With FlowForma's workflow automation builder, teams can drag and drop rules that guide the contract through various approval stages.
For example, contracts above a certain value can be automatically routed to legal, while standard renewals go straight to finance. Every condition is built to match real-world policy.
When the form is submitted and the workflow begins, FlowForma can instantly generate the contract document using pre-approved templates.
Contracts are approved directly within the workflow, with built-in e-signature and automatic date-stamping. Every stakeholder gets notified when it's their turn to sign, keeping the momentum intact and approvals trackable.
Completed contracts are archived in a secure, searchable system. You can filter by contract ID, department, vendor, or approval status.
Meanwhile, audit logs are created automatically, showing exactly who reviewed, edited, and signed each document — critical for compliance and reporting.
Contract automation is reshaping how government agencies manage vendor agreements, approvals, and compliance — bringing structure, speed, and accountability to a traditionally manual process.
FlowForma offers a no-code, end-to-end solution built with the public sector in mind, allowing teams to automate complex contract workflows without waiting on IT.
With FlowForma, departments can route approvals faster, reduce audit stress, and replace spreadsheets and paper trails with clean, digital workflows. Whether it's a high-value procurement or a grant agreement, every contract becomes easier to manage, track, and report on.
Start simplifying your government contract management process with FlowForma — book a demo today.
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