Gary Wingrove is responsible for helping cut BT鈥檚 拢900m-a-year property spending habit. And to do it, he鈥檚 moving away from its frameworks. So who is he looking to talk to, asks Emily Wright, and what does he want to hear?

Gary Wingrove never wanted to be an astronaut or a fighter pilot when he was growing up. For him, there was never any doubt that he would work in construction. The son of a tiler, his experience of life on site started early: 鈥淎s far back as I can remember, the building trade was part of my life,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 used to jump in the van on a Saturday and go down on site and play around. I hope I won鈥檛 get shot by the health and safety police for that,鈥� he laughs. 鈥淏ut I always knew this was the career I wanted.鈥�

Wingrove spent his early career working as a QS for 鈥渃ontractors of various sizes鈥�. He made the leap to the client side of the industry ten years ago, becoming head of construction programme management at BT.

He plays a major role in cutting BT鈥檚 拢900m annual property spend by about 12% a year - something he knows he can achieve only by toughening up its procurement system and demanding greater value for money from the supply chain. This means BT is to become the latest major client to emulate BAA by moving away from frameworks. This, Wingrove points out, will offer opportunities for anyone not already on one of its frameworks or pre-approved lists.

Change in procurement

Since joining BT full-time in April 2009, Wingrove鈥檚 hardest task has been to oversee the delivery and management of the firm鈥檚 development pipeline across 170 countries - while simultaneously cutting annual construction spend. 鈥淧roperty spend is around 拢900m a year,鈥� he says. 鈥淭here is pressure on us to reduce costs by 10-12% each year. With a property spend of about 拢1bn, that鈥檚 a significant amount of money.鈥� To achieve this saving, Wingrove is joining BAA, the ministries of defence and justice, the Highways Agency and others by rethinking procurement.

鈥淗istorically, BT has had a set-up where the supply chain is tied up on frameworks and [there is] another national panel of other firms who have all been pre-approved - so there is still limited competition,鈥� he says.

鈥淣ow we are trying to move away from using the frameworks. They were set up at a time when there was quite a lot of work around and they worked in that context. But in the current market, they don鈥檛 give us best value.鈥�

Over the next 12 months, Wingrove will be bringing in new firms to 鈥渨iden BT鈥檚 field of vision鈥�. He hopes the move away from frameworks will be seen by the industry as a positive development, but there will be no formal change to the system 脿 la BAA. At the airports operator, all projects worth more than 拢25m are sent out to tender. BT鈥檚 strategy will be more subtle.

鈥淭his won鈥檛 be a wholesale back to the market, open season,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut there will certainly be opportunities. We are taking a long, hard look at our supply chain and we want to fill some gaps.

鈥淪o it will be a case of looking at things on a project-by-project basis and saying:

鈥榃e don鈥檛 have enough London fit-out contractors. We want some on there to get some better value so let鈥檚 stick two or three on the list who don鈥檛 currently work for us.鈥欌��

No more Mr Nice Guy

Wingrove insists the industry at large and BT鈥檚 existing supply chain should not see the move away from frameworks as adversarial. But he does think the time has come to toughen up. 鈥淲e like to create long-term relationships with a supply chain, but you need to freshen things up,鈥� he says. 鈥淏T are considered nice people to work for. Some people might say we have been too nice, particularly in the current market. I think we are being harder now by planning to review our tender list on a project-by-project basis, rather than assuming we鈥檙e going to use the pre-approved contractors and consultants.鈥�

What about the reaction from the current incumbents? Wingrove has a short, sharp answer: 鈥淯nder their current contracts, they have no right to any work whatsoever and we have every right to bring in whoever we like. I hope our incumbent supply chain will rise to the challenge.鈥�

Even if the companies do this, winning work with BT will not be a walk in the park. Quite apart from the fact that, like any good client, Wingrove is looking for the best of the best, the work available will be limited over the next year or two at least, and competition will be fierce.

