Consulting Matters December 2022

Why is Project Management important for design engineering?

Road to the Future

Cyber physical systems - The next generation of Digital Twinning

Simple lesons to grow revenue - The secrect is process not personality

Performance focus as a driver to good mental health

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals - Moving to nextlevel organisations integration

The next ten years are key to unlocking digital transformation benefits

Industry updates

APPOINTMENTS

Pacific Corporate Group, the world’s largest cleantech private equity investor, where she led projects in the US, India and Australia.

The acquisition of Lexicon enhances Endava’s existing presence in Australia and provides a strong foundation for accelerated in-market growth.

pitt&sherry

Australia’s leading, independent steel certifier, Australasian Certification Authority for Reinforcing and Structural Steels (ACRS), has appointed Irene Scott as Board Director. Irene brings 25 years’ experience in steel use, including as Structural Team Leader on award-winning projects, such as the New Iron Cove bridge, Hunter Expressway and the Eunony Bridge.

Dr Kuo has previously worked as a university researcher and lecturer on sustainability measurement and social impact, and has led projects on social enterprise and impact investing for the Victorian Government and the Responsible Investment Association of Australasia. Earlier in her career she worked as a financial advisor at Morgan Stanley, building and leading community development and environmental advocacy for non-profits in the US. Dr Kuo has a BA in Environmental Science from the University of California, a PhD from Monash University, and is a previous Adjunct Fellow at the Centre for Social Impact at Swinburne University.

Dion Hershan, Executive Chairman and Head of Australian Equities at Yarra Capital Management, commented:

“We are incredibly excited to be welcoming Erin to Yarra. There has never been greater focus on ESG and sustainability matters in financial markets, and Erin’s deep experience will significantly benefit the investment solutions and expertise we can offer to our clients.”

Dr Erin Kuo, Chief Sustainability Officer, added:

“I’m thrilled to have joined Yarra Capital Management to lead the Firm’s sustainability efforts. I am incredibly passionate about deepening positive impact for people and the planet and am excited to now be working with Yarra’s investment teams to build out our sustainability capabilities and tools.”

INDUSTRY NEWS

In addition, Lexicon provides Endava with a nearshore delivery location in Vietnam which complements Endava’s existing operations in Singapore and Malaysia.

The demand for digital technology and its transformative power is high, with ripe opportunities across many industries. Lexicon has made a definitive impact on the sector, and Endava is excited about the complimentary view they have on delivering value to clients in all areas of the lifecycle from product strategy through to high-quality engineering solutions.

Founded in 2016, Lexicon builds software that matters. It works with companies to build new digital businesses and accelerate the transformation of existing ones. With over 120 employees, this represents a significant expansion of Endava’s local team.

There is strong alignment on brand and business objectives, so partnering for this next phase is a brilliant opportunity for the team and clients. Endava brings unique global capabilities and frameworks that will enable accelerated growth of teams and clients.

Endava has the ambition and experience required to rapidly expand operations and is eager to be on this journey to expand the Australian offering. Together, they will be able to build on the value brought to clients by combining the skillsets of teams.

Leading Independent Australian fund manager Yarra Capital Management (Yarra) is delighted to announce the appointment of Dr Erin Kuo as the Firm’s Chief Sustainability Officer.

Based in Melbourne, Dr Kuo brings more than 15 years’ experience working within sustainability. She will lead Yarra’s corporate sustainability and work closely with Yarra’s investment teams to support best practise Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) integration into the firm’s investment processes.

Before joining Yarra, Dr Kuo ran a consulting business, advising fund managers and family offices on ESG matters. She was previously Chief Impact Officer at Impact Investment Group and held senior positions across Impact Investing Australia and

NYSE listed Endava acquires Lexicon, Australian software developers to Coles and ANZ

Off the back of strong global growth, Endava has merged with Lexicon, dramatically increasing its local team and fast-tracking its expansion plans within the region. Global clients include Santander, BBC, boohoo, Fortnum & Mason, and other household names.

Bentley Systems’ Launches New iTwin Capabilities at YII

At Bentley Systems’ 2022 Year in Infrastructure Conference, Bentley Systems, the infrastructure engineering software company, made a series of exciting announcements related to its iTwin Platform capabilities.

• Bentley Systems Announces Bentley Infrastructure Cloud, Powered by iTwin - encompassing ProjectWise, for project delivery; SYNCHRO, for construction; and AssetWise, for asset operations.

General Manager for Bridges & Structural Engineering brings quarter century of experience to ACRS Board

Dr Erin Kuo joins Yarra as Inaugural Chief Sustainability Officer

Irene Scott, National General Manager of Bridges and Structural Engineering and a Senior Principal Engineer with pitt&sherry, joins ACRS’s Board

Infrastructure Cloud is a combination of its enterprise systems that span the endto-end lifecycle and value chain of the world’s infrastructure.

Bentley Systems Launches iTwin Experience, iTwin Capture, and iTwin IoT to Extend iTwin Platform - Bentley Systems has extended the scope and interoperability of infrastructure data that engineering firms and owner operators can use to create and leverage digital twins in design, construction, and operations workflows.

» iTwin Experience - a new cloud product to empower owner-operators’ and their constituents’ insights into critical infrastructure by visualising and navigating digital twins.

» iTwin Capture - enables users to easily create engineering-ready, high resolution 3D models of infrastructure assets using drone video and survey imagery from any digital camera, scanner, or mobile mapping device.

» iTwin IoT - enables users to seamlessly incorporate Internet of Things (IoT) data created by sensors and condition monitoring devices.

www.consultaustralia.com.au

From the President

Aspirations can be those in our personal life, in our careers, for a team, country or a corporate goal. It’s defined as a hope or ambition of achieving something

An aspiration cannot be too modest or too lofty, but ambitious enough to feel uncomfortable. In a corporate context should not be something, that is continually changing.

Aspirational goals are guiding lights on a hill, rather than fixed destinations, in a VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous world) we often need to have a direction and need to review what has changed to ensure the aspirations is still relevant. There is never a singular route to an aspiration, there are many pathways from where we want to get to.

Consult Australia’s Vision is ‘to be the leading voice for a vibrant and prosperous industry supporting consulting business in design, advisory and engineering’. How we get there is part of our strategy developed in December 2021. Whilst our aspiration is unlikely to change, the Board and Executive review our strategy and it’s ability to reach our aspiration in a rapidly changing environment.

It’s interesting to reflect on how aspirations of a few years ago for businesses are now seen standard business requirements.

So ‘next level’ aspirations need to be considered to keep up with, and in some cases ahead of expectations. For example, in 2015 the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) launched a target for 30% female representation on ASX 200 Boards, In December 2019 that target was reached the next level target was then extended to the ASX300 in 2020 and so it will go on. Whilst global net zero targets are focussed around 2050, there are commonly held views that to prevent further aggressive climate change effects to the planet and people the timeframe needs to be closer to 2030.

