{"id":1282,"date":"2019-04-04T11:28:28","date_gmt":"2019-04-04T00:28:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.konnectus.com.au\/?p=1282"},"modified":"2022-10-12T11:03:54","modified_gmt":"2022-10-12T00:03:54","slug":"steps-to-get-the-best-result-out-of-an-av-contractor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.konnectus.com.au\/steps-to-get-the-best-result-out-of-an-av-contractor\/","title":{"rendered":"Steps to Get the Best Result out of an AV Contractor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Adrian – <\/strong>Hi! My name is Adrian Magno and I\u2019m one of the Senior Engineers here at Konnectus. Today, we\u2019re here to talk about Tender Management. So, you put together an AV Design<\/a> and you\u2019ve received a bunch of responses from the different AV Contractors. How do you evaluate which one is the best for you? So, Dave is it all about price?<\/p>\n

David – <\/strong>Well, a lot of people do think that yes, it\u2019s all about price. If I get the best price, then I\u2019m set. I need to get the best deal. You know, drill everybody down until I get the best price. Get that price, and then walk away. Seriously, that’s how most people think. But if you\u2019re doing that, that\u2019s really selling yourself short. You\u2019re probably not going to get a contractor that is the best fit for your project or for your company as a whole. There\u2019s a lot more to it than that and we\u2019ll get into that later. However, it is important to evaluate price Adrian and the way we like to do that is break a quote down into different elements. We evaluate the equipment, the software, and then the labour separately. For the equipment, we\u2019re just trying to look at the particular models, or similar types of equipment from different manufacturers and just check that, first of all, whether the pricing is similar between different offers and also in line with competitive market rates. Then, the same thing with the software really. Its the same kind of process. And then with the labour, you just want to ensure that the allowances are not too light or too heavy. And that\u2019s basically it. And so, once we do that evaluation of price we are left with a comparison, which is a very important step, but definitely not the only step.<\/p>\n

Adrian – <\/strong>I understand. Now, if you did get your AV Design completed by an expert such as an AV Consultant<\/a>, wouldn\u2019t the price for equipment all be the same anyway?<\/p>\n

David – <\/strong>I suppose if it was one of our konnectus designs where we hard specify all the equipment, and its a case of just comparing the three of four different AV Contractors<\/a> for the same bit of equipment, yeah, sure it\u2019s a very easy comparison and it\u2019s quite quick. So, I guess, it\u2019s one of the benefits of doing it that way. It\u2019s very quick and easy to evaluate the price.<\/p>\n

Adrian – <\/strong>What if you\u2019ve done the things you were saying, you\u2019ve evaluated the equipment and labour and you\u2019ve done a bit of apples to apples comparison, but you\u2019ve noticed that one of the tenderers is 20% cheaper than everyone else. Does that start to make you feel uneasy?<\/p>\n

David – <\/strong>Oh no! It doesn\u2019t make me uneasy. I\u2019ve just got a job to do and that is to evaluate, dig a little deeper, and make sure that we\u2019ve uncovered all the stones and done the proper due diligence. What that is telling me is let\u2019s go on to the next step, which is evaluate that particular contractor for compliance with the design. Let’s say, for example, they\u2019ve missed a system type, or a large piece of equipment somewhere, or a room type, or even a quantity of rooms or systems? These are just clerical errors and they happen all the time. So, that\u2019s something we\u2019re going to check. It\u2019s the first thing actually. The other thing we might be checking, especially if it wasn\u2019t a hard specification design, is design compliance. If it was maybe a performance specification that was given and the design is on the AV Contractor to put together, well, let\u2019s go have a look at that design and evaluate it against the performance specification. We will check to see whether the equipment up to scratch, or in line with the performance specifications. We will check whether the design the contractor is putting forward is actually going to work. We will check whether it is going to deliver the actual user requirements that the customer is looking for. We just want to evaluate and dig a little deeper and, quite often, we\u2019ll uncover quite a bit after completing those two steps. In fact, the contractor’s outlier price will usually change and get a lot closer to the pricing from the other competing contractors.<\/p>\n

Adrian – <\/strong>So, I know with my wife, her eyes light up every time she goes to a store and sees something mislabelled with the wrong price. She\u2019ll go right up to the clerk and say \u201cThis is the marked price so this is what I\u2019m going to pay\u201d. Is the same principle applicable in the Tender Environment? Can you hold an AV Contractor to any clerical errors?<\/p>\n

David – <\/strong>Well for the way we document our designs, absolutely yes. We have it stated in our documentation that we\u2019ve done a clear design and we\u2019ve specified all the equipment. It\u2019s then up to the AV Contractor to make sure that they have included everything to make a fully functioning and working systems as per the design intent. It does depend on the actual contract at the end of the day though. So, if they\u2019re following our contract, then it\u2019s written there and there are no excuses for clerical mistakes.<\/p>\n

Adrian – <\/strong>I did want to ask you. If a contractor is still much cheaper, does it send alarm bells, or is there something wrong?<\/p>\n

