FMJ.CO.UK DEFENCE INFRASTRUCTURE INTERVIEW
JULY 2020 25
Queen Elizabeth Class carriers to name just
two projects.”
While the majority of what it does maybe
familiar to FM providers, including running
living and o ice accommodation as well
as mess (catering) facilities, the DIO is also
responsible for specialist services, ranging
from the accommodation and facilities on a
military base to radar and missile stations.
CONTRACT CHANGES
The DIO has three major components
to manage; the military-built estate, the
accommodation and the training estate.
Over the course of its last round of contracts
for accommodation and the built estate,
although multiple contracts were up for
tender just one organisation, a joint venture
with Carillion and Amey won the business.
Amey, which stepped in a er the demise of
Carillion, currently provides all of the built
estate and accommodation services while
Landmarc provides all of the training estate
services in the hard FM space.
Says Brewer: “While we’ve been pleased
with the way our current suppliers are
working with us, we’d like to get more than
a couple of suppliers in the mix. We’re not
in any way dissatisfied with them but we do
want to enter into a new period where the
expectations are framed a bit di erently,
and reflects both the market and us as an
organisation.
“We are really keen to make sure we’ve
got a range of service providers across each
of our disciplines. That will provide a bit of
resilience and also the opportunity from
industry providers to drive continuous
improvement.”
He continues: “What is also important is
that the contracts we have now were agreed
during the last recession so you had some
very clear messages out there to manage
costs in procurement activities. The world
has moved on. We’ve matured quite a bit as a
client organisation and are aiming to become
one of the most enlightened facilities and
infrastructure clients in a major space. That
means really genuinely wanting to build
partnership relationships with the suppliers
who work for us and major changes for us
as we step up to the role of integrator and
expert client.”
COST VERSUS QUALITY
Following a lot of debate in recent years
over procurement in the public sector
and concerns about a perceived race
to the bottom in terms of the quality of
delivery, the Cabinet O ice published an
Outsourcing Playbook. This stressed that it
is “Government policy to award contracts on
the basis of value for money.” It goes on to
define this as securing the best mix of quality
and e ectiveness for the least outlay over the
period of use of the services bought, making
it clear that this is not about minimising upfront
costs.
This presents a di icult balancing act,
especially when you consider the size
and scale of contracts in which DIO is
involved. Says Brewer: “I have seen in past
situations where contractors end up with the
lowest common denominator, where one
organisation is prepared to go unrealistically
low and pulls everyone down with them.
“This is why we’ve tried really hard to
get messaging out to people that this
procurement process is about value for
money and it is not a cost driven piece.
The first thing is being really clear with the
messaging to the market and to all the
potential bidders that we are not looking for
the cheapest solution. We are not going to
allow any kind of game playing around with
the financial models – but will scrutinise
what is coming in rigorously – for instance
that a technical submission is consistent with
the financial submission, and that the two
line up.
“We’ve also been pretty sophisticated in
the way we’ve developed our assessment
methodologies, using all of the methods that
are viewed as best practice.”
This includes collaborative workshops
within the delivery teams; and board level
interviews with the suppliers around how
they are going to create the environment for
customer service, innovation and value for
money. There is also some heavy weighting
in the quality component of the bids,
including provisos in the tender documents
on how contractors would go about creating
excellence.
“I think that excellence is something that
should be in our DNA”, says Brewer. “We are
pretty determined we are going to create
a high-performance environment which is
customer focused and mutually challenging.
I expect there to be a conversation of equals
between my teams and the suppliers about
how we drive value for money and service.” I have seen in past situations
where contractors end up with
the lowest common denominator, where one
organisation is prepared to go unrealistically
low and pulls everyone down with them.”