The challenge

This project was commissioned during a period of change for the BT Group that included the sale of its property portfolio and the end of a substantial programme of refurbishment. The client was seeking to improve delivery timescales and lower costs for future schemes. As a result, a need for new contracts to provide new facilities and upgrades of those already in use was established.

Davis Langdon Management Consulting was asked to consider the performance achieved from past contracts, compare it with other major corporate players and identify how BT could become 'best in class’. Additionally, DLMC was asked to consider BT’s relationships with their property service provider and the impact that this might have on achieving their objectives.

The result

The team chose two separate approaches, which were to:

• agree performance criteria and obtain comparative data to show the client’s achievement against its peers
• consider the future needs of the business and what would be required from designers and contractors.

A number of recommendations were made, which were implemented progressively by the client. These included:

• changes to work commissioning to provide both better value for money and time predictability
• differentiation between work types procured through partnering and those through the open market
• adoption of different forms of partnering contracts, with more carefully selected suppliers to suit business needs.