Sunshine Coast s Largest Ever Infrastructure Project Provides Major Lift to Local Business

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1 Sunshine Coast s Largest Ever Infrastructure Project Provides Major Lift to Local Business The development of the $1.8 billion is the largest infrastructure project ever undertaken on the Sunshine Coast. The project is providing a significant boost to the local economy, with approximately 82% of goods and services being supplied by South East Queensland and regional businesses. Queensland s first public hospital Public Private Partnership (PPP), the new facility is a State Government initiative that is being delivered by Exemplar Health, a consortium comprising Lend Lease, Siemens and Capella Capital with partner Spotless Facilities Services. Collaboration between the Department of State Development, Infrastructure and Planning s (DSDIP) Sunshine Coast regional office, the Industry Capability Network Queensland (ICN Queensland) and the Sunshine Coast Council has facilitated award of 54 work packages to date to local businesses. Including direct purchases in the regional area, there has been a total spend to date of $ million. About the Sunshine Coast Public University Hospital The Sunshine Coast Public University Hospital will be a new, 738 bed tertiary teaching hospital that will address growing demand for hospital services within the region. Due to open late 2016 and expanded in stages through to 2021, the hospital will offer a range of new and expanded free public hospital services, which will result in approximately 10,000 patients a year that will no longer need to travel to Brisbane for complex treatments. The new public hospital is located on the corner of Lake Kawana Boulevard and Kawana Way at Kawana, and forms part of a 20 hectare health campus that will incorporate the hospital s Skills, Academic and Research Centre and a co-located private hospital operated by Ramsay Health Care. Proudly supported by:

2 Appointing the Right Contractor Given the significance of both the project and interest from local industry to be part of the project, Queensland Health engaged ICN Queensland to establish tender criteria in relation to achieving full, fair and reasonable opportunities for local industry participation (LIP). This process provided local industry with access to make the most of the opportunities that the project offered and ensured that the local community benefited as much as possible from the development. After a competitive tendering process, Queensland Health engaged Exemplar Health to oversee the development and management of the project, with ICN Queensland s services, which were funded by the Queensland Government, playing a pivotal role throughout the tendering process. ICN Queensland s expertise was beneficial to Queensland Health in helping the team to meet their LIP requirements and in assessing submissions regarding how the bidders proposed to meet those requirements. Once appointed, Queensland Health s first move was to introduce ICN Queensland and the ICN Gateway to Exemplar Health, Lend Lease and Spotless so that they could easily engage with local businesses and suppliers and complete the procurement process quickly and efficiently. Engaging Local Businesses Through collaboration with ICN Queensland and using ICN Queensland s profiling of companies registered on ICN Gateway, Lend Lease has been able to award a significant number of work packages on the project to local businesses. ICN Gateway is an online database that enables project developers to list work packages and potential suppliers to register their interest against them. Detailed early engagement with the Lend Lease project team was made possible by DSDIP support through its embedment program in which DSDIP provides funding to heavily subsidise the full time engagement of an ICN Queensland Consultant with major projects. The project received this funding support for 35 days enabling ICN Queensland to help Lend Lease finalise its Local Participation Plans, prepare and deliver industry briefings and unbundle work packages to enable smaller local companies to participate. The linkage of ICN embedment into the Sunshine Coast Public University Hospital major project from a local perspective was a huge benefit to regional businesses interested in supplying to major projects Scott Breust DSDIP, Principal Economic Development Officer

