Why the value of a construction cost consultancy depends on how its experience is put to work.
When appointing a construction cost consultancy, clients rightly pay close attention to experience.
They review previous projects, assess professional credentials and meet the people who will be responsible for their commission. They want reassurance that the consultancy understands their requirements and has the expertise to deliver.
But there's another question worth asking before the appointment is made.
How will that expertise actually be used on your project?
A consultancy may have an impressive track record, highly experienced professionals and access to considerable resources. All are valuable. What matters to the client, however, is how those capabilities translate into the advice they receive.
Who will be doing the work? Who will be making the important commercial assessments? And when a difficult question arises, whose judgement will the client be relying on?
These are practical considerations, particularly when professional advice will influence significant investment decisions.
The strength of a consultancy is not simply the experience it possesses. It's how effectively that experience is applied.
Different work demands different expertise
Cost consultancy involves a wide range of activities and they don't all require the same level or type of experience.
Preparing measurements, analysing tender returns, reviewing contractual information and developing cost reports all require technical knowledge and attention to detail. But there are points where the task moves beyond preparing information to interpreting its commercial significance.
Consider a tender evaluation. Two contractors may submit prices that appear broadly comparable. Both may have responded to the same tender documents but their qualifications, assumptions, proposed methodologies or treatment of risk could create materially different commercial positions.
A thorough evaluation needs to establish what each contractor has priced, identify any exclusions or qualifications and assess the implications for the client.
Some of that work involves detailed technical analysis. Other aspects require experienced judgement about procurement, contractual risk, construction methodology and the likely consequences of the proposed arrangements. The quality of the recommendation depends on both.
This is why the most effective approach isn't necessarily to assign every task to the most senior person available. Nor is it to allocate work solely according to the time or resource required to complete it. It's to understand where different capabilities are needed and make sure the right expertise is involved.
That includes providing opportunities for developing professionals to contribute and learn, supported by appropriate supervision and access to experienced colleagues.
A well-organised consultancy recognises the value of those different contributions.
Who stands behind the advice?
Clients don't need every member of a consultancy team to have decades of experience. They do, however, need to know who is responsible for the quality of the advice they receive.
That distinction becomes particularly important when a project encounters a complex commercial issue.
Take a proposed variation involving a change in specification, additional work or revised construction requirements.
Assessing the cost may involve reviewing measurements, rates, quotations and supporting records. Establishing the appropriate commercial position could also require consideration of contractual entitlement, programme implications, risk and the wider financial consequences.
The client needs a reliable assessment, supported by the appropriate level of professional scrutiny.
How a consultancy organises that work will vary. Some commissions benefit from larger teams with specialist resources. Others can be delivered effectively by a smaller group of experienced practitioners working directly with the client. Neither approach guarantees the quality of the advice.
What matters is that responsibilities are clear, professional judgement is available when required and the people accountable for the advice understand the issues behind it.
Clients should be able to establish these arrangements during the appointment process.
Who will lead the commission? Who will manage its day-to-day delivery? How will complex matters be reviewed? Will the people responsible for key commercial recommendations be accessible when the client needs to discuss them?
The answers provide a more useful picture of the proposed service than organisational size alone.
Effort where it counts
One of the principles behind Shard Stone's approach is straightforward: Effort where it counts.
It's about applying the right level of attention and expertise to the matters that justify it.
Not every commercial question requires extensive investigation. Some can be resolved through established processes, reliable information and proportionate review.
Others deserve closer scrutiny because of their potential consequences.
A relatively modest change might have wider implications for programme, contractual responsibility or subsequent work. A significant cost movement may be fully understood and appropriately provided for, requiring clear reporting rather than further investigation.
The financial value of an issue is therefore not always the best guide to the effort it deserves.
Professional judgement involves recognising where additional scrutiny will improve the client's understanding or influence the available decisions. That has implications for how consultancy time is used.
A client gains little from unnecessary layers of review or extensive analysis that doesn't improve the quality of a decision. Equally, apparent efficiency offers limited value if an important commercial issue hasn't received the attention it requires.
The objective should be to make the best use of professional expertise, directing it towards the work where it can make a meaningful difference.
This is also why direct access to experienced advisers matters.
When a client needs to understand a commercial risk, consider a procurement option or resolve a difficult contractual question, they should know who can provide the necessary judgement and how that person will be involved.
Experience is most valuable when it’s available at the point it’s needed.
Look beyond the credentials
Choosing a cost consultancy involves assessing capability, relevant experience, capacity and the quality of the proposed team. Those considerations will always matter but clients should also look closely at how the commission will be delivered.
An impressive portfolio demonstrates what a consultancy has achieved. A clear delivery proposal should explain how its people will apply their expertise to the project in front of them.
That means understanding who will undertake the work, how important commercial decisions will be supported and where accountability sits.
At Shard Stone, we believe clients should have direct access to experienced commercial professionals who understand their projects and take responsibility for the advice they provide.
The principle is simple: professional expertise should be organised around what the client and the project need. Because the measure of a good construction cost consultancy isn't how much experience it can point to.
It's how much of that experience reaches the decisions that matter.
Sharp facts. Solid ground.
Shard Stone | Chartered construction cost consultancy