Public sentiment and expectations are often key elements in accelerating both government and corporate aspirations. Global activism combined with the rise of social media has played a key role here in driving the next level aspirations of these organisations and holding them to account.

As advisors, designers and engineers, we are in prime position to provide the advice and practical solutions to our clients who are grappling with these expectations and developing next level aspirations that they do not know how they are going to meet. When I attended the FIDIC Conference in Geneva on behalf of Consult Australia in September, the challenge was laid down to all member organisations across the globe, that this was our moment to step up, as there was a risk that we were losing our ‘trusted advisor’ position to the ‘Big 4’.

Indeed, the fact that the built environment contributes 36% of the world’s CO2 means that the role and responsibility we hold is fundamental to helping address the net zero challenge, our industry and out planet is facing.

Whether we are setting personal, team, company or industry next level aspirations, they need to be bold and meaningful. The role we play in our industry and society mean we have a unique opportunity to make an impact in achieving these aspirations… So, what more can we all do ‘to be the leading voice for a vibrant and prosperous industry’?

Rowenna Walker President

As advisors, designers and engineers, we are in prime position to provide the advice and practical solutions to our clients who are grappling with these expectations and developing next level aspirations that they do not know how they are going to meet.

From the CEO “ ”

The enduring value of Consult Australia has been clear from my earliest conversations with members across Australia:

• Advocating for your business success

• Providing trusted forums for sharing and collaboration

• Championing industry leadership; and

• Building capability

Our vision for a thriving, competitive consulting industry is advancing week on week through your engagement. From our SME Forums and Summit to our roundtables, state and territory committees and Large Firm CEOs Forum, the critical importance of our work as the sole voice for our industry in a market shaped by both opportunity and challenge is clear. The visionary outcomes sought from what is generational investment in infrastructure and private construction rest on your services, your professionalism, your expertise and innovation. But while the demand for these services is high, the pressure on our members from an increasingly adversarial market, capacity constraints, barriers to entry, increasing regulation and a PI insurance crisis are less easy to manage. Your support is more critical than ever, and through us is delivering change.

Consult Australia’s position as a trusted advisor for governments, and partner for client representative groups across Australia reflects your long-standing engagement. The clarity of our advocacy and focus on the intersection between our people, procurement policy and productivity is driving better behaviours, and real wins for our members. In this edition of Consulting Matters, Kristy’s advocacy highlights and the relationships being leveraged with the support of our state and territory committees speak to these achievements. Whether grappling head-on with insurance in NSW, preparing for the election in Victoria, tackling the challenges of registration in WA and the ACT, or understanding the pipeline in SA, we are sought-after by governments to support better policy.

The respect in which the industry is held is built both on the outcomes focus that inform our advocacy, and on the leadership demonstrated as we work collectively to lift and lead the sector. Our Mental Health Knowledge Hub and the Consult Australia Champions of Change Program continues to demonstrate the impact of practical action.

The Champions of Change Coalition 2022 Impact Report highlights our firms’ leadership seeking to advance more and diverse women into leadership, helping build respectful and inclusive workplaces.

The 2022 Report highlights Consult Australia’s Everyday Respect report as it reported on our survey of over 1500 employees across our members, pointing transparently to the barriers to inclusion and respect that still exist and demand action.

As we move through the holiday season into 2023 we will be shining a spotlight on the challenges facing professional services through increasing litigation, we will continue to press for the opportunities to drive better productivity through infrastructure and construction, advocate for a new approach to harness the potential of digitalisation and net zero pathways for infrastructure.

Make sure you mark your calendar for the New Year both with an entry in our annual Awards for Excellence and a ticket to our Awards Night holding the calendar for Thursday 23 March. Our one-of-a-kind FutureNet Business Leaders Course is enrolling now for 2023, in both NSW and Victoria.

Wishing you and yours a safe and prosperous New Year from all of us at Consult Australia.

The visionary outcomes sought from what is generational investment in infrastructure and private construction rest on your services, your professionalism, your expertise and innovation.

Jonathan Cartledge CEO

Advocacy Highlights

Head of Policy and Government Relations Kristy Eulenstein

Over the last quarter we have been meeting with Federal Ministerial Offices, including Minister for Skills and Training Brendan O’Connor and Minister for Infrastructure Catherine King. We’ve shared our Thinking Smarter About Skills paper and suggested improvements to skilled migration, education, and procurement. The new government is keen to partner with and support industry and has asked Consult Australia to continue to share the barriers our members are facing.

For the fifth year running we have released out Christmas Tender Campaign – where we ask primarily government clients to pause live procurement over the festive season to ensure a break for everyone. This year was huge with 108 letters from us, but in a positive sign 16 were mere thank you letters as these clients already have a policy in place ensuring a tender hiatus. For example, the Department of Defence, Tasmanian Department of Health, and the trailblazer QLD’s Department of Transport and Main Roads who first signed on to our campaign in 2018. This year is the second year we have been joined by our friends at the Australian Constructors Association, the Australasian Railway Association, Engineers Australia, and Roads Australia. With all sectors of our ecosystem acknowledging and pushing for mental health outcomes, we are finding fewer and fewer clients unresponsive to the call for a break. If you are aware of live tenders over the break, especially 16 December 2022 - 3 January 2023 without any reasonable extension, please let me or your local manager know so we can tackle it. In past years agencies have modified the timelines because of our advocacy.

Our work on professional indemnity insurance continues as we share the spotlight with the Insurance Council of Australia, to explain to government clients around the country how the market is shaping up and how Consult Australia’s advocacy is central to de-risking the market. This includes engagements with Department of Defence, Transport for NSW and NSW Treasury as well as future meetings with the Vic and QLD governments.

This is just a quick snapshot, remember and find out more about what we are doing at the local state and territory level from the team below. See also later in this issue our Small Business Spotlight for issues particular to small business members.

NSW | ACT Alison Kirk

We are currently assessing the next tranche of building reforms proposed by the NSW government. Key concerns include the possible impact on insurance availability and affordability for consultants due to another expansive duty of care. Further, the proposal to have unnecessary business registration for engineering businesses (in addition to practitioner registration). The reforms also include oppressive obligations including on individual practitioners to interrogate all ‘business associations’ to ensure that the associated practitioner/business has not been ‘involved in’ phoenixing activity. To help us push back on unnecessary regulation and find more pragmatic solutions to improve the quality of buildings in NSW, please contact Alison

For the first time, Alison brought together Transport for NSW, Infrastructure NSW, iCARE (the NSW government insurance provider), NSW Treasury with the Insurance Council of Australia to discuss the NSW government’s role in de-risking the market. In the context of the current crisis in the professional indemnity insurance market we discussed the gaps of project specific PI and corporate PI and the contract terms that unnecessarily contribute to the risk profile of consultants. Many thanks to members who actively proposed solutions in the meeting including Turnbull Engineering, SMEC, BG&E, Arcadis and AECOM.

