Research on the development strategy of bidding agencies under the trend of whole-process engineering consulting

Editor's note:

Through the discussion of the development direction and development path of the bidding agency in the context of the whole process of engineering consulting, this paper proposes that it should be rethought and positioned, accelerate the ability improvement and transformation and upgrading, find a suitable path for its own development according to the actual situation of the enterprise, and accelerate the transformation to a more professional and more core competitiveness of the innovative development model. The article believes that the whole process of engineering consulting is not a simple addition of each stage of business, but to integrate the consulting services of each stage into a whole, improve the ability of planning and design, technical services and management integration, and strive to create greater value for customers.

Whole-process engineering consulting services refer to the whole life cycle of construction projects to provide planning, organization, management, technology and economic aspects of the whole process of integrated engineering consulting services, involving the project planning, investment consulting, engineering design, cost consulting, bidding agency, engineering supervision, project management, completion acceptance, operation and maintenance, post-project evaluation and other stages of consulting services. Compared with the traditional project management mode, the whole process engineering consulting has the characteristics of intelligence, integration and specialization, which can effectively save investment costs, shorten the construction period, improve service quality, and prevent implementation risks.

In 2017, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Promoting the Sustainable and Healthy Development of the Construction Industry", which put forward the concept of whole-process engineering consulting for the first time, and encouraged consulting, survey, design, supervision, bidding agency, cost and other enterprises to adopt joint operations, mergers and acquisitions and other ways to develop whole-process engineering consulting.

In 2019, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Development of Whole-process Engineering Consulting Services", encouraging construction units to entrust consulting units to provide whole-process engineering consulting services such as bidding agency, survey, design, supervision, cost, and project management in the construction of housing construction and municipal infrastructure.

In 2022, the China Engineering Construction Standardization Association issued the "Whole-process Engineering Consulting Standards for Construction Projects", which clarified the connotation and extension of whole-process engineering consulting, as well as the content and scope of the implementation of whole-process engineering consulting business.

Since the promulgation of the State Council document in 2017, the whole-process engineering consulting model has developed from pilot provinces to non-pilot provinces, from local provinces to the whole country, and from the economically developed southern region to other regions, and the whole-process engineering consulting has become the development trend of the engineering consulting industry. In this context, bidding agencies in the consulting industry should improve their professional and technical capabilities; Shape the image, enhance the brand influence, and strive to occupy a place in the whole process engineering consulting market.

First, the direction of the development of the bidding agency

The whole process of engineering consulting has a wide range of consulting services, emphasizing intellectual planning and implementation of multi-stage integration three characteristics, so its core is not to simply add up the business of each stage, but to integrate the consulting services of each stage into a whole, improve the ability of planning and design, technical services and management integration, jump out of the level of "single business can be done", and create greater value for customers.

Bidding and procurement is an important business module in the whole process of engineering consulting, no matter how the whole process of engineering consulting develops, the bidding agency business will not stagnate, let alone disappear. The bidding agency has the advantages of comprehensive planning ability, bidding and procurement, contract management, and familiarity with laws and regulations, but at the same time, it must also face up to its own shortcomings, accelerate capacity improvement and business transformation and upgrading, rethink and position itself in the context of the country's promotion of the whole process of engineering consulting, find a suitable path for its own development according to its own situation, adapt measures to local conditions, be down-to-earth, and accelerate the transformation to a more professional and more core competitiveness innovation and development model through specialization, diversification, integration and other ways.

Second, the development path of the bidding agency

1. Professional development

According to the definition of the "Bidding Agency Service Specification" (GB/T 38357-2019), bidding agency services include regular services and value-added services. Conventional services refer to the basic services usually provided by the bidding agency, such as the preparation of bidding documents, the organization of bid evaluation, etc., while the value-added services include the preparation of the maximum bid limit and the bidding bill of quantities, contract negotiation and contract performance management, disputes and dispute resolution. Therefore, in the new context, the bidding agency should change its role as soon as possible, accelerate business transformation, strive to improve the professional and technical ability of bidding and procurement personnel, provide consulting and management services for tenderers, and transform into a procurement management consulting company as soon as possible.

(1) Extend the business chain and improve service capabilities. In addition to the legal, technical and management professional knowledge related to the bidding, the bidding and procurement personnel should further strengthen the ability to plan the bidding program, focus on the personalized research and analysis of the project characteristics and project management objectives, extend to the upstream and downstream of the bidding agency business, open up new markets, and explore new business growth points.

