Direct Assistance to Project Teams

The Government has long encouraged public sector organisations to make efficiencies and demonstrate value for money from their major contracts. Engaging CAL at the outset to work directly with project teams will help organisations achieve these objectives.

By utilising CAL’s experience, a practical and common sense approach is adopted that ensures the focus remains firmly on what the client wants to achieve. All the time consuming practices that do not add value to the final product are removed in order to establish procurement processes that are straight forward and simple to understand and administer.

Organisations usually appoint CAL to help develop procurement strategies for specific contracts, during which time key issues such as stakeholder requirements, contractor selection processes, forms of contract, and change and budgetary control procedures are established. CAL is regularly asked to devise selection and award methodologies that take into account quality issues as well as price, and which are closely aligned to client and stakeholder requirements. It is also often requested to administer the tendering and contract award process itself, including the preparation of tender invitation documents, candidate presentations, assessors’ scores, and pre-contract workshops.

CAL is regularly engaged by organisations to help with specific types of procurement processes, such as those associated with partnering and framework agreements. In such instances, CAL ensures that robust and auditable systems are put in place for key areas such as the establishment of target costs and the operation of open-book accounting processes. Often, CAL’s appointments cover the facilitating of partnering workshops at the beginning and throughout the duration of the respective agreements.

CAL recognises that establishing robust procurement systems at the outset is only half of the battle towards the delivery of a successful project. Once contracts have been exchanged it is vital that arrangements are firmly in place to measure and report on performance.  In particular, the extent to which stakeholders’ expectations are being realised and value for money achieved. Working directly with project sponsors, CAL liaises with stakeholders and establishes performance measurement methodologies that are both practical and simple to operate. Usually, CAL remains with project teams throughout the contract delivery period in order to help ensure performance reviews are undertaken regularly and, if necessary, that action is taken in response to the results.

Depending on the level of in-house resources available, CAL’s involvement can be as involved and at any level to suit the organisation. CAL can simply act as a professional advisor to the project sponsor, join the project team with the responsibility for discrete tasks (e.g. performance measurement), or administer the entire procurement process.