NSW ACT

In our advocacy on the registration of engineers in ACT we have already had some impact with the ACT government reconsidering the severe penalties under the proposed scheme. If you would like to keep up to date with the progress of the government’s registration scheme, please contact Alison

VIC Mark Rogers

Mark has had a great response to our Victorian Election Priorities from candidates for the Victorian State Election. We will be prioritising meetings now the election has been held to raise the key issues for members including reforms we need on insurance and to unburden business. We need improved government contracting and procurement behaviours (which will deliver associated productivity and mental health benefits). We also advocate for initiatives to alleviate skills capacity issues.

Over the past quarter we have delivered high quality boardroom events in VIC including with Frankie Carroll, Stuart Mosely, Jonathan Spear and Cressida Wall.

WA Emma Thunder

We have recently submitted to the proposed engineering registration scheme for WA. Consult Australia initially supported business registration as a more streamlined approach for businesses with significant numbers of engineers that would need registration at the three levels (professional, technologist and associate). However, we have been advised that the business registration would require sole traders to register twice, as an individual and again as a business (each with its own cost). As over 50% of the Australian consulting sector are sole traders, we cannot support this approach that unnecessarily burdens smaller businesses. If you would like more information, please contact Emma

SA | NT Kristy Eulenstein

SA

We hosted a great boardroom lunch with Jeremy Conway, CEO of Infrastructure SA in November with representatives across the membership. The wide-ranging discussion reflected the challenges facing the SA market including capacity constraints. Alongside this is the significant opportunities and innovation to help deliver an ambitious pipeline of infrastructure projects. Let us know who you’d be interested to have a boardroom breakfast or lunch with!

NT

We were pleased to be able to meet with local members in Darwin in November. The existing WA Committee members are keen to find new faces to help us drive our advocacy with the Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Logistics as well as the Power and Water Corporation. If you would like to know more about the commitment of being on the committee or if you want to raise any concerns about working in NT, contact us.

QLD | TAS Kristine Banks

QLD

To wrap up the year, Kristine will be hosting a Directors-General lunch with our QLD Committee and informed by other members questions and commentary. These engagements have been going for four years and maintain Consult Australia’s visibility and influence across QLD government.

Kristine’s advocacy with Transport and Main Roads has led to some positive changes to the new Infrastructure Building and Construction Panel contract with no liquidated damages, no security obligation, a liability cap not tied to insurance proceeds and an appropriate reliance regime on supplied information. Consult Australia will continue to highlight to TMR the problems with the contract’s standard of care, warranties, evidence of insurance, indemnity and having a default to uncapped liability where no monetary amount is specified. If you’d like to know more about this advocacy, or where else we are advocating for similar changes, please contact Kristine

TAS

Consult Australia’s advocacy on procurement reform and de-risking for delivery has resulted in agreed actions by the Building and Construction Industry Roundtable, which brings together industry representatives and the Tasmanian Government. It was agreed that there will be more training, information and guidance to improve procurement skills and strategies across government agencies and more early engagement of industry to improve government procurement strategies. Further government will adopt a more sustainable approach to risk allocation and share risk. Click here to read about these and the other agreed actions.

We were pleased to host a successful boardroom breakfast with Shane Gregory, Deputy Secretary Infrastructure, Department of Health in Hobart recently. This was a great opportunity for members to get intel on the latest approaches by Health on upcoming work and to further improve the collaborative communication we already have with the Department. If there are other senior agency leaders, you’d like to talk with at a boardroom event, please let us know.

Consult Australia Major Sponsors

Small Business Spotlight

Pushing against burdens that have a disproportionate impact on small businesses

In NSW and WA we are pushing back against proposed legislation that would make doing business harder for small businesses –especially those doing building work. From unreasonable duties on practitioners to multi-registrations for sole traders, we continue to advocate for a reasonable balance in new regulation that addresses evidenced policy problems. To find out more, see our State and Territory Highlights in this edition.

It’s a wrap…2022 Small Business Summit

Many thanks to the Consult Australia members who joined us for our third annual Small Business Summit. We trust attendees got value out of the day. From the exploration of collaboration to Insurance Insights data on current market conditions and the pros and cons of professional standards schemes – there was something for everyone. We were particularly pleased to see a strong turnout for the break-out session on helping us to help you on contracts – but also there was great value in the other break-out sessions; working with Indigenous communities and how to market to a large firm.

Ongoing engagement with ASBEFEO and local Small Business Commissioners

The Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman (ASBEFEO) continues to want to hear from Consult Australia and our members. In SA and NT, ASBEFEO held forums with the local Small Business Commissioners and local members to hear about the latest concerns, many thanks to those members that attended and shared their thoughts. The QLD Small Business Commissioner also invited us to join the quarterly Small Business Industry Roundtable. The purpose of the roundtable is to increase engagement with key industry stakeholder groups to identify and address issues, challenges and opportunities faced by small businesses. Many thanks to Frank Carlow for representing Consult Australia members.

Opportunities on technical committees

Consult Australia is a Nominating Organisation of Standards Australia, providing us with significant opportunities to be represented on technical committees that design and redesign standards. We currently have a broad range of topics open from industrial fans to sustainable cities and communities. If you are interested in knowing about the other technical committees, please contact Kristy

Small Business Sets from the Standards Australia Store

Acknowledging the user requirements of small businesses with 1-19 employees, Standards Australia has released Small Business Sets (SBS). SBS offer online access to a bundle of standards for specific trades that can be accessed via smartphones, tablets, and other computing devices. This supports small businesses with easier standards access, with annual subscription terms. The range includes 19 different sets, including the recently updated National Construction Code (NCC) Primary References Set, providing access to standards listed in Schedule 4 of the NCC 2022. To find out more and browse the range visit: Sets | Standards Australia

Be engaged, get value!

To best way to get value from your membership is to engage with Consult Australia, be it through the small business open forums, events and education, responding to calls for input or just contacting your State/Territory Manager to vent about current business frustrations. Here are some of the small business members making their membership (and the Consult Australia team) work for them.

FUTURENET BUSINESS LEADER PROGRAMME NSW 2023

REGISTRATIONS ARE NOW OPEN!

Highly regarded across the industry, Consult Australia’s FutureNet Business Leaders Programme has been running annually for more than a decade. The continuously improved programme is updated in line with leadership trends and the requirements of future leaders.

