Scoping your asset management project

If your municipality is developing a Request for Proposals (RFP) for asset management services, read this tip sheet for information on:

• How to narrow down the number of proposals you receive in response to a future RFP
• Developing an RFP that will yield proposals that are easy to compare and evaluate
• How to feel more confident about making key choices during the procurement process
• Ensuring that the consultant you hire meets your needs and provides the services you are expecting

A common challenge: After issuing a Request for Proposals, municipalities may receive a wide range of responses with vastly different prices and offerings, making it difficult to select a consultant. Sometimes a municipality is well into a project with a consultant before realizing that the work is not what they were anticipating.

Tips and strategies

Before starting the procurement process:

• Clarify your objectives.
  • Complete a needs assessment.
  • Confirm your assumptions with decision-makers and team members.
  • Understand and articulate how this work fits into your strategic objectives and plan, internal processes and organizational culture.
• Identify the type of service you require. In asset management, consultants provide two main types of service:
  • Completing a clearly defined task, such as a condition assessment of specific infrastructure
  • Coaching you through a process, where your municipal team will do much of the work and learn from the process
• Consider your available resources (municipal team, time and funds).
• Consider the employee time required during the project.
  • If your consultant is completing a task for you, you’ll need to identify someone to oversee the project, provide any needed information, and review the work.
  • If your consultant is coaching you through a process, you’ll need team members who can undertake the work.
• Consider whether your municipality has the capacity to utilize the resulting work effectively.
• Establish your budget and time frame for the work.
  • Know your budget before determining the scope of the work.
  • Include a contingency fund for unexpected costs.
  • Consider partnering with other municipalities or bundling similar work.
  • Consider partnering with non-profit organizations who may complete some or all of the work.

"With regards to the building condition surveys, next time we would try to narrow the scope of work perhaps reducing the number of submissions and increasing the quality of work. Also would involve more departmental supervisors from the onset of the project."

– Town in Ontario (population 9,000)

Define the scope of work to be done. Ask yourself the following questions:

• What is the purpose of the project?
• Which people and departments will be impacted?
• Why is the work a priority?
• Will this work impact our asset management plan (requiring an update) or our asset management policy?
• What is our timeline for completion of the work and specific milestones?
• Will employees need training in order to use the results of the consultant’s work? Depending on your budget, you may choose to include that training in the scope.
• Do we want to include a meeting or presentation to the asset management steering committee, senior management team or council?
• Will engaging neighbouring municipalities at any stage add value to the project?

While developing the Request for Proposals:

• Clearly articulate all your expectations—both the deliverables and the other outcomes you hope to achieve. Be specific.
• Decide whether you want to declare your available budget. You have two options:
  •  Declare your budget and compare proposals based on what is being offered for that budget.
  •  Avoid declaring your budget, but outline the scope of work in detail, and compare proposals based on price.
• Where possible, use common “asset management” language. Tools like FCM’s Asset Management Readiness Scale can help.

"A municipality receives report submissions from multiple engineering firms over the years. The City has experienced situations where a consultant would like to develop a report in a template that is not consistent with previous reports received. We provide a detailed and standardized scope of work to ensure consistency of deliverables to achieve the project goal."

– City of Greater Sudbury, ON (population 164,926)

 Key

Remember to build in flexibility as you plan this work! A well-defined scope at the onset will help avoid future surprises, and you can leave room to review and update the scope or deliverables as the project unfolds.