Value & Point of Difference

Value Focused
MDA understands that in Quantity Surveying, ‘value’ is not neccessarily the‘cheapest’. Value is often referred to as ‘bang for buck’ i.e. what you can get for your money and must account for functionality, effective life, warranties and ongoing maintenance costs as well as capital outlay. This must form part of the discussion throughout the design process and our experience working alongside other consultants is that most are similarly focused but need commercial guidance to achieve “best value” outcomes.

Director Access – Hands-On Approach
MDA is privately owned by two directors who maintain a hands-on approach to all projects. This means that the project team has access to the highest level of management at all times throughout all project phases. This can be noted as a clear point of difference to other Quantity Surveying firms where it becomes difficult for senior management to stay close to all of their projects.

The Quantity Surveying Process
It is important to understand that the whole team, including the client and their consultants, “owns” the budget and subsequent Cost Plans. During early stages MDA ensure that all parties understand this and that its imperative that all parties (Consultants and Clients alike) are given the opportunity to work closely with the Quantity Surveyor and have their say and provide input and take ownership. The Cost Plan is a team effort and no one party is excluded from the process.

Generally, there is a vast amount of cost knowledge available in an experienced consultant team. Asking the right questions and communicating effectively to tease out design intent, functionality and materiality, proposed construction techniques and program related costs all go toward creating an accurate Cost Plan. This is a process that is subject to constant updating of the cost plan to ensure design aligns with budget. The intent is to not allow design to get too far down the track if the direction moves away from approved budgets.

MDA are very focused at the Cost Planning and Estimating stages of any project as this is where design, consistent with the Clients’ requirements, starts to become tangible and needs to be managed within the available project budget. We see our role as ‘Cost Managers’ working alongside the Clients’ consultant team to deliver the project at best value. To this end we can be heavily involved in the design process as required through to the selection of successful contractors.

Any value management undertaken to test design or to bring a project back to budget is very much a team approach which MDA can assist with. Early Cost Estimating and liaison with the Client and Design Team as early as possible is the key to getting best value

Innovation & Value Add
Over the last 15 years, MDA has developed internal systems that capture construction data in an efficient and sufficiently detailed format. Our focus on the importance of capturing accurate cost data has made us the chosen partner for Our Clients for over 30 years. The efficient capture of data across individual projects and large programs is a very powerful tool that can be used to report in a variety of ways and become critical in program wide cost management and ensuring budgeting and forecasting are based on accurate current data.

We are also currently harnessing BIM technology for Cost Planning in live program environments for one of our major clients. Working closely with the design team to ensure documentation is developed in a way to enable accurate quantification is critical to successful implementation of this role. As we understand, we are at the head of the game in regard to harnessing BIM and providing efficiencies for Cost Management of projects.