WHAT WE DO
With our extensive experience, gained in multiple sectors, we are able to provide a broad range of commercial professional services. Some of our key services are outlined below, although this is not an exhaustive list of what we do. Please feel free to Contact Us if you would like to discuss your specific requirements.
Contracts
We have experience in using both bespoke contracts as well as the most commonly used standard form contracts for example those published by NEC and JCT.
We often see both clients and main contractors modifying standard form contracts by amending existing clauses or adding new clauses. In fact a truly standard form unamended contract is an absolute rarity.
We are experienced in reviewing such non-standard terms and we can explain how they would affect your roles and responsibilities, risks and entitlements under the contract. We can then help you negotiate with your prospective client by proposing alternative terms that would be mutually acceptable.
Commercial management
We have many years of experience performing quantity surveying and commercial management tasks including, but not limited to, the following areas:
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record keeping systems
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contractual notice processes including designing and using pro-formas
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producing applications for payment that improve cashflow
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budgeting and cost planning
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cost v. value reconciliations (CVRs) and other methods of project control
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risk management
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pricing of variations and compensation events
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final accounting
Please Contact Us should you require commercial support in any area or if you require advice in developing or improving your own commercial systems and processes.
Claims
Our claims service starts with a realistic appraisal of your entitlement under the contract. It is not in our client’s best interests to attempt to assert an unmeritorious claim or to reject a incontrovertible claim. We will simply ‘tell you how it is’ and, where we consider there is a genuine entitlement, we will suggest the best way forward.
We often find that project teams are incredibly busy and cannot simply be taken ‘off-line’ to develop a properly particularised and evidenced claim. This can sometimes result in a substandard and unconvincing claim document being produced which is easily rejected by the other party.
As an experienced claims consultant we will draw the key information from your project team without distracting them too much from their day-to-day tasks and we will produce a high quality claim that has to be taken seriously.
Having produced the claim document we will work with you to develop a step-by-step timebound plan for securing additional programme time or payment or both.
Procurement
Our experience in procurement ranges from simple low-value subcontracts through to procuring multi-million pound complex plant, with international tenderers, for clients with exacting performance requirements.
Procurement is a process which we can guide you through from developing your procurement strategy, identifying and pre-qualifying tenderers, compiling tender documents, analysing returned tenders, all the way through to tender selection and contract award.
Or, if you are tendering for a project, we have the knowledge and experience to give you a distinct advantage. We know what clients and main contractors look for in pre-qualification and tender submissions and therefore we can help to improve your likelihood of success.
Commercial training
Whilst a good contract, good commercial systems and processes can help, these things do not build projects - people do! That is why we provide commercial training.
However, our training courses are always tailored to suit your business, your project, your team and the actual (often modified) contract you are using.
We believe that this type of tailored training is more effective, and therefore better value for money, than standardised training programmes.
We see commercial training as an important integral part of, rather than separate to, the commercial professional services that we offer.
Please Contact Us should you wish to discuss developing and delivering tailored commercial training.
Dispute Resolution
The services described under the foregoing headings should eliminate or greatly reduce the likelihood of disputes. However, despite such efforts, valid claims are sometimes unfairly rejected and commercial negotiations do not always succeed. In that situation, formal dispute resolution is likely to be required.
Statutory adjudication is a widely used form of dispute resolution in the construction industry. We are particularly knowledgeable in this field and we are an experienced Adjudication Party Representative for both Referring and Responding sides.
It is often said that Adjudication favours the Referring Party particularly where the Responding Party finds themselves ‘ambushed’. Our view is that Adjudication favours those who are ready and the best advise we could give is to be prepared.
If you are considering referring a dispute to adjudication, or if you think it likely that the other party will, then we are able to provide advice on the best way forward. If you have received a Notice of Adjudication, you may wish to Contact Us for advice - in which case please mark your email “URGENT”.