DEVELOP SKILLS IN THESE AREAS:

• Develop leadership, management and collaboration skills.

• Improve personal skills, communication and confidence.

• Provide fresh perspectives on workplace and industry challenges.

• Ensure access to the latest industry thinking, knowledge and insights.

• Create a career-long network of cross-industry relationships.

• Leverage unique mentoring opportunities.

SIXTEEN KEY SESSIONS

Through sixteen sessions delivered over eight months the programme builds on exiting personal strengths, identifies and develops new strengths and skills and broadens networks.

Winning project teams are selected based on both a public vote and their presentations to a panel of expert industry judges.

As I reflect on 40 years in the industry, I’m always thankful that I had good grounding in Project Management. Both in construction and design it is important to understand project management and to implement practical systems. The old mantra of getting it right, first time, on time and on budget still holds. And in these times where we are stretched for engineering resources, it’s important that design engineers plan their work and deliver efficiently. This is where it is important for design engineers to apply the practical principles of project management in the delivery of good designs.

Some young engineers say, yes, we know all that, but I often find that the ‘knowing’ and the ‘doing’ are different in reality. So, when I run project management training courses for designers, I help them to understand that how the practical application of project management theory can help them to ‘get their stuff’ done more effectively.

I use the PMBOK process to help designers to understand how good project management can assist them to be better designers. I come to this not from a technical perspective but from the perspective of producing good, safe, efficient designs for their clients on time and within budget.

The PMBOK process for a designer can be summarised as follows:

Project Start Up and Initiation:

• Define the project, define the scope and technical criteria and identify the key outputs for the project;

• Review and understand the contract terms and brief. And ensure you have a signed contract and

• Arrange a start-up meeting with the client.

Project planning:

• Plan the project, and establish the scope to a granular level;

• Review the brief and all the inputs for completeness;

• Decide who’s doing what and who will be verifying the work;

• Identify the work breakdown structure and program the deliverables;

• Have a project start up meeting with the team; and

• Arrange regular meetings with the client.

Deliver the project:

• Undertake the design work, get it checked and verified;

• Manage the team to ensure the work will be delivered on time;

• Undertake the necessary Risk, Safety, HSiD and Environmental Reviews;

• Meet regularly with the client to review progress and outputs;

Monitoring and control;

• Monitor the hours and budget against progress;

• Measure the delivery against the planned duration and track the program against the planned delivery;

• Review the expenditure against the planned budget and estimate the costs to complete;

• Review the budget and identify any changes or variations and deal with those as per the contract; and

• Report progress to management and the client.

Project Completion and closure:

• Complete the design work through the various stages, and have it verified that it satisfies the brief, technical criteria and relevant standards and codes;

• Forward the deliverables to the client and arrange a final review meeting to close out any issues;

• When design is complete and accepted by the client, finalise the project expenses and determine the final project performance;

• Report this performance to management;

• Undertake a lessons learnt session with the team to review the design, processes and delivery nothing any improvements for future projects; and

• Celebrate successes and reward any great performance.

To put it simply ‘plan your work, and then work your plan'. These steps are relatively straight forward and logical for most engineers but it’s amazing how many don’t follow these simple steps. Designers should not leave the project management stuff to the PM’s or management. Delivery of a quality service to our clients is all about producing the right product, on time and on budget. To do this effectively and to be successful designers need to take an active role in the management and delivery of the overall project, and not just concentrate on the design.

Dan Reeve is a Life member of Consult Australia and is the former Director for Transport for SMEC Australia. He is now works part time in various consultancy activities and charitable board work.

FUTURE ROAD TO THE

By just the year 2036, 1.4 million people are expected to be in the Melbourne CBD on an average weekday. This rapid urbanisation of cities is attributing to an increase in pollution and traffic congestion and a poor quality of life. This congestion comes at a cost to the Australian economy. In 2015, the congestion cost was $16.5 billion, and this is expected to increase to $37 billion by 2030.

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) have the potential to grow our cities beyond their current limitations and to keep up with growing cities whilst reducing the environmental impact. The carrying capacity of road infrastructure can be increased by up to 50% just through autonomous vehicle platooning.

Autonomous vehicle technology and its enabled mobility services are evolving at a more rapid pace than the understanding of the infrastructure required for them to be efficiently and safely implemented. As per figure 1 to the right, the ‘Society of Automotive Engineering’ established the 6 levels of automation. Automation starts at level 0, where vehicles require the full attention of drivers to level 5 vehicles which do not require any driver attention and monitoring.

Figure 1. Levels of Automation

This article focuses on the period 2029-2039, where level 4 AVs with private ownership will be as prevalent as Tesla’s in 2022. Research by the Australian Driverless Vehicle Initiative found that nearly 70% of commuters would prefer to use AVs as their mode of transportation, particularly when travelling during peak hour. This level of demand highlights the need for infrastructure preparation to ensure the safe and efficient operation of AVs.

Given the spatial constraints governed by the existing road network, existing road corridors must be repurposed to incorporate AVs. Figure 2 below shows an overview of the type of infrastructure required to integrate AVs into the transport network.

A brief summary of AV supportive infrastructure shown in figure 2 are shown below:

1. Multi-storey Carpark access for level 4 AVs to drive off and park themselves. Carparks can incorporate charging and maintenance services for AVs.

2. Extended bicycle lanes and footpaths to allow for more space for multimodal or active transport users so they too can navigate the transport network safely while AVs are on the road.

3. Traffic lights, ITS and digital infrastructure will need to be upgraded to communicate to AVs, guiding them through our roads efficiently and safely.

4. Park-and-ride will become dominant in large cities where residents need public transport to travel to their workplaces situated often in the CBD. With AVs having the ability to operate without driver supervision; commuters can be dropped off wherever they prefer whilst AVs can go park or serve another commuter. Thus kerbside spaces can be regulated and used for AV pick-up/drop-off and transit stops during rush hour, commercial use in the evening, and freight use overnight. Similarly, Autonomous shuttle buses can operate between park-and-ride stations to transfer commuters to park and access their hub easily. These mobility hubs can be expanded into existing kerbsides.

5. AVs have an increased lateral control and therefore require smaller lane widths. AV exclusive lanes facilitate platooning and thus increase the carrying capacity of the road. Finally, urbanisation is rapidly occurring throughout the world with growing demand and pressure on the current transport system resulting in congestions and an unsustainable road network. To allow a seamless integration of AVs from a system of conventional or simply connected vehicles, there is a need to review and develop policies and guidelines for road infrastructure.

It is essential that relevant infrastructure as discussed above is implemented at the key nodes or joints of the city. Engineers, transport planners, councils all need to come together to determine AV implementation framework that guides and inspires us to take our cities to the next level. Effective AV infrastructure implementation will combat the rapid urbanisation of large cities, reduce congestion, and improve quality of life to support our future and next level aspirations.