鈥淲e had hoped the budget reins would be let off slightly since last year as BT鈥檚 results were good but, probably quite rightly, the pressure has been kept on us to reduce costs further. As a result, work will be driven by necessity. We are looking to rationalise in the UK and there is a programme rationalising office space in the US, Far East and China. The other piece of work we have running at the moment involves rationalising our data centre portfolio.鈥�

Budgets won鈥檛 always be so tight, however, and Wingrove is keen to get new firms on board in time for a period of increased spend: 鈥淲e have a large property portfolio and the time will come when we have to spend more money as the buildings will start to let us down. We鈥檙e making them work harder at the moment - putting more people into fewer buildings - so we鈥檒l have to upgrade them.鈥�

So what does he want from potential supply chain members? Innovation and money-saving ideas are near the top of the list: 鈥淚t鈥檚 not as if we鈥檙e looking for just interior designers or a particular M&E contractor,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the style. We鈥檙e looking for people who have a bit of original thinking who, on top of giving us a good price for the job, can bring some extra value along because of past experience. We want people who can think on our behalf rather than just taking instructions.鈥�

He also says he would not be averse to adopting another BAA method - incentivising money-saving ideas with a financial pay-off. 鈥淎t the moment margins for contractors are very tight so I don鈥檛 see why we couldn鈥檛 say: 鈥橶e鈥檝e done the initial design, we鈥檝e priced it, we could do with shaving some money off and we鈥檝e run out of ideas. If you can come up with any, there is a share in it for you.鈥欌��

Wingrove on鈥�

Health and safety 鈥済one mad鈥�

I think we need to take a step back from the health and safety nanny state that has been created. Some of the things you have to do now are just comical.

Yesterday I went to a site that鈥檚 complete in terms of shell and core and almost complete in terms of fit-out. The carpet is down and there was furniture going in. But still, we had to put on personal protective equipment - hard boots, high vis, hats, goggles. Then we got into the building and had to put on overshoes so as not to damage the carpet.

I just think this is health and safety gone mad.

I understand it if you walk onto a site and there are cranes swinging around everywhere. At the moment it鈥檚 just ridiculous.

Journey from contractor to client

For 20 years I was working as a QS for contractors of various shapes and sizes. When you鈥檙e working for a contractor, I guess you don鈥檛 usually think about a move to the client side - that鈥檚 more the consultants鈥� realm.

But it was all about contacts and timing for me. I knew someone at Morgan Stanley who was working on Canary Wharf and set up a team there within Morgan Stanley to look after the cost management and procurement functions. Having done that, I met various people along the way. One of them ended up running property services at UBS, so he asked if I would come across and do the same over there, which I did.

I got made redundant from UBS in 2008, that鈥檚 no secret, and I was offered a full-time position here at BT in my current role in April 2009.

The next generation of office workers

As well as his role at BT, Wingrove is the incoming president of the British Council for Offices (BCO). He is now planning the council鈥檚 2011 conference, which will be held in Geneva.

He says it will be themed around the changing shape of offices and catering to the 鈥淔acebook generation鈥�, a new wave of office workers who might not want to continue working in a traditional desk-and-phone office set-up. This is something BT has been moving towards for a number of years, to the point where 65% of staff don鈥檛 have a desk allocated to them.

鈥淲e need to listen to what the next generation is saying,鈥� he urges. 鈥淏ecause in real terms, people who are thinking about investing in a new building now won鈥檛 be moving into that building for maybe six years in the City. By that time, people just going to university will be a few years into their careers and people out of university now will be getting to management level, making decisions. It worries me that we are not talking to those people. It needs to be about what they want. A developer and an architect can no longer be allowed to go off and design and build something based on what they want.鈥�

Wingrove will be using his position as BCO president and the conference next year to get across some of his key thoughts on how the industry should be trying harder to connect with this new generation.

鈥淚 think we should be liaising more with universities and colleges as an organisation and ask students and graduates how, given a magic wand, they would like to work. Do they want to go into an office? Do they want to have access to social networking sites throughout the day? Do they want to have fixed working hours?

鈥淚 really think people want to be more flexible now. Yes, they want to come to a place to meet and sit down to work individually and in teams. But you don鈥檛 need to provide banks of 1,400 desks to do that. Just provide wi-fi and flat surfaces in all different shapes and sizes for people to work on. It will come, as always, through certain companies. It will start with the Googles and the Microsofts. Then the BTs and Vodafones will follow and, kicking and screaming, the lawyers and investment bankers will be bringing up the rear.鈥�

Wingrove adds that his presidency will not just be focused on updating office space for people, but also on how to update commercial buildings to meet higher sustainability levels: 鈥淚 have been building with glass and concrete for as long as I can remember. But you see cars and planes being built out of composite carbon fibres. None of that seems to be coming into the industry. Is it that it can鈥檛? Is the industry not interested? Could we not replace some of the products that cause us problems in terms of sustainability?

鈥淚 get the feeling we鈥檙e not looking hard enough to answer questions and so that will be another major focus point at the conference next year.鈥�

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