How to procure a Mechanical & Electrical (M&E) contractor

Procuring the right M&E contractor to maximise the success of your project

Your building services sit, quite literally, at the heart of your building. That’s why, whether you are designing a new building or planning to refurbish areas of your existing estates portfolio, you need to ensure you have an expert team working with your project architect from an early stage and that you procure the right M&E contractor.

As specialists in the design of efficient, effective and sustainable building services solutions, the Demiurgic Consulting Engineers team plays a vital role in our clients’ design teams, providing advice and support throughout multiple projects and even advising on some aspects of their project tendering activities. 

But what makes us different from the competition?

In short, it’s our expertise. Building services design goes far beyond specifying systems that will meet your needs in the here and now. You need solutions that will stand the test of time, providing long-lasting value for money. In order to get that, you have to make sure you ask the right questions.

And that’s something we know a lot about. 

Everyone talks about value for money but what does that really mean?

With an obligation to be transparent about administering the public purse, demonstrating value for money is always high priority for public contracting authorities. Inevitably, this leads to constrained budgets, but they are only one part of the equation. It’s important not to confuse price with value for money. 

Value for money for your building services must take account of far more than just the initial price on the tender return. For example, you need to consider whole of life running costs – including repairs and maintenance, sustainability of the solutions recommended and, importantly, how the solution will ensure your building’s compliance with current and future standards and legislation. 

Why the lowest cost tender probably isn’t value for money

Over the years Demiurgic’s founder, Gary Jones, has helped many clients ensure their tender process yields quality bids from potential suppliers that will meet the true needs of the project. During that time, it has been consistently true that the quality of the invitation to tender will dictate the quality of the tenders submitted.

Frequently, tender processes will be heavily weighted towards price over quality. When that happens,  competing bidders can be tempted to submit a lean return in order to ‘win’ on price. 

As a result, you risk getting caught out when ’extras’ that are crucial to the successful delivery of your project later come to light. 

At that point, you are likely to be in contract with your chosen supplier and will face an uphill battle to argue against escalating costs if your tender documents weren’t as robust as they should have been. Suddenly, the previously competitive price starts escalating, and could even end up being more expensive than other tenderers. 

How to balance cost and quality

Tender processes are a great way of comparing costs but in order to draw meaningful comparisons between the different submissions you need to ensure you are comparing apples with apples. 

The obvious way to achieve this is to be very specific about the information you want interested parties, such as a M&E contractor, to provide. However the chances are, you are a great estates or facilities manager, but not necessarily an expert in M&E design. 

For example, whilst you know you need to obtain tenders for a boiler house refurbishment, you may not have a detailed understanding of the finer points of a project like this. 

By using a design expert like Demiurgic Consulting Engineers, you have the opportunity to consider project options you may not have explored which offer greater efficiencies, lower running costs, longer life cycle or superior sustainability credentials. 

Working with you and your design team, we can help you to develop tender documentation which ensures you procure the correct system, or solution, and M&E contractor to meet your needs with full consideration to the value of your project – not simply the cost. 

Why does this matter?

Now, arguably more than ever before, estates and facilities managers are faced with the increasing challenge of meeting more rigorous standards and regulations, in order to ensure that the buildings they are responsible for support ‘business as usual’ whilst providing a safe and healthy environment for all who use them. 

COVID-19 has fundamentally changed the way many businesses use  the space available to them. Many buildings – especially schools, health centres, doctors surgeries and offices – that were previously ‘adequately’ ventilated are being forced to review their M&E provision. As winter approaches, there is greater focus on providing a better solution instead of leaving doors and windows wide open. 

What’s more, space often continues to be a significant factor with many buildings needing to accommodate new and improved plant, without sacrificing usable space. 

Demiurgic Consulting Engineers ’s tailored solutions

As an experienced provider of M&E design services to the public sector, the team at Demiurgic Consulting Engineers are experts in balancing the challenges you face with the development of innovative design solutions. 

Working collaboratively with your wider design or estates management team, our experts ensure that refurbishment and upgrade projects of your building services systems demand the very best in innovation, efficiency and longevity from potential suppliers. 

From pre-tender support to project management

Our support doesn’t stop once you have appointed your preferred supplier. You and your team can focus on continuing ‘ business as usual’ whilst leaving the project management in our capable hands. We’ll oversee your appointed M&E contractor to ensure that the installation works are completed to a high standard, in line with the project plan and to meet the agreed budget. 

Do you need help procuring M&E services?

If you have a project to deliver that requires change to your M&E services or systems and want to be confident you are choosing the best M&E contractor for the job, email Gary Jones to find out how Demiurgic Consulting Engineers can support your procurement process and help you deliver a project that offers genuine value for money.