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EFCA
CONSTRUCTION EUROPE
DECEMBER 2013-JANUARY 2014
About EFCA
The European Federation of Engineering
Consultancy Associations (EFCA) has member
associations in 26 countries, and is the sole
European federation representing the engineering and related
services industry, which employs one million staff, the majority of
whom are highly skilled in a breadth of disciplines.
European Engineering consultancies provide €100 billion
engineering consulting services per year for about €1,300 billion
investments in buildings, infrastructure and industrial complexes.
Changing priorities
for contract awards
Cost will no longer be the number one consideration if a new EU Directive
on public procurement is passed. EFCA explores the potential changes
where cost is king. In fact, that
process actually penalises you
if you offer more, because that
pushes the price up and you
won’t get the work anyway.’’
OPPORTUNITY
The new directive brings into
play key areas which offer
every creative, innovative and
dynamic consultant engineer the
opportunity to show their true
potential to bring a project to
life.
The idea should be to enhance
what the client is looking for,
and not to feel that all good
ideas must be sacrificed to price
considerations.
De Koning continued, “It
promotes positive thinking
about so many aspects of a
project – from issues of durability
and sustainability, long-term
planning, life-cycle criteria, the
environment, not to mention
the chance to put forward not
just risk analysis but opportunity
analysis.
"This is the very opposite of
only looking at the risks – what
can go wrong, yes, but also what
can go better.”
De Koning’s own company,
Witteveen+Bos, has become
very familiar with BVP. “Before we
started using it as our method for
bidding for tenders, we thought
we were always considering the
client and their position first and
foremost.
“But in drawing up an
opportunity analysis, as BVP
stipulates, we were forced
to think even more about the
client – to put ourselves in their
position, to think about what
their real interests, risks and
opportunities were.
“In fact, we have now said
that even if we are getting
procurement from a client who
doesn’t use BVP, we will use it.
It puts you in a mind-shift and it
would be very difficult to go back
as it would feel like a backward
step in quality.”
RECENT BID
The method worked well for
Witteveen+Bos in a recent bid to
provide the engineering design
for a major underground car
park project in the Dutch town
of Leiden. This is a historic city,
with many complicating factors
for building under the town.
“It provided us with a chance
to show our innovative approach
and a bit more creativity than
our competitors,” de Koning said.
“In fact, our cost proposal was
substantially higher than the
cheapest. Our price was 50%
higher than the lowest price – we
were third in a row.
“But BVP allows for the
monetarisation of the proposal
as well. The client marks the
quality criteria – planning, risk,
opportunity analyses – with a
score. That is translated into
Euros, which is then deducted
from your actual price. So you
end up with a mixed combination
between the real price and what
I call a ‘monopoly Euro’ price for
each bid.”
A second advantage of the BVP
method, according to de Koning,
is the introduction of a pre-
award phase. This stage of the
procurement process is a time
for the client and the successful
bidder to work through some
of the opportunity analysis
together, and settle on which
elements to bring into the
project.
“The relationship with the
bidder remains very formal at this
stage, not personal,” de Koning
said. “But it is another extremely
valuable way of ensuring only
the best and most appropriate
piece
of
the
consultants’
proposals is adopted, with a clear
understanding on all sides.”
A third element is an interview
with one or more key members
of the tender team. The purpose
is to select an expert, and the
interview is therefore about
the expert’s knowledge of the
proposal and the project in
general.
The score of the interview is
generally about 30% of the total,
and as such is a major element.
But de Koning acknowledged
that BVP did not necessarily
make sense for every project.
“If you are laying 5km of tarmac
on an existing road, where is the
challenge? How does BVP benefit
here? It probably doesn’t. But on
anything more challenging, it
opens our minds to a better way
of thinking about and around
difficulties on a project.”
De
Koning
added
that
Witteveen+Bos was very familiar
with BVP in the Netherlands, and
could be seen as being ahead of
the game as a result. The method
is also tried and tested in the US,
Singapore and even one country
in Africa.
“Now other EU member states
are curious and want to know
more,” he said. “What we can tell
them from experience is that if
MEAT is the main award criteria,
BVP fits perfectly.
“It offers more freedom,
fewer regulations and more
possibilities for bidders to show
their qualities. It is the way
forward.”
ce
O
n 14 January, 2014, a
new EU Directive on
public
procurement
will be voted on in the European
Parliament.
If it is passed, member states will
have two years in which to adopt
it into their national legislation.
The
Directive
represents
a sea change in the priorities
for considering and awarding
engineering and construction
contracts, particularly as cost will
no longer be the number one
consideration.
The Directive is rewriting
the rules using the principle
of the Most Economically
Advantageous Tender (MEAT).
This is the language by which
consulting engineers, along
with building contractors, will
now be judged as they pitch for
contracts.
It is a formula which extends
far beyond simple cost. Jaap
de Koning, the chair of EFCA’s
Internal Market & Consumer
Protection Committee (IMCO), and
a consultant for contracting and
procurement at Witteveen+Bos,
said Best Value Procurement
(BVP) was the most effective way
to exploit the new regulations.
“BVP is about looking for the
best quality against reasonable
price in the market,” de Koning
said, adding, “That’s BVP’s
advantage – better than a system
