In June 2000, ratingsource.com asked 28 state facility and procurement officers to rate their current satisfaction when selecting architects, engineers, contractors, and subcontractors (AECs and subs). The survey uncovered a growing need for performance-based selection of AECs and subs.
State facility and procurement officers showed obvious frustration with the conventional process of selecting AECs and subs, which consists of hard bidding teams that have not been pre-qualified, by giving this method a low score of 4.6. When it came to the satisfaction with past history information provided by the AECs and subs, results were slightly above average. However, state agencies offered the most praise to performance-based selection and pre-qualification. Satisfaction levels rose to 6.5 when asked about teams that had been pre-qualified. The highest outcomes were present when asked to rate the success of their current pre-qualification process.
The results from this survey clearly indicate dissatisfaction with hard bidding, and favored the alternative, performance-based selection and pre-qualification. As design build becomes a more common practice in the public sector, partnering and performance become the forefront issues.
To help fill this need, ratingsource.com has designed a performance-based selection tool that uses the Internet to generate and report past performance ratings of AECs and subs. Owners and governmental agencies can save time by making decisions faster, easier, and with greater accuracy. AECs and subs can also use ratingsource.com as a valuable marketing tool. The database is scheduled for release in October 2000.
For more information, visit www.ithreeinfo.com or ratingsource.com.
