Description: This handbook provides practical guidance for organisations wishing to establish and manage effective and mutually beneficial long-term partnering arrangements. Long-term partnering offers considerable benefits to all parties in the project process. The handbook is built on the findings of an extensive industry survey, reinforced and broadened by the experience of a range of client, contractor and supplier organisations with in-depth understanding of the issues.

Although the handbook does not set out to advocate the use of partnering in all long-term supply deals, traditional arrangements for delivering long-term contracts do not deliver best value. They fail to facilitate continuous improvement in both client and contractor performance and unnecessarily damage the returns that contractors can hope to achieve.

Impediments to improved performance could be removed or overcome by working together to achieve a greater understanding and better management of the influencing factors. In many cases, long-term partnering contracts are the way forward.

Steps to successful partnering are described using the structure of a process model. The handbook provides a range of best practice techniques to underpin long-term partnering.