Vercity launches Collaborative Reset™ - its data-driven solution to help legacy PFIs get smoothly back on track.

Vercity is committed to navigating projects through complex commercial challenges while preventing relationships from becoming strained. We ensure that everyone stays focused on delivering services and meeting the needs of the end-users of our infrastructure projects. By avoiding disputes and their escalation, we help preserve valuable resources of all parties - such as time, money, people, and reputation - so that they remain dedicated to daily operations, protecting service delivery, people’s well-being and relationships.

Vercity has honed it’s “Collaborative Reset” methodology and initial diagnostic tool, with over 25 years of experience of successfully managing high-profile projects such as the M40, Alder Hay Hospital, MOD Main Building, the Royal Edinburgh, A55 (better known for the Menai Bridge), or Barts and Royal London Hospitals. Vercity are also 2023 winners of the Institute of Collaborative Working Chairman’s award.

Richard Hoare, Vercity’s CEO, said “We all depend on our community’s infrastructure in our everyday lives, whether that be hospitals, schools, roads, windfarms, bridges or social housing.  Our approach gives all stakeholders an opportunity to create the certainty, value-for-money, and reliability everyone seeks.  We leverage facts and data analytics, to  remove emotion from the resolution where possible, and use our experience to help foster a collective and proactive approach.” 

Paul Francis, Vercity’s MD of Operations, adds “The focus on delivery offers all stakeholders the opportunity to receive an assured performance from the asset whilst avoiding the negative impacts of legal intervention and restricted cashflows.

There are many myths around public-private-partnership projects, and its human nature to regurgitate the most dramatic stories and negative interpretations of events, but the reality we see is different. When all parties bring their experience, and the right behaviours and core values, the tangible benefits brought to the communities and the value created for all stakeholders is undeniable.”

Why Vercity? For over 25 years, through various forms of PPP, PFI and project-finance,  we have been the catalyst for bringing the public sector, private investors and the facilities management supply chain together on over 100 projects, representing over £30Bn of capital expenditure. With empathy and transparency, and equipped  with facts and data-analytics, our structured approach creates a collaborative plan that all parties can subscribe to, enabling it to be actively managed to completion. This is a win-win for all parties, resetting the baseline for the asset’s future performance and maintaining strong working relationships into the future.

Leveraging Data.  Mark Cade, who leads the Strategic Asset Management practice at Vercity said “Our approach starts with a proprietary diagnostic tool which leverages our lake of project performance data and our experience of navigating projects through challenging periods. The initial diagnostic enables us to quickly benchmark and highlight key risks and challenges that need to be addressed by all parties.  We create a ‘neutral ground’ where the requisite collaboration can start to be rebuilt and reset the project for future success.”

WE ARE OFFERING THE INITIAL DIAGNOSTIC PRO BONO FOR A LIMITED NUMBER OF PROJECTS ON A FIRST-COME-FIRST-SERVED BASIS. 

Who should initiate a Collaborative Reset, and when? Ideally, our initial diagnostic should be conducted proactively - before a project officially requires a 'reset.' In theory, any key stakeholder can initiate this diagnostic at any time, whether it’s part of a de-escalation process, a risk management strategy or simply a precautionary measure. This could be the public sector, the special-purpose project company, the lenders, or even the primary FM contractor. After the data-driven diagnostic, but very early in the process, all parties are brought together to agree a Collaborative Reset Charter, which sets the positive “tone from the top” for the project plan that follows.

Next Steps: Regardless of which stakeholder you represent, if you believe your project could benefit from a proactive diagnostic, please get in touch. All enquiries will be treated with utmost confidentiality. Your project could be one of the projects to benefit from our diagnostic tool and benchmarking.

Email this address: solutions@vercitygroup.com - and one of our experts will be in touch to explore it with you.