Virtuality wins for Weeks

by John Leitch

Setting up 'virtual companies' is winning work for consulting engineer Weeks Group - the approach resulted in one client being offered savings of more than 40 per cent.

The client, a pharmaceutical group, had been quoted a figure of £17 million for a proposed development if built by the traditional route. Philip Hill, Weeks commercial manager, said this week: "The client came to us saying that it believed there must be ways of doing the work for less than that.

"It had heard that value engineering and partnering 'is the buzz' and said 'please put a team together and give me a quote.' We came up with the same facility for £10 million.

"Where a client has an existing relationship with one organisation and is earning a set percentage, there is not much incentive to design down. Here, we had a group of people who challenged, designed down and were prepared to cut out the overlap.

"The traditional method involves having checkers checking checkers. With partnering we have teams instead, drawn from all parties, the focus being on what the client needs."

The strategic alliances that Weeks has formed enables it to assemble a virtual company by selecting from one of four of its preferred contractors, one of its two QSs and one of its four property developers. It also selects from a shortlist of architects: two specialise in scientific projects; two others in commercial design and a further two work exclusively in retail.

"The elements of a virtual company assembled for a potential project are selected by directors of each discipline within Weeks," said Hill. "It's an approach that's certainly winning us work."

Working on an open-book basis enables Weeks to earn margins of a "minimum of 10 per cent" after overheads, with the contractor working on the project making a 3-5 per cent profit.