3.5.1 CLIENT RECOMMENDED ATTRIBUTES

It was also desired to determine what attributes client's desire and what should be actually considered, and what factors should be used to measure the winner of a maintenance contract. Figure 14 shows the results of the clients' survey and are designated from most important criteria to least important. Not all countries replied to this part of the questionnaire, but a significant majority responded.

Figure 14 Clients' Survey on Quality Selection Factors

Client's perception is that the most important single issue is the QC plans that are submitted by the service provider. Then there is a significant gap to the next import factors which are technical skills, methodology, past experience, and project management skills. These top five attributes account for approximately two-thirds of the most important factors that should be determined when selecting the winner of a publicly tendered maintenance contract.

What is quite surprising is that partnering and innovations are not considered so important, but when these topics are discussed they appear to be an important part of the maintenance contracts. Also, surprisingly and even lesser important were environment and equipment attributes which were not considered as being as significant and maybe this is due to the already required environmental standards that must be achieved under any contracting arrangements. The equipment factor was quite interestingly low too, because most of the Nordic countries using the "Cold Climate Model" do in fact measure the type of equipment used, especially for winter maintenance. These results maybe swayed by the fact that several countries do not have significant winter maintenance operations and equipment issues may not be that significant to warmer climates. However, when looking at the Nordic country responses there was no broad consideration of equipment being a significant factor either.