A feature by Riddhi Kalra, Civil Engineer - Aurecon & Hesavar Manivasakan, Civil Engineer - SMEC

Figure 2. Original Image - Infrastruture Victoria

CYBER PHYSICAL SYSTEMS THE NEXT GENERATION OF DIGITAL TWINNING

Digital Twins (DTw) first emerged in the 1970’s with NASA space shots (very rudimentary). The actual term was coined in 2003 by Dr Michael Grieves and has developed since then. There are many definitions today of what a DTw comprises, but the one we will use is: “the ability to connect critical physical asset with their historical, current and forecast data, in a curated form derived from various data/information storage solutions, [the edge and live?], enabling an expanded group of users and participants to collaborate, explore, prove and improve solutions to complex problems.”

DTw contain numerous layers where information from the physical layer passes through the data layer using machine embedded sensors into a data/knowledge base to inform the model layer where virtual models enable analysis and visibility resulting in actionable insights and human intervention.

The term Cyber Physical System (CPS) emerged in 2006 but related concepts existed earlier, as with Digital Twins. There appears to be some overlap between Digital Twin and CPS, but the emerging view today is that a CPS combines several synchronising Digital Twins. A CPS therefore unites single DTw to achieve enhanced information and associated benefits and will regularly operate across and linking disciplines, as these following examples show.

Mining - A mine with a cyber physical mine system enables conceptual visualisation and system interoperability allowing operational problems to be resolved in the context of strategic asset lifecycle optimisation. This allows a focus on critical operational elements that are essential for managing assets aging or utilisation, whilst balancing indirect issues like decarbonisation and social license issues.

Smart building - Consists of multiple interconnected DTw’s covering equipment, inclusive of energy systems, space utilisation, transport efficiency, security, and a raft of operations.

A smart city - as per “Figure 1 - Smart City illustration”, will lead to improved urban planning, traffic and utilities management, sustainability, cooperative governance and quality of living or use for citizens/occupiers, and achieve this through collecting, analysing and understanding data and its many inter-connections. When a number of DTw connect forming a CPS, this increases the overall capability and business value of the model through connected data and advanced analytics.

1.

2019)

Figure

Smart City Illustrations (Smart City Korea,

Feature | Cyber Physical Systems - The next generation of Digital Twinning

Benefits will include those that are more tangible and quantifiable, alongside those that are desirable but harder to measure. The following brief list is a mixture of both:

• Reduces operational costs due to the impact of contextual visualisation and interoperability.

• Aids human decision-making on assets, by providing live data in context and historic comparison, whether that be about maintenance requirements, refurbishment, replacement and/or disposal decisions.

• Supports more accurate modelling and simulation of future scenarios.

• Assists in transcending what is traditionally a silo approach.

• By bringing together data, it facilitates collaboration across various functions and disciplines plus real time management information.

• Reframes how business processes and models are identified, planned and achieved.

• Opens new revenue sources - e.g. Removing intermediaries in the value chain, emerging ecosystem across industry boundaries, allows the commercial use of data for alternate benefits.

• Enhances both personal and infrastructure safety, and resilience.

• Provide relevant data for aggregation and summary on ESG reporting.

Experience increasingly shows that fast movers are rewarded in this digital and data age, and we have seen this with large technologybased companies that are able to pivot quickly in response to changing circumstances and dominate rivals. A CPS with integrated data and analytics provides industrial companies with physical assets more flexibility and agility to change.

Benefits from a CPS also include the integration with other emerging technology in the emerging industrial meta-verse such as augmented reality and virtual reality systems. The contextualised data with the digital environment made possible with a CPS greatly enhances the functionality and usefulness of these systems.

In areas such as training and planning before entering hazardous areas in a mining site, a CPS can be integrated with virtual reality technology to greatly improve the quality and effectiveness of the training as well as being able to conduct the training in an office rather than physically being on the mining site. Another benefit involves remote engineering capabilities utilising augmented reality technology. This could apply for a remote mining site where they don’t have the subject matter experts available, so an engineer with the relevant knowledge sitting in an office off site is able to guide the local engineer using the CPS platform and augmented reality to fix the problem

All from Digital Twinning Australia

Authors:

Harold Ainsworth (Project Manager), Genéne Kleppe (CEO), Edward Cronin (Digital Engineer)

Figure 2. Utilising a Cyber Physical System Representation

Salespeople sporting flashy cars, designer suits and shiny watches don’t win business, they make sales by accident.

Strategic sales specialist, Julia Ewert says Australian businesses can’t afford accidental sales.

She says sales people that don’t follow the proper sales process will hold a business back or bring it to its knees.

She says there’s a common misconception in business that sales success is about personality – and big ones but in actual fact, the smartest business models run off systems and processes, not people.

“Three quarters of the cases I see, the wrong kind of sales person has been hired, and this gives the profession a bad name.”

Ewert says the key mistake most businesses make with their sales strategy is they don’t have a proper sales process and it should be a part of the business model.

“The sales process is the revenue machine of the business, the sales people are your operators, and sales training is the oil and maintenance of the machine.”

“If you cut corners along the way, the machine falters and you’ll lose a lead or fail to convert a prospect to a customer.”

Ewert says the most effective sales organisations operate like McDonald’s.

SIMPLE SALES LESSONS TO GROW REVENUE THE SECRET IS PROCESS NOT PERSONALITY 1

“McDonald’s isn’t in the hamburger business, they’re in the “systems and processes" business. The same goes for IKEA and Apple. They all just happen to use hamburgers, flat pack furniture and digital products as their vehicle to generate revenue,” she says.

”The most successful businesses do what these companies do best – they run on great sales processes. It’s where their results come from.”

“Without a sales process, businesses rely too heavily on individuals – either poorly skilled ones or high-performing ones who both pose ongoing risks for the business.

It’s easier to think the solution for greater sales effectiveness is sales training or hiring expensive salespeople but if you build a repeatable and systemised sales process, employees can be trained to follow this process, says Ewert.

Ewert offers some advice for businesses looking to adopt or develop a sales process:

Process beats personality every time

If you want to be able to better predict and forecast your revenue, you’ll need a systematic sales process. It’s why companies like McDonald’s, Apple and IKEA can scale so successfully because they’ve perfected their process. They don’t need to rely on hiring unicorns and they can invest in the right training and support.

If you wing it, you won’t win it

Arguably the most important function of any business is selling. It’s how you build consistent revenue. Sales isn’t guess work or making it up as you go. There’s no such thing as accidental sales. Selling requires discipline, patience and respecting the process.

