TAC-1 sets out: - the ‘Alliance Members’including the ‘Client’, the ‘Provider’, and an in-house or external ‘Alliance Manager’with the facility to add ‘Additional Alliance Members’. . . - why the term alliance is being created, stating agreed ‘Objectives, Success Measures, Targets’and‘Incentives’. . . - mobilisation and handover procedures and improved engagement with Stakeholders . . . - a clear ‘Order Procedure’for simple or complex ‘Orders’, supported by ‘Template Order Documents’. . . - what the Alliance Members will do to seek ‘Improved Value’, working together through ‘Supply Chain Collaboration’and other agreed ‘Alliance Activities’in accordance with an agreed ‘Timetable’. . . - how the Alliance Members will manage risks and avoid disputes using a shared ‘Risk Register’,‘Core Group’governance and ‘Early Warning’ with options for an ‘Independent Adviser’and alternative dispute resolution . . . - flexibility to include particular ‘Legal Requirements’and ‘Special Terms’required for any sector and in any jurisdiction . . .” The same website also provides a very helpful description of the FAC-1.14 How does the NEC4 Alliance Contract work? As can be seen from the above, the options for standard form alliance contracts are not very wide.15 In that sense the arrival of the NEC4 Alliance Contract is a welcome one. The contract also has familiar provisions, management processes and terminology which are an advantage for those who are used to working with NEC form contracts. So how does the NEC4 Alliance Contract work? The NEC4 Alliance Contract describes itself as a “true alliancing contract” because all the parties involved sign up to the same single contract..16 If a subcontractor is a member of the alliance then they become a partner with the same standing as other members. If they are not a member then the Guidance Notes make it clear they will need to be contracted to a member of the alliance in the traditional way. However, the Alliance Manager (see further below) would have to approve the subcontractor first. The Alliance, Alliance Board and Alliance Manager The Alliance itself consists of all of the parties who have joined together to deliver the project (potentially but not necessarily excluding subcontractors). The Alliance includes the Client. Members of the Alliance have an obligation to: - Collaborate with each other to achieve the objectives of the alliance as well as the objective of the individual “partners” to the alliance; - Work collectively to support the delivery of the contract on a “best for project basis”; - Develop and use common systems and processes as set out in the Implementation Plan; - Give advice, information and opinion “fully, openly and objectively” to the Alliance Board and others in alliance generally; and - Establish an integrated alliance delivery team17 As such they have more detailed and specific obligations to work together than the woollier “good faith” obligations seen in other forms of NEC4 contracts. An Alliance Board is also set up, with each member of the Alliance (including the Client) nominating someone to sit on it.18 The Alliance Board is tasked with: Setting the strategy for achieving the Alliance’s objectives and the partner objectives; - Agreeing the work within the Alliance; - Making decisions as stated in the contract;