Breaking Into the Defence Sector – Hard FM

Future Defence Infrastructure Services (FDIS) – Built Estate – Vinci Facilities

Breaking Into the Defence Sector – Hard FM

Background

The Defence Infrastructure Organisation’s (DIO) £3bn FDIS Programme was launched in 2019. Included within this was the Built Estate element which included four regional contracts delivering Hard Facilities Management (FM) services for the UK Defence built estate valued at a total of £1.6bn. The Contracts themselves would be for an initial 7yrs and contain 3 additional performance related option years Understandably, there was significant interest from industry in this procurement, not only from those who already had a strong presence within the Defence FM sector, but also from those who saw this as an opportunity to access a new market. One of these was VINCI Facilities, a leading provider of nationwide Facilities Management services to the public sector, but someone who wanted to grow their presence within Defence.

Challenges

VINCI faced stiff competition from those who had vast experience of Defence FM Contracts. So they needed to do two things. Firstly, quickly build a comprehensive understanding of Defence Infrastructure. Secondly consider how they would position themselves in a way which clearly demonstrated their expertise and capabilities harnessed from other areas of the public sector (particularly in asset and digital management) – but in a way which could be tailored for Defence.

How WaND provided support and outcome

WaND were engaged early, during the pre-tender stage, to provide workshops focused on expanding VINCI’s knowledge of Defence Infrastructure – sharing our vast understanding of the defence infrastructure landscape, extensive stakeholder community, end user perspectives and Defence governance. Once the tender was launched in late 2019, WaND were embedded within the Bid team, providing end to end bid support, applying the WaND methodology – including strategic advice, answer planning, reviewing and direct drafting. We were delighted and proud, that in June 2021, VINCI were awarded the Southeast FDIS contract – their preferred lot – taking responsibility for managing the maintenance of over 6,200 buildings and infrastructure assets at 59 military sites in London and the Southeast. The contract will run until at least 2028 and is worth up to £1.1Bn over the initial term, comprising £423M for the core FM contract and a potential £732M from additional works.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank the WaND team for your significant contribution to VINCI’s FDIS Built Estate response. I have been taken by the breadth of capability and deep level of understanding your consultancy has, particularly in relation to how Defence Estate directly impacts core military capability” Lee Scragg – VINCI FM

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Our Partners

We have a number of informal strategic partnering arrangements with other sector specialists and often work alongside them when supporting a client as our services are complementary. These include Cargyll, Akerlof, Electi, SecureConstruct and HLM Architects.