On Tuesday when Adam and I showed up at Environment Canada, Gatineau, Quebec, at 9:00 AM, Herold was waiting for us. He took us to his office and offered us coffee. Adam never drinks coffee, but I said I don’t mind having a cup of coffee.
While seeping my coffee, I heard Herold speaking about his job description. He was the Project Coordinator, and it appeared that he would be involved in every aspect of the project.
I had a good feeling that Herold would be a positive contributor to the project.
As soon as I finished my coffee, Herold led us to a conference room where seven or eight folks were waiting for us. We were told that they represent various functions in the department and they will continue to be a part of the project. In other words, they already had formed a team of professionals with an interest in major functions of the department. Some of them were scientists with specific designations in environmental science.
As far as was concerned, environmental science was the interdisciplinary study of how the physical, chemical, and biological components of the environment work and interact with each other, particularly how human activities impact these systems. It integrates knowledge from various fields like biology, chemistry, geology, and physics to understand environmental problems and develop solutions for issues such as pollution, climate change, and resource depletion.
I was looking forward to working with those folks to understand their contribution and how that would have an impact on the overall functionality of the department.
Herold asked one of the guys to describe the process that they had adopted to review and evaluate our proposal along with some other proposals. In other words, how did they determine the significance, worth, or condition of the proposal against the criteria they had developed for evaluating the proposal.
He continued by saying that they used a point system for evaluating the proposals that they had received for their RFP.
We were familiar with the point system for evaluating proposals. We knew that the point system was a structured and objective method used to assess and rank proposals based on predefined criteria and assigned weights. This system ensures fairness and transparency by converting subjective opinions into quantifiable data points, which helps organizations select the best value or fit for a project.
The guy was very articulative and was enjoying talking to us, and I didn’t like to tell him that we were familiar with the point system.
He walked to his laptop and turned it on to show us the definition of the Point System on the screen, displaying how it works:
- Define Criteria and Weights: Before releasing the Request for Proposal (RFP), an evaluation team determines the key criteria and their relative weights;
- Score Proposals: A diverse team of stakeholders independently scores each proposal against the defined criteria using the standardized scoring scale;
- Calculate Weighted Scores: The raw scores for each criterion are multiplied by their assigned weight to produce a total weighted score for each proposal;
- Review and Analyze: The evaluation team meets to compare scores, discuss significant variances, and clarify any questions with the vendors; and
- Select a Winner: The proposal with the highest overall weighted score typically indicates the “Best Value” and is selected, though qualitative factors are also considered in the final decision.
The guy turned around and said this structured approach provided us with an auditable, data-driven rationale for the final decision, reducing bias and ensuring accountability.
He faced me and Adam and addressed us by saying the good news is that your proposal scored top in every category and top of everything else your references were unbelievably and amazing.
I said I don’t know what to say, except thank you for your professional attitude and we are indeed looking forward to working with you folks.
Herald said the question is where can we go from here?
I said perhaps the best way to kick off this project is to talk about the presentation that we always make to spell out our overall approach, detailing the expectations and requirements covered under this contract.
Herold said, please give us an example.
I said very briefly:
- To develop an Activity Based Costing Model for your organization, we need to understand and define the services that you are responsible for delivering;
- We will also have to define the activities that being performed now for delivering a particular service;
- Then we will have to cost each service based on the magnitude of consumption of the activities (Resources) including direct and indirect costs;
- We will have to work with your senior management to define targets for improvements for each service; and
- Based on the targets, a new model must be developed to meet those targets;
- The future Activity Based Model will have the answers to all possible questions and targets, highlighting the financial, functional, and operational expertise to accomplish the desired results.
I continued by saying – what I had just described was an overall coverage of the work that we need to do but at the same time we have a workable methodology which we can explain when we make a presentation. It will spell out all aspects of the work that we will have to perform with the help of your people as part of the project team.
We spent another 45 minutes chatting and answering questions before we took off.
When we went back to our office, Adam Appeared to be happy that I decided to stay and manage the project which was in his best interest.
Lynda took off on Saturday for Las Vegas and when she got there, she called me to let me know that while everybody was delighted to see her back, they were wondering about my absence. I guess she explained to them why I was not back with Lynda and told them that I would be visiting frequently enough.
I prepared another presentation on the weekend and went back to Environment Canada on Monday to initiate the project by making the presentation.
The purpose of the presentation was to explain what the critical success factors for the project were.
I remember explaining to them the major steps like:
- We need commitments from you folks to assign people with functional knowledge to work with us and help us understand what you do to deliver the services that you are responsible for;
- The first major step is to develop the current Process Model, defining your services;
- Then what does it take to deliver each service which could be a group of processes and defining activities associated with each process by defining the time it takes to perform that activity and what kind of existing technology, information, and skills are being used to perform that process;
- The we speak to the users to set targets for each service in a way which can be translated into quantifiable targets for delivering services on time and within budget;
- Based on the targets, we create a “Future Model” to deliver the required services on time;
- The critical part of our activities is to do the costing of the Future Model initially based on the individual services consumed by each activity they perform to deliver a particular service;
- Following, we allocate the overhead – Management, Administrative, and utilities;
- The next thing we do is to compare the existing model with the future model to highlight what would require bridging the gap between the current and future models;
- Then we prepare missing technologies and skills, highlighting estimates for acquiring the recommended technologies and skills which could lead to sending the existing employees for training and replacing possibly old and almost outdated technologies.
At the end of the presentation, everybody in the room had questions which took a couple of hours for us to run through everything they asked.
Following the presentation, we were taken to the area where they had allocated project space including an office for me.
