Julian Fris, principal consultant at Neller Davies and an exponent of the vested model, sees the collective incentivisation it demands as an idea whose time, in FM, has come.
On vested outsourcing’s impact on sub-contracting
With many M&E companies, where they are working within the supply chain, they are increasingly invited into in the room so the both client and top level provider can talk to them understand what they're trying to do, and how they represent the company.
Also, in some cases, rather than employ third party M&E companies, to work most effectively in a vested arrangement Fris says some providers are taking on as much of that work internally as they can.
”There's a bit of a movement by companies to do more of the work themselves, so where they can they can still say we're all part of the same organisation, still doing the same thing. Because it's all about uptime; you don't necessarily want to be slowed up by payment terms etc.
“But where you can't do that, where there are certain things your organisation can’t do, you should instead work very closely with your supply partner on a vested type deal. It’s a question of speed and understanding much better what you're [collectively] doing.”
On vested’s built-in collaboration credentials
“What the vested model does is give us a ‘route map’ to get to a collaborative scenario. It's taken 18, 20 years to develop it with a number of case studies.
“It’s about good prudence, both parties watching their costs. You won’t have one organisation hurting off in one way and the other hurtling off in the other; they’re in it together.
On the principal benefits of the vested model
The suggestion is that, in order to better ensure speed of project / service delivery and likely overall costs, vested ensures that everyone works closely together and that people on both sides are incentivised to make the most of the arrangement.
”It’s all about insight, not oversight; getting involved right from the beginning.”
“It’s a bit like marriage counselling where you sit down and look at what you've got in common. It's very much that kind of therapeutic approach."