3 The linkage of ICN embedment into the major project from a local perspective was a huge benefit to regional businesses interested in supplying to major projects, said Scott Breust, Principal Economic Development Officer at the DSDIP s Regional Services South East Queensland North Division. Andrew Tegerdine, Construction Manager at Lend Lease said ICN Queensland went above and beyond to help the world leading property and infrastructure solutions provider engage with local business, with ICN Queensland using the Gateway registration profiles of over 1,400 businesses to match capabilities with the 260 work packages Lend Lease had listed on the site. The dedicated team that ICN Queensland provided were helpful from the start, he said. They were very helpful in collaborating with local companies and went out of their way to look after local businesses, matching and trimming the registration lists and using the wider ICN Queensland database and their own contact lists when required. Lend Lease appreciated the significant contribution of ICN Queensland. From the initial phases of the project and continuing into construction, ICN Queensland has also been in regular dialogue with Spotless, in preparation for identifying opportunities for local companies in the long term facilities management and capital refurbishment contracts. ICN Queensland has been exceptional, added FM Project Manager at Spotless, Brett Frampton. We found them to be very concise and very accurate with good follow up and good communication back and forth with approvals. They re also very innovative in their approach and are very proactive in reviewing submissions. While still only at the beginning of the procurement process, with 60 work packages awarded and a further 200 still to be filled, Mr Frampton said the Sunshine Coast Public University Hospital project is already having a significant positive impact on the local economy with Exemplar Health and ICN Queensland working hard to increase capability within the region, right across the board. It wasn t a process of just identifying local businesses who have the capability to do the work now and forgetting about those who are close or want to but may not quite meet all of the criteria, he stated It was also about identifying a broad spectrum of capability and saying well maybe 10% of these companies are ready to go now but 60% are not quite at full capability yet so we need to implement systems that will enable those businesses to increase their capability. Lend Lease and Spotless approach in working with ICN Queensland and using the ICN Gateway to engage with local business has set a new benchmark for local participation. Their use of the ICN Gateway allowed for significant breakdown of work packages and fostered better local competitiveness as well as provided local businesses with the opportunity to showcase their innovation. Boosting Capability within the Region To ensure that local businesses in the Sunshine Coast region were given the best possible chance to win work on the Sunshine Coast Public University Hospital project, DSDIP s Sunshine Coast regional office, the Sunshine Coast Council and ICN Queensland joined together to implement a series of workshops for local suppliers. This included four general information sessions to assist local firms to best utilise ICN Queensland has been exceptional, we found them to be very concise and very accurate with good follow up and good communication Brett Frampton Spotless FM Project Manager

4 the ICN Gateway and four capability writing workshops to help companies to construct better capability statements and identify what would be needed to meet Lend Lease criteria. In addition, four targeted project opportunity sessions were run by Lend Lease, which enabled prospective suppliers to learn more about specific trade work on offer on the Sunshine Coast Public University Hospital project and what category and tier ranking best suited their business. As a result of these workshops and sessions, two joint venture and six business management workshops were run to help companies address their gaps in required capabilities and to improve their chances of winning work on the project. In total, more than 1,300 local businesses attended the workshops and sessions that were offered, which Scott Breust says was a highly positive result. A unified approach to develop planned information and business engagement activities delivered a program of business improvement activities, he said. This helped regional businesses to better understand the major project environment, and provided a platform to improve the region s business capability to become more competitive in a major projects environment like the Sunshine Coast Public University Hospital. The information sessions and workshops were invaluable in boosting the capability of local businesses such as waste management company Whale Bins and fabrication firm Regson Fabrication to win work packages on the hospital project. We re a small local business so we really would have struggled without the input that Lend Lease, Sunshine Coast Council and ICN Queensland put in with all the workshops and briefings, said Manager at Whale Bins, Steve Audas. Evan (Flower) was very helpful in assisting me to establish a good profile on the ICN Gateway, added Nicole McMillan, Company Director of Regson Fabrications. He helped me to add information that would help our profile to both meet the requirements of suitable work packages and to stand out as a potential quality subcontractor to Lend Lease. If I hadn t spent that time working with him on my profile then when Lend Lease and the procurement team at ICN Queensland did their search, our name possibly wouldn t have come up as someone they would like to invite to tender. It wasn t just about helping Lend Lease; it was also about utilising our experience to help raise the capability of regional businesses who thought they would never be able to engage in the larger supply chains, said Mr Breust. Even if in the end, they don t win business on this project, it has still helped to improve their capability and has placed them in good stead for future major projects. Achieving Success Through the ICN Gateway providing a 24/7 place to showcase their capabilities, many of which were equal to the best in Australia, 54 regional Queensland businesses were able to connect with major suppliers for the first time and successfully win work on the project. Whale Bins and Regson have both already benefitted greatly as a result of the project with Whale Bins Steve Audas stating they are projecting significant growth as construction on the hospital continues to gain momentum. As they start fitting out the hospital and more suppliers begin work on the project, demand for our services will increase dramatically, he said. At its peak, we re projecting that we ll be removing 500 cubic metres of waste a day. We re a small local business so we really would have struggled without the input that Lend Lease, Sunshine Coast Council and ICN Queensland put in with all the workshops and briefings. Steve Audus Whale Bins Manager

