Guaranteed Outcomes or Better Outcomes? The Choice for Infrastructure Procurement

Procurement for infrastructure projects is at a crossroads (no pun intended). One option is to stick with the ‘known’: the apparently safe route of established approaches and familiar contractors that deliver a known outcome and delivery to the letter of the contract.

The other pathway heads in the direction of better outcomes, lower whole life costs and added value.

The latter option isn’t the way that road and rail projects have tended to work (however desirable the outcome). Different may seem attractive. But, let’s be frank, it can also look risky.

Most business sectors face the same dilemma: do we make the best decision or the one that’s easiest to justify if things don’t work out?

If the current way of doing things delivered everything our infrastructure networks needed there would be no dilemma. No choice to make. Just carry on as we are because everything’s working well. But is it?

Working the way the industry does may seem less risky but it is not meeting the needs of investors, operators or travellers. It doesn’t extract maximum long-term value from investment. Projects overrun and travellers are inconvenienced more than they need to be.

Must There be a Trade-Off?

Achieving assured quality and outcomes does not have to mean compromising on delivering a creative solution. One that stretches the imagination and what is possible in developing and delivering infrastructure projects.

With the right systems and people, it is possible to have creativity in a quality-controlled environment. With the right approach and ethos, it is possible to deliver better solutions – ones that consider wider business needs beyond the immediate project deliverables and which find better ways to manage works so that disruption is reduced.

The One Team Wessex partnership shows how it’s possible to create an environment where there is no trade-off between creativity, quality and certainty. It represents the true spirit of collaboration that Osborne people aim to bring to every partnership. We believe that this is a better route for the industry to take than ‘sticking with what we know.’

Find out more about our Infrastructure projects here.