MISSION STATEMENT
I empower willing non-estimators with estimating methods and tools to help decision-making for energy transition easier
vkhaitan@vkestimatingsolutions.com
The Proposal
Are poor estimating methods and estimates slowing down the energy transition? It doesn’t have to be that way. I support senior executives, engineering managers, appraisal managers, concept development managers, proposal managers or anyone else who is directly involved in the early decision-gates of project development with better estimating methods and tools.
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Are you an energy transition business, Project Management Consultancy, Concept/Appraise/Select Service Provider, EPC/EPCM Contracting entity? Or may be you are a technology licensor, a project developer or any team currently in the early phases of development. Do you plan to commercialise or scaleup in the next 3-10 years? You may be trying to get through internal stage-gates, phase-gates, decision-gates, internal/external governance; fund-raising for investment; trying to get government grants or board approvals; but finding it difficult to successfully frame the cost estimate of your future projects. Your design may be still developing, licensor(s) selection still in progress, your business plans still unclear, but you still need to plan the future with a better idea of project costs. The inputs may be incomplete, the requirements to pass an early gate maybe unclear, the engineering contractor estimates not very transparent or suitable for your kind of project / technology, off-the-shelf estimating software not very suitable to your needs, scope not properly defined, but you are still desperate for a defendable estimate. My proposed flexible-templates approach has a solution for all these.
Get in touch! With my estimating expertise and knowledge, I will propose the right estimating methodology to be used and collaborate with your team to help prepare suitable custom-made high-level estimating tools, which will be flexible to handle all ongoing design developments, easily modifiable, easy to understand but still giving you a quick and fully transparent initial estimate for multiple options to help with decision making at the early stages of development. What’s more, once built, you will be able to use the tools for multiple iterations and multiple projects.
Since 2015, I have been posting free estimating resources which showcases the kind of outputs / templates that I can produce. I will be bringing my extensive experience in estimating and in-depth understanding of planning, cost control, contracting, change management, risk management, project management and decision-making via the stage-gate approval process within the energy industry to help your current needs.
P.S. Even though based in London; I have extensive experience of working with multiple remote teams. This is a global service, so suitable for anywhere in the world, please get in touch to discuss.
Who can use these services:
- Energy transition start-up businesses who do not require a full-time estimator on staff or contract role
- Teams who do not have access to any off-the-shelf estimating software in the market or find them unsuitable to their needs, or see them as requiring a lot of energy and effort to customise to their requirements
- Teams / projects within a larger organisation, who are unable to access the internal estimating resources fast enough to move things forward
- Project Management Consultancy, Concept/Appraise/Select Service Provider, EPC/EPCM Contracting entity
- Technology licensors and project developers
- A government organisation looking for independent estimating support
- An Investor or stakeholder looking for some estimating due diligence
- Climate support or policy advocacy organisations
- Research organisations applying for public or private funds
Specific services provided:
OWNER’S ESTIMATING SUPPORT
- Coach executives on how to interpret and question cost estimates
- Ad hoc Owner’s estimating support
- Review / validate / evaluate estimates prepared by others such as the client or a third-party EPC, with expert comments based on extensive experience
- Bespoke custom-made Class 5 & 4 estimate templates (Excel based) using available cost and technical data:
- Order-of-Magnitude and / or factored estimates
- Easy option selection templates / toolkit
- Easily identify the value of design optimisations
- Help with standardising engineering inputs
- Easy to review and modify
- Drop-down menus and selection tool development to help end-users themselves change estimate inputs and overall estimates
- Can be used by end-users for multiple iterations and other similar projects
- Simple output with graphical visualisation to assist with internal / external senior leadership and board level discussions
- Cash-flow (multi-year phasing) and / or exposure analysis
- Life-cycle Analysis using Net-Present-Cost analysis
- Monte-Carlo risk analysis to establish estimate contingency
- Benchmarking
TRAINING & WORKSHOPS
- Training of junior estimators [or any estimator if needed]
- Training of non-estimators on custom-made tools / templates, so they can become estimating focal points within the organisation
- Customised estimating workshops (online or on-site)
OTHER SERVICES
- Check estimates as a basis of camparison to help with reviewing more detailed estimates
- Estimate due diligence
- General estimating advice
- Bid reviews
- Support stage-gate reviews to drive front end loading rigour and underpin project cost and risk quantification
- Advisory services on collating supply chain data to develop estimating databases
- Development of estimating procedures
- Ongoing support and follow-up updates to previously supplied templates and estimates
What you will get:
- Quick estimating services and custom-made tools
- Very simple, non-biased and transparent outputs (Excel based)
- No black-box approach
- Anybody should be able to understand, modify and use multiple times
- Great value added during design optimisation phase
- Better communication between engineering, business development, decision makers and other stakeholders
- Advice and support to shape scopes during early stages to really focus on what work is necessary to reach the right veracity of cost estimate – not do too much, but also do enough for e.g. for First-of-a-Kind projects
- Identification of items that are sometimes missed and add to cost in the later stages of project development
- Simple semi-standardisation of estimates during early stages of development for complex projects
- Suitable during feasibility studies, concept & pre-FEED phases to get through FEL1 & FEL2 stages
Get in touch (for pricing & agreement):
If you would like to discuss your needs and find out how I can help with your current requirements, do drop me a message, and I will get back to you and we can arrange an initial non-committal chat (online or face-2-face if needed).