How Do We Do It?

Brief
The exercise is quite simple – you provide us with the enquiry details and we deal with it all from there. We don’t need or expect the whole picture. Just an outline of requirements is enough to set us on our way.

We will fill in the gaps and then provide options and ball park cost indication, where appropriate, so that you can decide whether to proceed, and with what.

Budget
We then firm up the design and specification and obtain competitive prices for the works.
A package of drawings, specifications and contractor costs is produced to enable the client to obtain expenditure approval.

Contract
Once the approval is obtained, we obtain all necessary permissions, place all orders on the contractors and manage the project through to completion. We also arrange that relevant service and maintenance contracts are in place afterwards.

Authority and professional approvals
We deal with the local planning, building, fire and HSE authorities, landlords and tenants. Where we require input from professionals such as structural engineers, we instruct, employ and manage them as well.

Management
From the design stage through to completion we take on the role of Planning Supervisor – in accordance with the HSE CDM Regulations. Rather than acting as another contractor, we operate as though we were within your company. The whole exercise is open - book and the procedures adopted are designed to knit in with those you already have in place.

Typical project
In abbreviated form, the usual flow is as follows:

Client contact requires options and ballpark figures before he can proceed further.

CCS visits site, discusses requirements with relevant parties; then provides sketches of alternative options and associated ballpark costs.

Client contact chooses preferred option/s and obtains approval to proceed to next step – design & cost.

i) CCS expands preferred design on CAD drawings and in outline specifications.  ii) Competitive prices are sought from contractors & a budget cost provided for carrying out the whole project. (“Budget” means that the figure takes into account items that cannot accurately be determined beforehand – such as local authority fees – but is an amount that will not be exceeded). iii) Finally, a progress Gant chart is produced to clarify anticipated timescales.

Client contact obtains capital expenditure approval.

i) CCS place orders obtain all necessary permissions and manage the project through to completion.  ii) As works proceed Interim valuations for works carried out are approved and sent to client for payment – together with an updated project expenditure analysis and progress schedule. iii) Upon completion of the works, services are tested and commissioned and handed over together with appropriate certification. iv) CCS produces as installed information and obtains service and maintenance contracts from relevant contractors.

Small projects
Small projects range from services upgrades, air conditioning, computer electrical supplies, and the like. Also the provision of single service elements such as comfort conditioning, UPS and standby power equipment, gas flooding and access security upgrades. We also offer advice in the form of surveys of existing facilities to searches for suitable relocation or development premises.

What detail do they require?
No matter how small the project is we do not forget the statutory and authority requirements that might require satisfying. Nor do we accept a brief without checking that it is appropriate and complete. We usually need to ensure that we fully understand your business activities, to enable us to check that all technical aspects have been addressed.

The flowchart activities indicated previously will apply in the majority of cases and there is often an opportunity – unless CCS was previously involved – to bring records and certification up-to-date.

We are able to reduce timescales to a minimum, mainly by having a clear picture of what is required, as opposed to having a number of contractors all having their own ideas – and prices!

We produce our information concisely and quickly. We do not believe in padding out specifications with endless references to standards, codes of practice and the like, because this just diverts the tendering contractors’ attention away from the meat of the requirement.

Instead, CAD drawings are annotated such that the works are clearly detailed and specification notes added where required. Any further clarification is provided separately and mention is made that adherence to all appropriate and relative regulations, standards and codes of practice are required to be incorporated in the tender bid. We check compliance with appropriate standards when the bids are received.

Our experience enables us to obtain statutory permissions with a minimum of delay. We know who to approach within an authority and what paperwork is or is not required before works may proceed. We do not always have to wait for rubber stamped documents to be issued before commencing work.

Our experience and reputation with certain suppliers also enables us to source some equipment items direct and more quickly than many contractors would be able to.

DIY?
Just because the project is small, don’t fall into the common trap of believing it can all be dealt with by the appropriate contractors alone. They are unlikely to be interested in or be aware of related problems. Why would the air conditioning contractor realise that the replacement, but taller condensing unit proposed for the roof now breaks the skyline and so may require Planning/landlord consent?

They are unlikely to volunteer the advice that you need a Planning Supervisor to comply with CDM Regulations and need to chase them for the necessary dreary Method Statements, Risk Assessments etc. Ensuring compliance with the CDM Regulations are ultimately the client’s responsibility.

Remember that the smaller the job, the less overhead is available in the contactors’ prices and their incentive to comply with Restrictive Regulations. Contractors make their money through installation works and lose it through regulations, red tape and becoming involved in matters outside their sphere of expertise.

The payment of peanuts attracting monkeys quote, might sound supercilious, but in our experience there has never been one seen to be so true, so often. Obtaining a cheap price is easy; finding the best value for money is more difficult.

