Member Article

How to secure new construction and maintenance contractors in a tight market

With economic recovery on the rise, it’s no longer a buyer’s market when it comes to hiring construction and maintenance contractors.

Latest data from the Markit/CIPS UK Construction Purchasing Managers’ Index shows the sharpest expansion of construction output for eight months - its strongest since Summer 2007.

Your tried and trusted contractors may now be too busy to be at your beck and call and it could be time to expand your supply base. But how do you select and assess new contractors and get them on board speedily - without making the process too painful for either party?

A frequent complaint among both suppliers and clients is the snail-like progress of pre-qualification checks and compliance assessments. This is a common failure of traditional paper-based assessment processes that have simply been re-created online. As such, assessment takes weeks, and sometimes months - rather than days. Valuable time is wasted, your supplier’s patience wears thin and you are in danger of missing deadlines.

A further frequent complaint from contractors is their frustration at having to jump though unnecessary hoops and answer questions and submit evidence - based on criteria that have no relevance to the work they will undertake. To add insult to injury, the traditional assessment process is to repeat this long winded process entirely from scratch every year.

The Altius Vendor Assessment system has been designed to overcome the problems and complaints that beset traditional compliance assessments. The entire process has been re-engineered to create a real-time, intuitive web based system. The agile software means assessments can be completed in days - not weeks. As such, 92% of assessments are completed within two working days, with more than 90% of suppliers making use of telephone support to complete their assessment quickly and efficiently.

Instead of meeting the core needs of most users, Altius tailors its assessment to the individual company - so that suppliers only answer questions that are totally relevant to the tasks they will perform and the appropriate risks they face.

It can manage compliance on many additional parameters - not just health and safety. Clients can configure their assessment to the issues that matter to them, including parameters such as commercial risk, bribery and corruption policies, information security, CSR, quality, and environmental and employment law.

The process of assessment is continuous and lapses in compliance have been designed out, for example, insurance cover renewal dates are flagged to suppliers - helping make compliance easier, particularly for smaller companies. It is less onerous for suppliers, who simply update specific assessment details when prompted, rather than being required to re-submit each year, therefore having confidence that they are always covered.

Further information: www.altiusva.com

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Altius .