Make project management a cornerstone of the way your firm does business, and win more work in a competitive market.
By Richard Massey Managing Editor
A work in progress since 2005, the Technical Core Team Global program by Hill International (Hot Firm # 31 for 2016) has evolved into one of the world’s premier systems for project management. Conceived in Dubai before the global economic slump, the goal of TCT is to deploy a PM team within the first week of signing a contract.
“That is one thing we do better than other companies,” says Akram Ogaily, senior VP and director of TCT Global. “The client doesn’t wait to see action on the ground. The client is comfortable with the first-month deliverable.”
Keystones of the program include:
- Lessons Learned, where PMs can share experiences across U.S. and international markets, and across disciplines
- Four to six seminars annually for information sharing and solutions across markets and disciplines
- Continual update and upgrade of database
- HR-Hill University Training Program for certification and promotion of Hill PMs
- PM satellite offices across the world
- Transparency between firm and client, best practices
- Client management, culture of the client
- Environment of the project, environment of the market
- Team management
Hill International is confident enough in its project management program to use it in the bidding process. Setting up project systems and tools. Reviewing contracts. Preparing RFPs for early procurement services. Client management. Making sure the project has a PM in place with not only the technical capability, but who understands the market’s nuances. All those elements come into play when Hill looks for work.
“These services have often been used by our business development team to win contracts,” Ogaily says.
The strategy is paying off. Hill is approaching its targeted order book of $1 billion.
Hill International, with 4,500 professionals in 100 offices worldwide, provides program management, project management, construction management, construction claims, and other consulting services primarily to the buildings, transportation, environmental, energy, and industrial markets. It is one of the largest construction management firms in the United States.
Beginning in late 2014, Hill migrated its TCT program – born and bred on the international stage – to Hill’s U.S. Corporate Group. The program’s PQMS and PM/CM procedures were tailored for the domestic market, and are supported by a TCT Global base in London.
“My goal is to bring the Hill culture to everyone in the company and also develop and share knowledge,” Ogaily says.
Hill’s TCT was put to the test in Iraq, where Hill opened an office in Baghdad. The project management program was instrumental in marketing, creating awareness, deploying staff, recruiting locals, and supporting the business development team. From 2011 to 2014, Hill won contracts for seven PM/CM projects in Iraq.
With 10 years of input from PMs from all across the world, TCT Global is a vast and complex database of institutional knowledge.
But at the end of the day, Hill achieves something simple.
“We jump into the project in the first week with the right people in place,” Ogaily says.