David – <\/strong>Potentially. So, we need to dig a little deeper again. So, we’ve obviously looked at the price, and then we\u2019ve checked for compliance with the design. And now the next thing we need to look at is TEAM. So, there are many great AV Contractor companies out there and they have plenty of experience and they\u2019ve done fantastic projects and they can show you all of those as examples and you can call up for reference and things like that. You should do that step by the way. However, what I\u2019m more interested in is who the actual set of team members are that will work on the project. I want to see their names. I want to see their CVs. I want to see what percentage of each person’s time is allocated to the project. They have to be the right set of people for this particular project and for this particular customer. So, there is quite a bit of work involved to go through and make sure that all lines up. If it\u2019s not the right team. Maybe, they don\u2019t have enough experience. You\u2019ll find that out quickly. At that point we go back to the contractor and we say \u201cHey, we need you to change the personnel for this reason, or that reason\u201d. And that, therefore, may affect their price, to be honest. They may have to lift it back up again. So, very important.<\/p>\n

Adrian – <\/strong>So, I have had a few tender responses in the past that have come in without the CVs of the different people being provided. What do you do in that instance?<\/p>\n

David – <\/strong>I just insist and say \u201cI want to see the CVs please\u201d. They might not be used to giving that level of information and that\u2019s fine. But we are quite thorough in that process because it\u2019s very important to get the right team of people on that project for that particular customer. So, we just want to do our homework and make sure. It\u2019s like when you hire someone to work at your organisation. You want to do your background checks and things like that. It\u2019s the same thing when you\u2019re hiring a contractor to do work for you.<\/p>\n

Adrian – <\/strong>I understand. There\u2019s one thing that you mentioned previously, the fit. So, you were saying the customer needs to be the right fit for the AV contractor.<\/p>\n

David – <\/strong>Yes.<\/p>\n

Adrian – <\/strong>Do you mean, personality wise? In other words, you don\u2019t want to match a head strong project manager with a head strong AV contractor<\/a> because they might bicker. Is that what you mean by that?<\/p>\n

David – <\/strong>Look, personality can come into it. I probably don\u2019t go that deep very often. In terms of project manager, you do want someone who\u2019s pretty head strong who can sort of smash heads when required. That\u2019s actually a good trait to have in a project manager because you\u2019re going to be more likely to hit those deadlines. However, what I\u2019m really thinking about is more the long term. Well, maybe there\u2019s two things I should mention. The first is, what\u2019s the approach this company has? We\u2019ve looked at price. We\u2019ve looked at compliance with the design. We\u2019ve looked at the right team of people. What\u2019s their approach, actually, to delivering the project? Quite often, there\u2019s going to be a builder involved, and they will have a construction program. I\u2019d like to go back to the AV Contractor<\/a> and say \u201cHey, this is the current construction program. What\u2019s your program to deliver this AV solution<\/a> and how will it fit in with the overall program?\u201d. This is actually a good test because they\u2019ll come back to you with what they think is right and you can clearly see whether or not they know what they\u2019re doing. Do they have the right approach? Have they done this before? Are they going to work well with a particular builder? So, that\u2019s an important check to see if they\u2019re the right fit to deliver the project. The other big thing, in terms of fit, is kind of long term.\u00a0 So, yes, we\u2019re going to get that project delivered and it\u2019s going to be delivered well but after that, what happens? Does this company have the ability to service and maintain that equipment or that solution for the customer? This is so important, yet so often overlooked. It\u2019s probably one of the things I feel most passionate about. In Month 1, or month 11, or year 3 down the track, if there\u2019s an issue with the equipment or solution, and those poor people are trying to use the systems and just getting frustrated, who is the customer going to call? They need to have a plan in place, and there needs to be a reliable company providing their service.<\/p>\n

Adrian – <\/strong>Just before we go, thank you so much for all the information. It\u2019s been very informative. One of the problems I do sometimes run into is when you have three tenderers that are all priced within 1-2% of each other. I\u2019ve called all the different qualifying bodies and made sure that all the teams put forward are all adequately qualified. The labour allowances are relatively even and the equipment pricing is also relatively even. How do you choose between three options that basically look exactly the same?<\/p>\n

David – <\/strong>In all my years I\u2019ve been doing this, I\u2019ve never seen that happen. If you go and follow all of those five steps that I just talked about, you\u2019ll find there\u2019s going to be a clear winner. If you only do the first couple of steps, or even the first three, yeah you will have that dead heat sometimes. So then what do you do? Just flip a coin, I suppose, because you can\u2019t go any further. That\u2019s not really the right approach. If you cover all those five steps, you\u2019ll always uncover a clear winner who is the best long-term fit for the customer and the specific project. So, that\u2019s what I recommend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Adrian – Hi! My name is Adrian Magno and I\u2019m one of the Senior Engineers here at Konnectus. Today, we\u2019re here to talk about Tender Management. So, you put together an AV Design and you\u2019ve received a bunch of responses from the different AV Contractors. How do you evaluate which one is the best for … <\/p>\n