Follow up, don’t give up

How do you stay in front of your customers without being annoying, pushy or just too salesy? The reality is you won’t close a deal on the first phone call, meeting or approach. It takes an average five to 12 value-adding follow up phone calls after the proposal to close a deal. The average person follows up once then gives up. Wrong! Every conversation with your prospect should be an investment in the relationship.

Sales is about the long game

Playing the long game means no short cuts. It means no lies, no half-truths and no over-promising. In sales there are no quick fixes. You need to genuinely invest in the relationship to ultimately win the business. How much your prospect trusts you, will determine whether that sale happens.

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Rules of your sales process

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Define your sales process so employees understand what your company does and how it does it. The sales manual should identify all the steps for staff to follow and include key stages in the sales cycle such as ideal customer and follow-up. It also must provide solutions and best practice methods to sales obstacles. Good salespeople follow a process.

About Julia Ewert

Julia Ewert is a Sales Strategist and Professional Negotiator, with decades of experience in sales and sales leadership roles across several industries. Julia teaches effective and practical business skills to companies, to enable them to excel in their sales and negotiations. Known as ‘The Negotiator’, Julia applies the same skills used by the FBI in negotiations, to almost every business situation.

Emma Martin

Email: emmam@profilemedia.com.au

The most successful businesses do what these companies do best – they run on great sales processes. It’s where their results come from.

PERFORMANCE FOCUS AS A DRIVER FOR GOOD MENTAL HEALTH

In a typical engineering firm, the term performance usually relates to billable hours, or how efficiently an engineering system works.

Pritchard Francis, an award-winning Australian engineering firm, have taken a wider view of performance centered around team engagement. This focus led to the appointment of a Chief Performance Officer (CPO), who’s primary objective is team roles and engagement. Pioneering this new role is Chris Tyler.

In his nearly twenty years with the firm he has become not only a Principal and Executive Group member but an award winner, an industry exemplar, and a highly respected mentor and leader. As CPO, Tyler is responsible for ensuring there is alignment between how employees are feeling and how they are performing.

In discussing the inception of the role, Chris said “When we were discussing a chief officer role there was a temptation to create a “Chief People Officer” role, as a number of companies have. However, this title implies that one person will focus on people, and the rest focus on delivering, which is an approach doomed to failure. Engaging, empowering and giving clarity to people is the key to performance and fulfillment, as such we strongly believe that Performance is where our focus should be. The results have spoken for themselves, with strong results on mental health, retention and engagement measures aligning with a period where the team is working hard and delivering excellent commercial and technical results”.

One of Tyler’s biggest inspirations over the years has been Mihaly Csikszentmihaly and his work on happiness. Csikszentmihaly developed the term flow, a concept describing the moments you are completely engaged in a challenging task. Often referred to as being ‘in the zone’, it is those moments when your performance excels as the work simply flows out without conscious effort.

Chris Tyler, Chief Performance Officer | Pritchard Francis

Csikszentmihaly came to understand people were their most creative, productive, and happy when in a state of flow.

It is these concepts around engagement and performance that motivated the firm's initiative for personalised roles. Pritchard Francis encourage employees to talk about the aspects of their role they find most fulfilling, and then tailor their specific role to align with those aspects. “People are often hesitant to ‘cherry pick’ the tasks they like, as it feels like they will be leaving their colleagues with all the boring tasks. The great thing about this approach is that what everyone perceives as boring is different, and often quite the opposite. This allows a good leader to set the roles in such a way that they are all engaged with”, said Tyler.

Tyler says whilst they have regular conversations around role personalisation, it is very much a long-term process, and is not as simple as imagining your dream role.

“Figuring out how to get engagement, or what you personally find engaging, is a hard process - it requires a lot of work, a lot of selfunderstanding, and a lot of understanding of others“, he said.

To provide their team with the skills to achieve this, Pritchard Francis recently began Dare to Lead training. Developed by one of the world’s leaders in positive psychology, Brene Brown, the ethos behind Dare to Lead is about developing brave leaders and courageous cultures.

The training was run by Julie Loveny, a lecturer at The University of Western Australia, and Certified Dare to Lead Facilitator, one of only a select few in Australia certified to deliver the program.

Speaking on the value of the program Loveny says, “We can all be leaders, and when we’ve got the skills to be able to do that, we are creating much better teams and positive work practices, and we're creating psychological safety as well. We spend a lot of time at work and we need to have the ability to navigate that and to make them good places to work, and these are the skills that really make for thriving workplaces.”

Twenty-five Pritchard Francis employees attended the course, which ran for two uninterrupted days, and focused on developing the skills to build an authentic and engaging leadership presence.

Loveny’s feedback noted some unique elements. As well as being one of the first engineering firms in Western Australia to undertake the training, the high number of senior leadership people in attendance was uncommon, as was the number of males truly engaging with the content.

Julie said, “I was a little curious about how it would land, but it was absolutely awesome. I was just blown away by the commitment, the interest, and openness to the learning”.

Meghan Levett, Marketing and Communications Lead Pritchard Francis

Performance focus as a driver for good mental health |

Chris Tyler presenting at Dare to Lead training.

Julie Loveny facilitating Dare to Lead training at Pritchard Francis

THE UNITED NATIONS SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS

MOVING TO NEXT-LEVEL ORGANISATIONAL INTEGRATION

Many public and private sector organisations in Australia have made individual and sectoral commitments to advance the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs). Realising advancement, however, necessitates organisational and business process integration which some organisations have struggled with. We’ve outlined the case for why organisations should go beyond just the public reporting of achievements towards the goals and to true organisational integration, along with some key factors and requirements to realise integrated progress towards the goals across the entire value chain.

In 2015, the UN developed the SDGs to provide a universal call to action to protect the planet, end poverty and foster global peace and prosperity. There are 17 goals in total, with all being integrated. The UN recognises that a balance between the goals is required to deliver positive outcomes.

Certain sectors have committed to advancing specific core goals and supporting all 17 SDGs. In their Global Goals for Local Communities Paper, the Water Services Association of Australia (WSAA) has committed the water industry to advance Goal 6: Ensure access to water and sanitation for all, together with strong support to advance all 17 of the SDGs. Whilst wanting to contribute to such worthwhile aspirations, many organisations have needed help to cascade these nebulous, global goals into granular practical changes and business and organisational processes. To date, the SDGs have permeated corporate reporting and public-facing communications, but efforts at true integration remain limited.

Using the SDGs as an overarching framework to guide business and organisational decision-making can promote systems thinking and encourage planning and delivery that addresses complex challenges across the value chain. Whilst there are obvious opportunities for certain sectors to contribute to specific goals (for example, the water sector to SDG 6), the connection between the water sector and SDG

Goal 1: No Poverty, for example, may need to be clarified. However, many of the challenges faced by the water sector are multifaceted or compounded by several environmental, social, economic and governance factors. Further drivers and opportunities that can facilitate SDG integration are outlined in Figure 1.

