Causeway launch electronic Pre Qualification Questionnaire service

Thursday, 28 January 2010

Causeway Building Register is a single source of over 350,000 sub-contractors and suppliers enabling construction companies to search and select suppliers quickly and easily, with the knowledge that these companies are verified by the country’s leading register. The website provides instant access to companies together with financial, health and safety, quality and insurance information to reduce risk and save time.

Legal changes within the industry over the last few years has forced clients to check that contractors are evaluating their own supply chain to help reduce business and insurance risk on all projects. The mechanism for this has been the completion of a Pre Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ) for every chosen supplier prior to working on a construction site.

For many Contractors this is a large paper based document and although a large percentage of the information is standard, the questions are structured differently. This takes many hours to complete, print and return, with no ability to repeat the process on subsequent PQQs received. A costly and time consuming process.

With over sixteen years experience, the Building Register has launched a PQQ service which populates client, contractor and local authority questionnaires at the click of a button. Contractors need to simply select a company from the Building Register and choose ‘Our Pre Qual’ option. Within seconds the on-line system merges and maps all the selected company details from the Building Register system into their own branded PQQ - quickly and easily, saving both parties hours of paperwork and cost. All supporting documents,such as insurance certificates, Health and Safety etc can be attached and emailed, printed or saved for future record. Once completed, the PQQ is published as a PDF and submitted electronically avoiding printing, paper costs and supporting the Green IT initiative.

Within weeks of launching the service many Trade Associations and Federations contacted the Building Register to find out more, but the National Federation of Demolition Contractors, NFDC, were the first to select the Building Register to help its members with the completion of the PQQ’s received.

NFDC President David Darsey, commented: “Pre-qualification questionnaires are a costly and labour-intensive drain on the demolition industry so we’re delighted to be able to provide our members with this excellent alternative. We are also delighted that, in this first year, the Federation is able to absorb the registration cost to provide NFDC corporate members with access to The Building Register free of charge.”

Building Register Managing Director, Dave Gilchrist, explained: “Despite government attempts to overhaul the PQQ system and create a publicly accepted standard, there can be no getting away from the fact that most clients still want contractors to fill in their own questionnaires, in their own format. As such we have developed an option for both scenarios; a well presented generic pre qualification questionnaire and, a more important, mapping service which places the information into the client’s, contractor’s or local authority’s own format.”

NFDC Chief Executive Howard Button added: “Following requests from our members, we looked at a number of PQQ alternatives before we finally opted for The Building Register. It was important for us that we didn’t simply replace one complex and time-consuming system with another. Having compared a number of alternatives, we all agreed that The Building Register offered our members the best possible solution.”

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