Asset management on strategic, tactical, and operational levels

Consultancy and engineering firm INNOCY offers services covering the entire life cycle of complex infrastructure. Director Bram ten Klei: "What makes us special is that we cover the entire spectrum. At strategic, tactical and operational level over the entire life cycle. From christening to demolition in road and rail infrastructure."

Ten Klei: "We see ourselves as the consultancy of the future; in this we do not do any detailed engineering ourselves, but we do set up the entire life cycle process for the client. We have the domain knowledge, the tooling and the experience that allow us to take an integral step forward with the client in realizing and managing its projects." The consulting and engineering firm is an independent entity under the banner of technology and service provider ICT Group. INNOCY focuses on six areas: asset management, project management, safety, data and information, infra development and technology and automation. Ten Klei: "The big common denominator here is the life cycle."

No newcomer

INNOCY may be a new name in the market, but it is certainly not a newcomer, Ten Klei explains. The consultancy and engineering firm
was created in October this year from the merger of the companies Proficium and NedMobiel. In practice, these two companies worked together on almost all DBFM contracts in the Netherlands in recent years, including the Blankenburg connection and the A9-Gaasperdammerweg.
Ten Klei: "We complement each other on several fronts. Proficium focused mainly on the installation side and looked at the life span and long-term management of these installations from the perspective of asset management. The added value was in the elaboration of analyses and RAMS (Reliability, Availability, Maintainability and Safety) reports, in other words both technical content and tactical content. NedMobiel had a great deal of expertise in civil engineering and construction and was mainly involved in the strategic process and the operational management of tunnels."

Switching

Asset Management Advisor Alexander Zoetemelk: "We can now see the synergy taking shape before our eyes, you can see it connecting.
Proficium had mainly electrical engineers, NedMobiel civil engineers. One was mainly in rail tunnels, the other in road tunnels.
All the positions are now at least double, which is of course extremely good, also for the customer. And then internally we also switch easily from operational to strategic level and vice versa." An important added value, he says. Because: "In practice you see that 'strategic' and 'tactical' have trouble understanding each other. We move between them, complementing, preventing noise and putting the dots where they belong." Ten Klei: "Hence our slogan: Life Cycle Masters."

Optimum

Staying 'on board' with the client for the entire life cycle is not the goal, but 'coincidence' has it that this is the case with the project that is realizing and managing the widening of the A9 near Amstelveen. INNOCY has been appointed to carry out the entire asset management during the realization and operation phases. Ten Klei: "We have been involved in various aspects of the bid from the start, including the OPEX budget, maintenance management and life cycle costing. We mapped out the risk profile and found an optimum between the costs and benefits during the project and during the maintenance period that follows. We not only create the plan, but also set up the asset management processes and activities. That means we provide the right people throughout the contract period, from asset manager to failure coordinators."

No hourly billing

Ten Klei: "We are in it on a risk basis and that means we are not in it for hourly billing, but always go for the best solution. We have agreed what the deliverables are and what fixed price goes with them. That means that every week we rethink what activities we need to perform to bring profit to the client. You're more in it as an entrepreneur than as a supplier of - say - an engineer. It also motivates the employees, because there are opportunities to rotate within the organization. It's an approach that we want to take further into the market." "Our goal is to always deliver added value that actually benefits the customer. To do that, you have to know and understand the customer and his business. Only then can you unburden him and solve the problems hands-on. We set up the process and ensure that the level of knowledge rises, so that the customer becomes 'self-sufficient', if that is what he wants. With a process that runs and a system that works."