Outsourcing T&D Infrastructure Projects - ABB

This paper addresses outsourcing from a contractor perspective that is tempered by the extensive utility experience of the lead author. Because the scarcity of in-house resources is most often the driver for outsourcing, the paper stresses the need to establish a target based on the minimum number of in-house resources available and then deploy an outsourcing approach that is consistent with that value. This effort needs to include the effort required to manage the outsourced portion of the work. The successful execution of an outsourced project and the ability to meet the resource target lie in minimizing the uncertainty surrounding the contractor's work scope. Since outsourced work will generally be awarded on a fixed price basis, it is critical that the contractor and the utility tightly define the scope of the effort and then aggressively manage to it. Although the paper identifies means of specifying, awarding and executing an outsourced project, investments in the initial request for proposal development effort will be most cost effective