5 For Regson Fabrication s Nicole McMillan, whose company has won two work packages on the project, it s more about the flow on effect that acquiring work on the project will have within their own local supply chain. This project is worth a lot to us, particularly at the moment when there s not a lot of work around, said Ms McMillan. I think it s also been very good for the local region in general, because we ve been able to supply to our local supply chain. The dedicated involvement of ICN Queensland has also been met with high praise from suppliers vying for work on the project. National Business Development Manager at national paint and rendering manufacturer Rockcote, David Ogle said ICN Queensland went above and beyond to ensure they caught the attention of Lend Lease. ICN Queensland has been invaluable in connecting us to Lend Lease and in really promoting the benefits that we can bring to the public hospital project, he said. The service that ICN Queensland has provided to us has been very broad and extensive but Evan (Flower) has been our hero in this particular case. He just took it to the next level in helping us to get further up the supply chain. It was exceptional service that was above and beyond what we were expecting. As with any project, there is always the challenge of how to manage discontent from businesses that were unsuccessful in winning work packages. Queensland Health said that involvement of ICN Queensland helped to bring a level of impartiality to the procurement process. There were a lot of local businesses that were keen to participate in the project and it may have been difficult to understand why they may not have been suitable or eligible. Having an independent body speak to those parties and explain why they were not successful this time around helps to remove some of the disappointment and assist the local market to improve their chances for winning work on the next big project, explained a Queensland Health spokesperson. ICN Queensland has been invaluable in connecting us to Lend Lease and in really promoting the benefits that we can bring to the public hospital project. David Ogle Rockcote National Business Developer Manager

6 Conclusion Queensland Health, Lend Lease, Spotless and the DSDIP agree that the success achieved to date on the Sunshine Coast Public University Hospital project with regard to local industry participation has been made possible as a result of all parties committing wholeheartedly, not just to the project and the need to meet certain requirements, but by a shared commitment to ensuring that the project benefited the local area first and foremost. This is my third Public Private Partnership (PPP) and it s by far the most interactive consortium process I ve been through, said Spotless s Brett Frampton. ICN Queensland has complemented that with their industry engagement and their experience and knowledge of the local area. Their methods are tried and true and their extensive experience vetting suppliers on a number of other major projects proved invaluable to us throughout the process. The DSDIP s Scott Breust attributes much of the success achieved to date to ICN Queensland s Capability Services group which provided the regional team with strong support, ensuring the best outcomes for the project and local business. valuable and the service they provided was exemplary, Mr Breust stated. ICN Queensland is as much about the experience and service of the people in procurement as it is about the Gateway. For more information on any of the companies featured, please visit: Queensland Health Lend Lease Spotless ICN - DSDIP - Whale Bins - Regson - Rockcote - ICN Queensland became a valued partner working with us. Their team s experience in major projects in particular was extremely QMI SOLUTIONS 33 McKechnie Drive PO Box 4012 Eight Mile Plains QLD 4113 T F Blog Twitter Facebook LinkedIn