The work, without the client names.
We work under our clients' names, not our own, so what follows is anonymised. The projects are real, the numbers are ours, and nothing here names a client, a building or an address. If you want references, ask and we will arrange them directly.
A revision the client could defend line by line
Office fit-out · London · 21,000 sqft · Rev A to Rev B
The situation. Revised drawings arrived on a fit-out take off already completed, and the client needed to show their own client exactly what had moved.
The trap. Work that comes out at a revision cannot simply be deleted. Delete it and the bill quietly totals less, with nothing on the face of it saying what was removed or giving anyone the chance to agree that it should have been. It has to be reported as an omission, carried at its original quantity, or the new issue stops reconciling against the one the subcontractors are holding.
What we did. Measured the revised set across all 63 drawings and differenced it against the issue already out, keeping omissions and additions on separate lines rather than netting them into one movement. Rev A and Rev B reconcile against each other, and the reissue went out as 52 documents in a single dated release rather than as drawings trickling out by email.
What it produced. A bill the client could take into a meeting and account for line by line, where every line either matched what the subcontractors were already pricing or carried the reason it did not.
Forty three firms invited, and we knew which ones had not looked
Tender coordination · Trade packages
The situation. Packages going out to a wide supply chain, with the usual problem attached: the return you do not get is invisible until the day it is due, and by then there is no time left to bring anyone else in.
The trap. A firm that has not opened the pack is not pricing it, whatever they said on the phone. If the only record of an issue is a sent folder in your own mailbox, you cannot tell the difference between a firm halfway through a price and one that has never downloaded a drawing, and those are two completely different conversations to be having four days out.
What we did. Every package went out through a private project data room rather than by email, each firm given named access, so issue and receipt became a record instead of an assumption. 43 subcontractors were given access to a room holding 1,236 documents, and 193 room opens were logged against named addresses.
What it produced. A chase list built on the one fact that decides whether chasing is worth doing, which is who had never once opened the room. Invitations went out blind, because thirty competing firms in a 'To' field tells each of them exactly who they are bidding against.
Three live projects, one contractor, one workbook
Take-offs · NRM2 bills of quantities
The situation. Three fit-out projects running at once for the same contractor, each with its own drawing set at its own stage of completeness, and an estimating team that had to move between all three in the same week.
The trap. Measure each job to whatever structure its own drawings suggest and you hand that team three different workbooks. The cost is not in the measuring, it is in everything afterwards: nobody can compare a rate between two of their own jobs, and the bill that priced the tender cannot carry through to the account that follows it.
What we did. All three measured to the same NRM2 structure and grouped by element rather than by trade, which is what lets one bill serve the tender and then the final account. 991 measured items across the three, each issued as an Excel workbook with the marked up PDFs behind it, so any quantity could be traced back to the drawing it came from.
What it produced. One format across three live jobs. Their team learned one workbook rather than three, and a queried quantity was answered from the mark up rather than by measuring it again. They were the forty fifth, forty sixth and forty seventh projects we delivered for that contractor in the same year.
What we will and will not publish
Why is there no client named anywhere?
Because the work is commercially sensitive and most of it is done under our clients' names. A contractor who has us prepare their tender is not usually looking to advertise that, and a project still out to tender can be identified from very little. We would rather publish less and be trusted with the next one. Where you want to speak to somebody we have worked for, ask and we will arrange it directly rather than putting a logo on a page.
Are the numbers real?
Yes, and they are ours rather than the client's. Document counts, measured item counts, drawing counts and access records all come from our own systems, so we can stand behind them without publishing anything that belongs to the project. What you will not find here is a contract value, a saving expressed as a percentage or a win rate, because those belong to the client and, in the case of win rates, depend on far more than the preconstruction work.
Can we see an example of the actual output?
Yes. We can show you a sample bill of quantities, a cost plan structure and a tender package with the project content stripped out, which tells you far more about how we work than a case study does. Send us a drawing set and we will tell you what we would produce from it.
Not the question you had?
Send us the drawings and the return date. We will tell you what we would need and what we would give you back, before anyone commits to anything.
Let's discuss your project.
Tell us about your tender or project and we'll show you exactly how we can help you win it, and deliver it.