The ‘Design/Build’ concept is not a new one. This concept historically meant that a customer went to their favorite system house and told them what they wanted. The system house would quote them a number and that was that. That same system house bore all responsibility for the proper installation, operation and support of the new system. However, in recent years, many integrators have lost the ability to properly design and build systems. Customers have lost trust in their vendor network. This is largely because salespeople, operations staff, installers, programmers and technicians have not worked their way up the ladder, through the ranks, and garnered the requisite knowledge to get the project done quickly and efficiently. Middle managers are inexperienced and lack knowledge. No single individual possesses the knowledge and ability to manage every aspect of a project. These days, many project managers manage spreadsheets and have weekly ‘Work in Progress’ (WIP) meetings to assign responsibilities (and blame). They have come to rely on a ‘process’ to get the job done rather than individuals. Times have sure changed!
Over the past two decades, owners and developers have turned to consultants and general contractors (all asked to bid against one another) seeking the best pricing for a project. The owner hires the developer. The developer hires the consultant and the general contractor. The consultant sometimes relies on a vendor to design the system. Consultants then work with the architect to fine-tune design. The consultant then writes the system specification, sometimes by cutting and pasting from previous project, or from a vendor or manufacturer catalogue. The consultant then interviews and qualifies potential bidders. Finally, the specification is given to the general contractor, and the GC puts the project out to bid. Once the bids are received, they are reviewed by the consultant and the architect for compliance with the specification. The successful bidder is awarded the contract. The consultant, usually in conjunction with the architect monitors the delivery of equipment, the installation of supporting electrical, cabling and associated subcontract work. They oversee the actual equipment installation, monitor the programming and commissioning of the system, approve progress payments, and finally, create the punch list. Only after they make certain that all has been done properly, final payment is made to the GC and hopefully, the GC makes final payment to the successful bidder. If all goes well, everyone goes home except for the technicians responsible for the warranty work and the proper operation of the system.
Boy, that’s a lot of work! Many disciplines and a lot of people are involved. Each costs money. There are unnecessary costs incurred, and a lot of time is lost on the project. Is it any wonder that things don’t always go as planned? There are cost overruns and delivery dates missed, accounting errors and sometimes, the system doesn’t even operate as designed. Headaches and more headaches!
The proper design and implementation of a system isn’t a very hard process. All that is required is a team that understands the clients’ needs, has true expertise in the technologies involved, knows how to get things done and is not micro-managed. Under these conditions, the project can proceed smoothly, delivery dates can be met and cost overruns eliminated. This is the Übertas business model. We’re ‘old school’ We partner with our clients to design your system. We’ll write an operational specification for you, in addition to a hardware/software specification. We’ll manage the entire project: all the vendors, installers and technicians and guarantee you that the finished project will meet every aspect of the operational specification.