Figure 1.

As an example, many organisations in Australia have committed to net zero carbon by varying dates, typically between 2030 - 2050. At present, this target will necessitate a level of carbon offsetting. These net zero efforts align with Goal 13: Climate Action. However, if approached and implemented in an integrated way that considers the entire value chain and all stakeholders, these efforts could also realise outcomes aligned with other goals, such as:

• SDG Goal 1: No Poverty, Goal 7: Affordable and Clean Energy and Goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals – e.g. fitting photovoltaic cells on the rooves of customers in hardship, thereby social value cascading through offset obligations

• -Goal 10: Reduced Inequalities – e.g. investing in First Nations offsetting programs that can provide work programs for First Nations people and businesses whilst also benefitting ecosystems and promoting traditional land management practices.

Figure 2.

Figure 2 provides a schematic of the public and 'behind the scenes' organisational aspects that we consider require development and integration to realise true progress towards the SDGs across the full value chain. Based on our experience in SDG integration across multiple sectors, some of the critical factors required to enable tangible integration include:

• Alignment and integration with existing organisational strategy and implementation of an SDG roadmap with milestones, developed in collaboration with key leadership, Board and operations personnel

• Commitment and dedication from all levels of the business and workforce

• Accountability and governance arrangements for SDG roadmap delivery – including for KPI outcomes

• Clear performance management frameworks aligned to the SDGs established for the organisation, projects and programsobjectives, targets, KPIs

• Review of procurement processes to identify opportunities to influence the supply chain aligned to performance management frameworks

• Legacy frameworks for major projects/programs incorporating stakeholder engagement in identifying opportunities associated with SDG integration related to the major infrastructure.

As with all good strategies associated with realising more sustainable outcomes, the benefits that could be realised from SDG integration include:

• More integrated strategy, policy and programming

• Improved staff and stakeholder engagement

• Improved business and asset resilience

• Greater organisational problem-solving capacity

• Capacity building across the supply and value chain.

These drivers and opportunities for meaningful integration also apply within consulting sector organisations and is a journey that we have been progressing within Jacobs through our PlanBeyond 2.0 Sustainable Business Approach, which strives to integrate ESG and SDG considerations into our operations and every client solution that we deliver.

Janine

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals – Moving to next-level organisational integration |

Emma Dade, Technical Director (Sustainability), Jacobs

Barrow, Global Sustainability and Climate Response Director, Jacobs

THE NEXT TEN YEARS ARE KEY TO UNLOCKING DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION BENEFITS

The journey of digital transformation for infrastructure in Australia is just beginning. On the one hand, inflation is rising, supply chain issues continue to plague the sector, and market capacity issues are increasing as post-pandemic economic activity overheats the economy—all putting pressure on budgets and investment decisions.

On the other hand, there has never been a time where the benefits of digital transformation are more needed to provide increased efficiency, cost savings, and time savings.

Bentley Systems was proud to host the former head of the Centre for Digital Built Britain (CDBB) Alexandra Bolton in Australia and Singapore to meet with key stakeholders and clients across September. Bolton visited the Asia Pacific region as part of a knowledge exchange tour, focusing on the outcomes from the global thought leadership work at the conclusion of the CDBB program.

Decade of Opportunity

One of the key themes of Bolton’s visit was the incredible decade of opportunity facing the sector. With the upcoming Commonwealth and then Olympic and Paralympic Games providing key bookends for the infrastructure sector, we expect to see Australia taking on

and then meeting some of the biggest global challenges over the next ten years. Australia will face it all—from climate change and energy transition to smart city transformations, to shortening and strengthening supply chains, through to responding to geopolitical uncertainty in the region.

Joining Bolton on her tour was Bentley Systems’ International Director of Public Policy and Advocacy Mark Coates. Coates explained that it is an attractive mix of opportunity and transformation.

“Digital transformation can be and will be a key component in what we all expect to be the most connected and collaborative Olympics and Paralympics in history,” said Coates. “Add to that the massive projects likely to be undertaken in energy, defence, and construction, Australia has a decade of delivering and then a decade of exporting its leadership and capabilities—what an opportunity!"

Bolton’s tour took in five Australian cities—Brisbane, Canberra, Geelong, Melbourne, and Sydney—to meet with key stakeholders and clients, as Australia continues its national digital transformation journey. In recognition of the tremendous opportunities available in Asia over the coming years, the tour also visited Singapore.

Over 12 business days, the knowledge tour encompassed around 45 meetings and events with over 1,100 participants. As many participants noted, there is a huge potential to improve the uptake of digital techniques and technologies while creating a sustainable resilient future.

Peter Vanderaa, Principal Policy Officer, Infrastructure Innovation, Department of State Development, Infrastructure and Planning, Queensland, said, “Mark and Alexandra’s meetings with Queensland Government representatives and local industry were incredibly informative and fruitful. Hearing first hand from international experts on digital twins and their experience with CDBB was timely and supported the consideration of next steps in investigating the possibility of our own digital twin in South East Queensland.

Breaking Down Geographical Silos and Learning from Global Experts

Over the course of several meetings with prominent clients and firms in the sector, it is clear that there is a need and desire to share expertise and understand best practices from across the globe. As one noted, “Cities, regions, and governments at all levels across the globe [are grappling] with the opportunities and challenges of implementing new digital solutions, such as digital twins. […] The value of knowledge sharing between professional peers with handson experience cannot be over- stated. […] By sharing experiences, what worked well and what didn’t, what could be done differently and why, common themes and insights emerge, and we build upon rather than repeat the steps achieved by others.”

Hearing from international experts like Bolton can help catalyse and give direction to key conversations that have been boiling away for a while without constructive framing.

As one event participant noted, “It’s important that we build on the achievements of others in this space. Our problems are not unique individually but are in the aggregate. Taking the incredible learnings from around the world to solve for our individual circumstances will allow us to leapfrog and develop some amazingly valuable digital tools, including digital twins.”

Alexandra Bolton is the former executive director of the Centre for Digital Built Britain (CDBB), where she founded, ran, and grew this unique socio-technical change programme, home to the U.K.'s Building Information Modelling (BIM), National Digital Twin, and Global BIM programmes. Bolton is the former deputy head of the National Digital Twin programme, an ambitious U.K. programme to enable an ecosystem of connected digital twins across the built environment, and the founding home of the Digital Twin Hub.

By Matt Gijselman, Director of Public Policy and Advocacy, Bentley Systems

The next ten years are key to unlocking digital transformation benefits

Consult Australia was pleased to co-host with member Bentley Systems a Boardroom lunch with Alexandra Bolton, former Executive Director of Centre for Digital Built Britain who was visiting Australia in September this year.