Larger Projects

What are they?
From refurbishments/extensions, and new telecoms/server and computer rooms, to data centres, business relocation, rationalisations, high tech production facilities.

What detail do they require?
As the complexity of a project increases the more time we need to spend on investigations and surveys.

Unless we fully understand your business activities, the way they need to be run, and the product demands from the business’s customers, we are unlikely to fulfil all those requirements in our designs. We therefore place great emphasis on ensuring that we are fully briefed. We also need to respect the requirements of related interested parties who may be involved – underwriters, financiers and insurers.

We often need to carry out preliminary enquiries of local authorities and the like to ensure permissions are going to be granted, before we look at options and designs.

Speed
There is no-one faster.

We are completely familiar with the ways these projects may be set up – regardless of the client organisation, our service operation is infinitely versatile.

We understand and communicate comfortably with all the professionals who may be needed for some input. Similarly with the complete range of elemental contractors and related activities.

We aim to cut out as much of the specification padding as possible – most of which may impress, but simply hides the picture from the people who we need to clearly understand the proposals – the client and contractors

Work elements are mainly the same as for smaller projects - but activity volume increases.
Interruptions to progress once works commence, is not welcome. A properly run project does not contain gaps. It is better to delay start, than have to stop halfway through – what are the contractors supposed to do in the meantime?

Most of our large projects have been carried out on a fast track basis – it always seems that people only consider the infrastructure at the last minute and then expect it to be delivered before the equipment they intend to house in it – and which is probably already on order!

Communication
One of the most essential aspects of contract management.

Design and specification
We are aware of the importance of clear and efficient means of communications between all the members of the contract team.

This means an emphasis on detail during the design and planning stages – which will reflect in less time wasted when the works are actually under way.

One aspect of communication, is clarity of one contractor’s work requirements related to other work elements. We deal with this by means of contract element colour coded CAD drawings – produced in whatever format is best received by the contractor. This enables each contractor to see clearly how his works knit in with others.

Contract website
Where a project is large and complex enough to require immediate multi-access by all the participants, client, professional team and contractors, we can set up a website into which all involved are able to access for the information they require. Password entry restriction provides privacy to confidential material – usually financial.

Contract participants are able to access information without carrying files and drawings around with them and are able to quickly send messages to the team from office remote locations by means of laptop or PDA and minutes of meetings and site instructions can be produced without the usual typing and postal delays.

Where contractors do not have the expertise or equipment to access the site, CCS will assist with education and loan equipment. Small, one-off elemental activities can be excluded from this process and the contractor dealt with separately.

Digital photography
Wherever possible we use digital photography to assist in communication between members of the project team. Images sent from site often assist in resolving detail problems and are invaluable in confirming CDM Regulation compliance and progress.

DIY?
See pitfalls – and these were by experts!

Design - The Professionals

We fully understand and are familiar with the role of each professional, usually employed in the traditional building contract: Architect, quantity surveyor, structural engineer, mechanical and electrical services engineers, and the like.

We are able to deal with all of these elements ourselves, in-house, apart from structural design and calculations.

Should we find a need for a particular professional input – to benefit from local knowledge or a particular expertise, then we understand enough to enable us to accurately brief that professional and ensure that fee expenditure is minimised.

Drawings
All our drawings are prepared using CAD. This way, modifications, duplication, detail expansion and transmission are enabled more quickly and efficiently.

We use colour coding to assist both client and contractors to quickly pick out the various elements and provided as much detailing as possible to reduce the need for associated specification explanation.

Drawings are reproduced on paper, film, .pdf, .jpeg, or gif drawing format, whichever the recipient is known to favour. This speeds up communication.

Record drawings of as installed details are provided to clients upon completion of the works. However we also keep copies, which assist us in service and maintenance and future modification queries.

Whilst we occasionally produce 3D detailing – in wire frame or solid rendering, we find this is only of use for sales and presentation purposes. The most useful detailing is still 2D, from which dimensions are more easily understood and measured.

Planning
For each project we usually produce a Progress schedule. The most readily understood form is that of a Gant chart. Again these are computerised and so modifying them to account for Planning Authority delays and the like, is not a problem. Apart from scheduling, we find that they give the contractors a further insight into the project as a whole.

Critical path analysis networks are fine, but few understand them. Large and complex projects undoubtedly do benefit, but also they are able to absorb the cost of their preparation and maintenance.

Management
CCS employs the whole project team.

We manage the professionals and the contractors.

We manage the site activities from the commencement of the works, through to handover.

We manage the finances within the Cap Ex approved, from the initial budget stage through to final account, providing monthly Project Analysis Evaluations (PEAs) as works proceed.