First published in Project Management Yearbook Edition January 2008.
Author: Jerry Grant, Chairman of RPS Ireland and Northern Ireland

RPS Ireland and Northern Ireland Chairman Jerry Grant writes on planning excellence for Project Management Yearbook.

RPS Project Management

RPS realises that Project Management of complex infrastructural projects has become a sophisticated discipline requiring a combination of experience, knowledge and state of the art systems. Delivering on the planning, design, procurement and environmental functions through the project life cycle requires technical and commercial awareness. The project management systems and techniques RPS has developed combine international best practice and its experience of delivering some of the largest infrastructural projects in the state. RPS project managers have delivered projects within challenging programmes by utilising strategies such as concurrency techniques. The development of clearly defined responsibilities and lines of communication have greatly assisted in becoming leading project managers.

Systems

RPS has developed specialist in-house systems to provide cost and programme control, real-time reporting to clients, risk allocation and ensures value for money. These systems correlate expenditure to project timescales, which promotes cost consciousness. Client approved software is utilised along with RPS developed management systems to ensure the successful outcome of projects. Tracking systems are in place to manage third party costs on behalf of our clients for use on complex, multi-disciplinary projects. The system requires all third parties to submit costs at regular intervals and they are compared against an earned value model to ensure progress and value for money. RPS was awarded runner-up in the Project Category at the IT Inspired awards this year for its work on in-house specialist systems.

Project Management of Infrastructural Projects

Procurement of projects on behalf of our clients is a specialism that requires rigorous adherence to the relevant EU Procurement Directives and associated national Regulations. Quality or price selection of Contractors is developed based on transparent and robust processes, which gives the most economical delivery for the client. As the author of the national guidelines on PPP contracts, RPS used this expertise to project manage some of the largest PPP procured projects in the state. RPS’ in-depth technical knowledge allied with its project management expertise has given it the skills necessary to progress these projects through all of the statutory processes involved.

Within the construction stage, RPS Project Management covers overall supervision of project delivery (quality, time and cost), together with on-site supervision. RPS has developed best practice methodologies for tracking and reporting on progress and ensuring that value objectives are kept in mind and ultimately delivered on. Project Management Services are supported by health and safety and project commissioning services, client training and operational support at handover.

An Integrated Service

By offering an integrated multi-disciplinary service we can provide clients with a whole - project service which includes project conception, feasibility assessment, procurement, contract supervision, construction phase management and long-term maintenance if required. RPS is a leading provider of these services in Ireland by virtue of the scale and quality of its resources, now over 1,200. RPS benefits particularly from its integrated range of disciplines from planning to engineering, environment, energy and economic specialisations and the additional external support from RPS worldwide. The company can utilise its international resources in the areas of Architecture, Sustainability and Climate Change and Energy consultancy.

Within RPS, services are diversifying into new areas such as Sustainability and Climate Change, Transport Planning, Project Communications and Health and Safety consultancy. RPS’ innovative approach to services has always been driven by the needs of clients and as such RPS is responsive to their needs even if they are not “traditional” services.

This year RPS’ Project Communications team was awarded the Best Awareness Campaign in the EU for their work on the Notice Nature campaign. This approach to awareness raising and stakeholder issues combines technical knowledge with innovative public relations tools to ensure that a clear, consistent and inclusive message is presented. When applied on projects this approach has ensured the successful delivery of some of the most controversial projects on the island. Stakeholder involvement is a key part of every project in RPS. The Project Communications team is responsible for several large scale awareness Campaigns and have received European recognition for their Notice Nature campaign on behalf of the Department of the Environment which follows on from the extremely successful Race against Waste campaign.

Allied with its integrated service offering are particular strengths which RPS Project Management can deliver, these include:

• High level planning, strategic environmental assessment in conjunction with strategic planning and environmental impact assessment at project level
• Project Communication and Stakeholder engagement strategies which are now seen as fundamental to the development of vital community support for such projects
• Public Private Partnership Assessment including detailed project risk assessment, the development of whole life cost models and public sector cost benchmarks
• Sustainability Assessment including Climate Change impacts and mitigation measures
• Procurement Strategies and process management across the full range from conventional, to design-build, design-build-operate (DBO) and full PPP projects including project finance.

For more information please contact:
RPS Dublin (West Pier) – Planning & Development
T: +353 (0)1 288 4499