LIVING BUILDINGS

WHY ARUP IS TAKING THE CHALLENGE

Global design and engineering consultants at Arup are targeting an ambitious sustainability accreditation for their new Adelaide office as part of the Living Building Challenge. Notorious for being difficult to achieve, full Living Building certification demands the most rigorous sustainability outcomes – not only aiming to minimise harm, but actually aiming to give back to people, place and planet.

Arup’s new office which opened in Adelaide’s iconic Reserve Bank Building in October is a testament to sustainable design and construction. The desks are made from salvaged timber floorboards, reclaimed from the demolition of a very old building; the patchwork of marble in the kitchen benches is made up of leftover off cuts from other projects; and the boardroom glass was granted a second life, being repurposed from the previous fit-out with upgrades to function and form.

Our team went above and beyond in taking on this challenge, spending hours at auction yards and online to source vintage furniture for the lobby, and personally salvaging materials from nearby building sites to minimise the use of new materials and reducing waste.

We count many achievements in striving for full Living Building certification for our fit-out, but the process was not without complications. It was challenging to find salvaged materials in the first place, and those we could attain couldn’t be used due to the difficulties of reuse as a result of destructive demolition processes, and buildings and products not being built or installed for reuse. Collaborating with our contractors and sub-contractors was critical to success on this project, everyone had to be engaged with the process and willing to learn. We needed to deviate from ‘business as usual’ practices like using adhesives in the construction phase, so products could be disassembled and reused in the future. Adhesives truly are

Image : Stantec ideas

the enemy of the circular economy as their permanent binding nature prevents material reuse (while emitting harmful VOCs), so the team took it upon themselves to opt for mechanical fixtures wherever possible instead.

Avoiding materials with ingredients on the Red List was one of the toughest challenges, despite the harm they cause to the environment and the people involved in their manufacture, they are abundant in many common building products. This project highlighted the lack of awareness suppliers and manufacturers had about the ingredients used their products. A shift towards product transparency throughout supply chains is integral for real sustainable development impacts.

There were many times that the team were told to forget something because it was too hard and take the easier road, but their passion and commitment to the Living Building Challenge encouraged them to go the extra mile for a result that is a beautiful, warm and welcoming space with fantastic learnings we can now share. This journey has enabled us to work with and challenge the industry, which has already started leading to positive change with our immediate collaborators.

When it comes to tackling the climate crisis, those of us working in the built environment cannot look away as our industry directly accounts for around 40% of greenhouse gas emissions globally. Most in the industry recognise the need to take steps towards reduce climate change. In Australia, there’s been a positive shift with 78% of office space currently rated by the National Australian Built Environment Rating System.

It’s encouraging that more and more of our colleagues and clients are opting for sustainability credentials that reduce climate change impacts and contribute to the circular economy. However, the truth is that we have not pulled down the global emissions curve quickly enough, and we need to take stronger action to shape a better future for the next generations.

Globally recognised as the leading international certification for sustainable buildings that protect and restore the natural environment, Living Buildings generate the strongest positive impacts in energy and emissions; water, transport, and minerals; health and wellness; as well as other holistic sustainability features.

While it may not be the right certification for every project, the Living Building Challenge offers a chance to stretch the limits of current sustainable practices. For us to pioneer these sustainable features and practices on our own offices has meant that we can take these learnings and share them with others in the industry as well as apply them on other projects in the future.

If you’d like to learn more about our work, and the lessons we learned in taking the Living Building Challenge, you can reach out to our Adelaide team at Adelaide@arup.com.

By Virginia James, South Australia Leader, Arup

CONSULT AUSTRALIA EDUCATION COURSES REACH 2000 ATTENDEES

In November, the education courses run on behalf of Consult Australia by barrister, Tony Horan, reached a milestone of 2000 attendees.

GHD Technical Director – Project Management, Jade Kaye (right), was the 2000th person to undertake a course, when he attended an in-house ‘Contracts for Consultants’ course at GHD, Hobart.

The ‘Contracts for Consultants’ and ‘Role of the Superintendent’ courses have been run across the country in all Australian state and territory capitals, as well as regional centres, from Barcaldine in outback Queensland to Traralgon in regional Victoria. Attendees have included a vast array of engineers, architects, project managers, environmental scientists, quantity surveyors and the like, together with commercial managers, contract reviewers, legal counsel, finance managers and directors from firms of all sizes.

Of particular interest is that, earlier this year, two commercial managers from a large construction company attended the ‘Contracts for Consultants’ course to gain a better understanding of contracting from the consultant’s perspective.

The purpose of ‘Contracts for Consultants’ course is for professionals in the built and natural environment to gain a clearer understanding of the commercial and insurance risks they face, from a senior barrister who has seen what can go wrong at the ‘sharp end’. The course provides insight and strategies for assessing and managing those risks, in the process of tendering and negotiating with clients, contractors and subconsultants.

Jade Kaye, GHD Technical Director,the 2000th person to undertake "Constracts for Consultants" course.

Visit our public training courses here!

THINKING ABOUT PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Consult Australia offers a range of in-house Professional Development courses that can be tailored specifically to suit your firm’s requirements. In-house training encourages greater team work and builds awareness and understanding of each other’s roles in the organisation by enabling group discussion to be based around real examples that are specific to your business environment and policies.

CONTRACTS FOR CONSULTANTS

This intensive 2.5 day training seminar is aimed at those who are regularly confronted with client contracts. The course provides essential advice and insight on managing and controlling contractual rights and obligations. It is conducted in a small group interactive format and has helped those with both limited and extensive experience to deal more effectively with contracts and their various terms and conditions. Tools and advice are given on how to develop fair and reasonable contractual relationships with clients.

ROLE OF THE SUPERINTENDENT

The Superintendent’s role is a complex one. It requires a sound understanding of the law of contract, substantial engineering skills, and in particular, an understanding of the provisions of the particular project outcomes. This intensive and interactive training program teaches you how to confidently manage the various Superintendent duties, the dual roles of the Superintendent, and how to avoid common legal traps.

MANAGING PROJECTS FOR DISPUTES AND CLAIMS

Claims and disputes are a common feature of construction projects in Australia and every business needs teams who are alive to this risk and have the skills that can respond. This intensive 2 day interactive workshop is designed to provide the participants with the knowledge and practical skills and tools needed to understand and navigate this very real risk.

The workshop is ideal for both those delivering the projects, technical leads, project managers and commercial managers, as well as your in-house legal, finance and commercial teams.

An overview of the courses and standard rates for our inhouse courses can be at following link beside

MORE INFO

For more information about education opportunities, please contact the Consult Australia on 02 8252 6700 or email education@consultaustralia.com.au.