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REFURBISHMENT


IS YOUR BUILDING AND FM EXPENDITURE BEING WASTED?


One last headache for a Facilities Manager


ony was the most amicable and industrious fellow you could ever meet and with over 20 years experience as a Facilities Manager he has a passion for buildings, the way they operate and an eye for detail that is second to none. Indeed, nothing fazed him be it a leaking tap at number 23 or reprimanding a contractor for shoddy workmanship. Tony had developed the skills to adjust to any given situation. Obviously, life hadn’t always been so easy and experience really did maketh the man especially in Tony’s case. Up until recently there had always been one bane in Tony’s working life that is so familiar with every Facilities Manager throughout the land... pricing... and more importantly accurate pricing. Sure, having had an excellent education, training, work experience and the personable skills to back all this up has made Tony the best in his field. He could really get any contractor to perform their duties within any contract, however that certainly does not guarantee accurate invoicing from the contractor once the job is complete. Having been on as many training courses that you could shake a stick at, including various quantity surveying [yawn] courses the answer must have been there somewhere and last year at one such course Tony found the Facilities Manager’s Holy Grail and just like Indy himself he grabbed it by both hands and never looked back. There is a pricing mechanism that has been used for procuring building maintenance extensively since the 1980’s called the National Schedule of Rates (NSR). The NSR is a pricing mechanism whereby building maintenance rates are nationally benchmarked making the property owner/client more accountable for their maintenance expenditure due to less pricing queries on invoices and not having to pay for ‘rogue’ items. Tony saw the NSR as a robust system that could save the property owner £££££££s compared to their current policy of choosing the cheapest of three quotations. It wasn’t rocket science, and this was important to Tony as when it came to managing building’s efficiently he was fine (better than fine), but rockets? No! The NSR contains rules that explain how the rates are to be applied and are even specified within the JCT Measured Term contract. This could finally mean that contractors could invoice accurately to a pre-priced schedule of rates (originally designed for building maintenance) based on independently researched National Benchmarks. Both contractor and client can finally sing off the same hymn sheet knowing


T 24


even before the job has been ordered exactly how much it should cost, imagine the efficiencies for both parties... why hadn’t Tony seen this before?


National Schedule of Rates The National Schedule of Rates allows you to issue a series of works orders, showing the breakdown of materials, plant and labour, confident that the charges are based on pre-determined and agreed basis of measurement and pricing. We research and update our schedules regularly and price over 16,000 items. Each rate is individually researched and updated annually and broken down into its elements of material, plant and labour. The key to using the National Schedule of Rates is in the tendering process. All contractors will be asked to price in accordance with the National Schedule of Rates by applying a percentage adjustment to allow for overheads & profit, items that aren’t contained within the rates. This percentage adjustment can be a negative or a positive figure. The client who then places future orders to the winning tenderer/s will know exactly how much each maintenance job will cost, on the basis that each job is broken down into the elements of labour, plant and materials, maximising accountability and maximising time savings. Indeed this tendering and price mechanism system from the National Schedule of Rates optimises all areas of time, quality and cost equally.


Awareness and Training Maintenance and Measured Term Contracts are an area often neglected by cost consultancies and therefore being aware of all aspects involved in maintenance and MTCs is important to both the client and the contractor. The training provided by NSR Management shows the client and the contractor how to maximise the value of their Measured Term Contract, with an explanation of best practice in using the schedules as well as best practice in tendering and administering a Measured Term Contract. For more information please contact NSR Management on 01296 339966 or email nsr@nsrmanagement.co.uk


Computer Software – Reducing Headaches further As an alternative or in addition to using


PUBLIC SECTOR SUSTAINABILITY • VOLUME 2 ISSUE 5


hard copies of the National Schedule of Rates; clients and contractors often find our computer software version of the schedules easier to use especially for non-technical staff. • eNeStimator is the well established software package from NSR Management for managing term contracts using the National Schedules of Rates


• Creates orders and invoices using the National Schedules and the National Housing Maintenance Schedule, together with unitary and composite and schedules created by users in NSR format, where these exist.


• Includes desktops for creating estimates of cost, orders and invoices.


• Incorporates comprehensive item search and find facility.


• Rates adjusted for the Tendered Percentage Adjustment and large order discounts, where required by the contract.


• Facilities for despatching orders and invoices in print format, saving to disk and transmission by email. There is an upgrade to eNeStimator available from 1st August 2012 called eNeS+. This upgrade will contain... • An improved intelligent search facility that finds items that are similar/associated to the words used in the search not only those that are specific.


• The schedules split into sections as they appear in the books so you can search through the schedules as you would through a book but on your screen by “drilling down” through the relevant sections and sub-sections.


• NSR rules to highlight areas of concern on an invoice with an explanation why


• Associated Items to help ensure that all aspects of a job are priced and not missed off an invoice


• The preambles to the relevant sections • Estimates/Quotes/Invoices/Orders that are tied to specific addresses and rooms


• A later version will include interactivity between the client and contractor’s systems so that each party can share each other’s information


For more information call 01296 339966 or email nsr@nsrmanagement.co.uk or visit our website www.nsrm.co.uk


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