Orange County Branch Newsletter

September 2005

Secretary's Column

COORDINATING WITH OTHER DEPARTMENTS [WITHIN A CONSULTING FIRM]


Darren Adrian, PE
Recently I attended our annual barbeque event and tour of the Tustin MCAS. As usual, I had a great time. The tour was informative, the blimp hangers are spectacular and the food was great. I always enjoy our barbeque event because it’s very casual and held early in the evening, which provides a more extended and comfortable time period to socialize with colleagues. In other words, we are not all trying to get back to work.
 
Near the end of the barbeque I ran into Rich Norton who works for the consulting firm HNTB. Rich and I go back thirteen years ago when we both worked at the same consulting firm. He was a mentor to me early in my career, so I am always very interested in what he has to say. Our conversation began with a discussion of the career paths we took and some of the decisions we had to make along the way. It eventually evolved into the subject of a consulting firm’s office operation, and specifically, how each function depends on input and assistance from the engineer.
 
Rich pointed out the importance that marketing, accounting and human resources functions have in the process of bringing the work in, getting it done, and getting paid. His primary point was that engineers at all levels need to understand the importance of these functions and be willing to coordinate and come through for them when their assistance is needed. As Rich made his point he added “as you know” several times throughout the discussion. I found myself nodding quickly and interjecting key points and experiences that I have had.
 
All of that nodding caused me to continue thinking about the subject and ask myself: am I doing my best to coordinate and come through for the key functions within the operation I am involved with? This can certainly be challenging, especially in light of heavy workloads and a shortage of engineers that our industry has seen in recent years. In fact, this may be an area that all of us can use some improvement in.
 
Let’s take a look at marketing. Proposals have hard deadlines, and marketing staff must obtain key components from the engineer as one of their first orders of work. The majority of their work cannot be completed until all, or nearly all, of the components are received. As engineer’s, our first tendency is to give priority to the deadlines assigned to projects we are involved with. After all, this is work we already have and we’re essentially doing “good marketing” by keeping the client happy so that they will want to give us the next project.
 
There’s more to the process than this. If marketing through good work were enough to bring the work in, then the marketing department wouldn’t be needed. And if we allow our contribution to fall to a lower priority, we are causing the marketing staff to crunch at the end, increasing the chances for mistakes or missing components. The bottom line: we need to remember that marketing staff are critical to “bringing the work in” since what they create serves to represent the firm and all of its qualifications. Furthermore, agencies will hold you to what is stated within a proposal, some even to the point that it becomes an attached to the agreement.  These points should be more than enough to convince us that our prompt assistance is critical. In addition, I think it is fair to say that keeping marketing staff happy increases your chances at winning that project you really want.
 
“Accounting” is a word that many of us shun, especially at the end of the month. This is a tough time for the engineer because deadlines for project work do not usually consider the billing cycle by conveniently falling after we have had a chance to complete all of our billing. In fact, there may even be a push internally to move a deadline up or complete certain milestones to achieve billing goals and to maintain cash flow.
 
Understanding the significance of cash flow to a company is really the key to appreciating the importance of the accounting function. If all engineers were exposed to managing their company’s balance sheet for a period of time, the monthly billing process, as well as follow-ups on account receivables,  would run a lot smoother. Some companies have gotten smart and they tie incentives such as cash bonuses to how well you do with the crucial part of the process – getting paid.
 
Accounting staff have a crunch time at the end of each month, and, like marketing, they need information from the engineer to complete their process. Our workload needs to be planned carefully to ensure this task gets completed early, as procrastinating to the end has a detrimental affect.
 
In addition to being punctual with completing billing, the engineer must also be careful to provide accurate information and adequate detail. This will surprisingly have a dramatic affect on the collection process. Clients tend to keep accurate and thorough invoices moving in the payment process, whereas the ones with mistakes or inadequate information causes the client to have to do more work, potentially resulting in these invoices sitting on their desk until they are able to get to them.
 
During my course of work I have found the following points to be helpful in times of interaction with marketing, accounting, or for that matter, any other department or function requiring coordination:
 
  1. Give priority to tasks that others depend on for their work.
  2. If your list is too long, don’t hesitate to delegate work or simply ask for help.
  3. Always remain focused on the bigger picture by understanding the importance of support functions associated with bringing the work in, getting it done, and getting paid.
Note that I used the term “engineer” throughout rather than identifying a management level position. This is because I agree with Rich’s point that engineers of all levels should be exposed to this so that they can develop an understanding and appreciation for the various support functions that are vital to sustaining our operation.
 
As usual, if you have an opinion or input to offer on this subject please feel free to email me at Darren.adrian@kimley-horn.com.

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