(2) Strengthen personnel capacity building and actively provide value-added services. Bidding and procurement personnel should meet the requirements of the whole process of engineering consulting business, complete the transformation of "intermediary personnel-engineers-managers-planners", and realize the leap of "execution-management-planning". At the same time, should be combined with the requirements of the "bidding agency service specification", on the basis of conventional services to actively provide value-added services, with the ability of project cost business, proficient in contract disclosure, the ability to apply and interpret contract terms, as well as market research, plan management, supplier management and other capabilities.

(3) The bidding agency shall establish its own full-process electronic trading system. In addition to the system functions of bidding announcement and document issuance, bidding, bid opening, bid evaluation and bidding, the electronic trading system should also have the function of docking with the local trading center system. At the same time, the electronic trading system should be able to provide an integrated service platform for upstream and downstream enterprises in the bidding and procurement supply chain, meet the needs of customers for personalized services, and help customers reduce procurement costs and optimize procurement models.

2. Diversified development

The bidding agency should innovate in the direction of the whole process engineering consulting business model, change the traditional concept of only providing bidding agency services, and form a new business model with the original business as the core competitiveness and simultaneously expanding investment, planning, consulting, design, cost, supervision and other businesses.

(1) "Investment consulting + bidding agency + project cost" model. The investment decision is at the forefront of the project construction, which has a guiding and leading role in the whole process of engineering consulting. For bidding agencies with investment consulting foundations, they can make full use of the front-end advantages to intervene in project planning, bidding plan planning and cost consulting earlier, extend the bidding agency services to the front-end, and form a "investment + bidding + cost" development model.

(2) "project management + supervision + bidding agency + project cost" model. Bidding agencies with engineering supervision qualifications and project management capabilities can highlight the integrated advantages of project management, develop a whole-process engineering consulting service model covering project management, engineering supervision and bidding agency, and provide differentiated advantageous services.

(3) "design + bidding agency + project cost" model. Bidding agencies with engineering design qualifications and capabilities can give full play to their own design advantages (such as design qualifications and experience, preliminary design, construction drawing design, etc.), and adopt a design-led, combined with investment consulting, engineering cost, bidding and procurement professional consulting services of the whole process of engineering consulting service organization.

(4) Enterprise merger and reorganization model. Large-scale bidding agencies can carry out mergers and acquisitions with other strong cost, supervision, design and other enterprises, integrate the resources of various enterprises, complement each other's advantages, and combine strong and strong to realize the transformation and upgrading of enterprises and transform to the whole process engineering consulting model.

3. Integrated development

In October 2021, the China Association of Engineering Consultants released the 2020 annual industry ranking of engineering consulting units. The list is divided into five categories, the first of which is the top 30 influential think tank units in the engineering consulting industry (new think tank business units). Through the list, it can be seen that the bidding agency should accelerate the transformation to a think tank enterprise, take the integrated development route, extend to both ends of the industrial chain, do pre-project planning forward, post-project evaluation backward, carry out more high value-added business with intelligence, and form a more complete industrial chain.

(1) Planning consultation. Including various industrial plans, development plans, special plans, and research projects of the government and enterprises. For example, the industrial development plan of a park, the tourism industry plan, the rural revitalization plan, the "14th Five-Year Plan" development plan, etc.

(2) Investment consulting. Including various investment opportunity research, project planning, feasibility study, project application report, project proposal, PPP consulting, special bond consulting, EOD ecological environment-oriented development model, "investor + EPC", etc.

(3) Management consulting. Through on-the-spot investigation and research, analyze the internal advantages and disadvantages of the enterprise, as well as the opportunities and threats of the external market, and provide management consulting and optimization and improvement plans for the development and operation of the enterprise in combination with the development policies and trends of the industry where the enterprise is located. For example, the "14th Five-Year Plan" development plan, strategic research, performance appraisal research of an enterprise, etc.

(4) Consultation evaluation and post-project evaluation. On the one hand, it provides third-party evaluation consultation for the early decision-making of construction projects, including feasibility study reports, project application reports, project proposals, and preliminary evaluation of project implementation plans. On the other hand, the post-project evaluation of the projects that have been carried out and completed, and the mid-term progress and final completion of the project are evaluated, so as to realize the closed-loop management of the project from the early investment planning to the final completion and operation.

(5) Integrate resources and cooperate with third-party companies. The engineering consulting industry is too wide, but the resources are limited, and no matter how any project is planned, it is inseparable from the most basic investment consulting. Therefore, the bidding agency structure can cooperate with third-party companies in finance, finance, law and other aspects to jointly promote special debt consulting, pre-investment analysis, value evaluation, REITs and other projects, and make the business bigger and stronger through resource optimization and integration.

Author: Wang Tianfeng, Shen Jiahuan

Author's Affiliation: Anhui Antian Lixin Engineering Management Co., Ltd

Source: Bidding and Procurement Management, Issue 9, 2023