Cost Engineering

I am proud to present different topics at the Iceland Project Management Conference 2011. The first one is about the role of the cost engineer and the second one is about Labour Norms. I hope these topics will trigger you to come to the conference and take the opportunity to learn something about cost engineering as a profession.

Cost engineering has quickly been gaining popularity and claims an important role after the crisis. And what a time it has been. In the first part of the crisis, industrial business collapsed. Before the crisis the sky was the limit for most companies and the effect was rising prices and a shortage of personnel and materials. The cost engineer was found to be a beacon in the raging seas of rising prices for all parts of your projects. What a contrast with the period after the crisis where projects have been postponed or even abandoned and prices dropped to net cost or even below. Even banks are asking for high quality project budgets to be sure the projects will be delivered in time and within budget against the lowest cost and therefore the cost engineer has to be that beacon again. But now the cost engineer needs to show the best way to reduce cost while increasing project value. Because the cost engineer still is the spearhead of the company that is looking to maximize its success regardless of the economic tide.

In the presentation I will be specifically looking into a number of subjects that show you how to be of an added value in cost engineering for your organization. This means that we will be looking at the risks the current economic tides bring to organizations. As expected, I will also spend time considering cost reductions which will be the way forward for the coming years. And not in the least the presentation will pay attention to the fact that cost engineering more and more has become a management position. We see cost engineering integrated in management where companies want to make the right decisions both in the initial investment as well as its long term implications. The worldwide demand for good cost engineers over the past years is a great example. It shows the new emphasis that organizations are recognizing  the important position of the cost engineering for their business and their future. For that reason we believe that this is a long term projection that the demand for cost engineers will grow in the years to come.

Technology has played a major role in the development of cost engineering over the past years. Now we see a new direction evolving. Where cost engineers had to use multiple applications to obtain their results, we now see a trend where a single application has to cover the complete project life cycle. This is a development that will cut down on both cost and time and will have a definite effect on your projects. And it is a development which we have kept in mind during the development of CleopatraEnterprise.
Another great effect on projects will be the use of standard data. Over the past years we have seen companies questioning the value of black box calculations. Knowing your calculation values and the ways in which they are used is becoming the new standard. Cost Engineering standard databases are following that trend and leading the way in European standard data. The magic word is now transparency.

The added value of this conference is bringing project managers and cost engineers closer to each other and that we have at the end a better understanding of the role of the cost engineer. As you will see there are more than enough developments in cost engineering to keep us busy over these coming years. In closing, I would like to add that if you would have any specific questions during the conference, you can always approach me to answer all your questions.

I wish you a great time and I hope the knowledge obtained here can be of immediate value to your projects.

Kind Regards
Ko des Bouvrie
Technical director