20 Questions Before Outsourcing Architectural Services

Outsourcing architectural services has become a strategic norm for construction project owners to access professional services that ensure scalable solutions and global expertise without having to invest a fortune into a full-blown process setup.

Project outsourcing is a way to ensure cost efficiency and value compliance throughout the process. This includes enabling and driving standardized processes across the project lifecycle, including design development and construction documentation to BIM modeling and detailing, aiming at optimum output.

However, as a matter of fact, the above factors can only be ensured by roping in the right architectural services partner for the project. This requires the project owners and consultants to consolidate all important project points and create a questionnaire out of it for a detailed discussion with the service providers. Upon receiving the required answers to these questions and duly analyzing, evaluating, checkboxing, and summarizing value proposition and competitive advantage compared with options, the service provider should be finalized.

To get this right upfront, take a note of the essential strategic questions that need to be asked to help you make informed decisions before outsourcing architectural services.

Question To Ask #1: What are the architectural services you specialize in?

All architectural service providers do not necessarily offer a complete array of services, such as schematic design, design development, construction documentation, BIM, detailing, and visualization. Even in case you find all the services listed in the company's catalog, the value proposition may vary inordinately. Get a detailed understanding of what they specialize in and where their true potential lies. Asking the provider about their specialization and knowing their strength areas can help you know if their solutions can align with your project requirements.

Question To Ask #2: Do you have similar prior experience working on a project like ours?

This question gives you the direction to dive deep into the portfolio of the concerned provider and know if they have done anything similar to what is required to be done in your case. Their past work tells a lot about their eligibility to work on your project in terms of aptness and relevance. The more experienced they are working on a project like yours, the more assurance you have of value and success with the project.

Question To Ask #3: Which design and visualization tools do you use?

The BIM tools and supporting platforms that the partnering service uses should align with your purpose and ensure compatibility with your workflows. Provide them your list of tools, including different options that may work in your case. Some of the popular tools that most of the companies work on include AutoCAD, Revit, Navisworks, SketchUp, Rhino, and Archicad. With anything beyond this that is less common or is among the latest releases, you may check for exact references and get into a detailed discussion to evaluate their proficiency in the tool.

Question To Ask #4: How do you ensure accuracy and quality in design?

Any architectural outsourcing services you engage with should have a strong quality analysis/quality checking process in place. This should be one of the central criteria to consider the eligibility of the service partner. You should be asking questions about what practices and methods they follow to ensure accuracy and quality in architectural design. Ask them about their systems for internal review, clash checks, standardized documentation, and compliance validation to get a fair idea of how it will be deployed and delivered on the ground.

Question To Ask #5: How familiar are you with local building codes and standards?

If you are hiring an offshore team, you should ensure that they are well-acquainted with the local building codes and zoning laws. This is important, as without meeting the regional standards that suffice local service compliances, any effort into architectural design or drawing services will be wasted, and the project will have no effective practical relevance. This makes it important for you to confirm with them the team's experience with working on local or international building codes as per your project requirements.

Question To Ask #6: In what ways do you manage project communication?

Clarity and direction in project communication are as important as any other aspect of the solution. Clear communication builds trust and transparency and surpasses any disputes and delays in the process. To ensure communication remains steady, smooth, and effective, you must ask your service partner about the communication tools, collaboration platforms, reporting formats, feedback mechanisms, and POCs involved in the process before outsourcing architectural drawings services. Also, check with the company what backup and controlling solutions they have in place in case of communication breakdown or process failure.

Question To Ask #7: What is your typical turnaround time?

Turnaround times are important for any project type, whether it is for architectural CAD drafting services or construction drawing services. The time it takes to execute projects is important to decipher cost and maintain schedules. It also allows cross-functional teams to coordinate better and control the way the process moves. Put up the question to your provider about how they plan deliveries and know about the submission timelines and project milestones in detail. Also, ask them about how they will adjust to sudden urgent requests and how they will scale with growing project demands.

Question To Ask #8: What measures do you take to protect data confidentiality and IP?

Any type of data that is being dealt with digitally is prone to cyber attacks and threats. Besides, there are chances of traditional data breaches and infringements in a project where many project members and outer functionaries are involved. When you are exploring options for outsourcing architectural services, you should ask questions about the IP security policies, NDA terms, access control practices, and the file sharing protocols that the company follows to ensure data protection and confidentiality.

Question To Ask #9: What is your team composition and structure?

The way an outsourcing company appoints and structures its team says a lot about how stable and streamlined their processes are. Knowing who will work on your project and what the team will look like gives you a great deal of insight into how the project will be approached. Here, you should ask for the list of professionals who are going to be a part of the project (like architects, BIM modelers, coordinators, or reviewers) and get details about their qualifications, experience, and availability.

Question To Ask #10: What engagement model options do you have?

Different projects have different functional and procedural requirements. These need to be dealt with differently with a specialized service model that works best to cater to the specific engagement criteria of the project. This is where the need to explore engagement models gets big and real. Before you finalize the provider, ask this question: if they have different engagement models to offer and how flexible these models are to adjust to your needs now and in the future. Get details from them about the common models most of the outsourcing firms offer (like dedicated teams, hourly support, studio, or project-based engagement) and explore possibilities for any custom requirements you have.

Question To Ask #11: How do you handle change requests and manage revisions?

In the architectural modeling process, design iterations are inevitable. Check if the outsourcing agency has revisions covered in the proposed plan, in the first place. Then get clarity on the process they follow for handling change requests and who all are involved. These details should include a clear and transparent understanding of the standard procedure, practicing approach, and turnaround expectations.

Question To Ask #12: What quality benchmarks or KPIs do you follow?

There are different measuring criteria and techniques to evaluate the quality of the delivery process. These evaluative benchmarks may include accuracy markers, RFI reports, operational uptime, standard compliance, and adherence to delivery schedules. With these details about quality benchmarks or KPIs, you will get a fair idea of how and at what levels the agency assesses quality and how much it aligns with your quality parameters and guidelines.

Question To Ask #13: Can you provide us support during construction?

Not all service team's scope may go beyond primary design services to offer comprehensive support. In case your project requires to be attended for other aspects of the solution and you need full-scale specialization support, you need to look for a provider who can help you with all the support you need at a stretch under one roof. To ensure you find the right partner as per your support needs, you may ask questions around your focus support areas (like shop drawing reviews, as-built documentation, or construction-phase coordination), beginning from availability of service to level of expertise and course of action.

Question To Ask #14: What are your pricing models and cost structures?

This is one of the most imperative discussions to have with your service provider. Whether you are looking for outsourcing architectural drafting services or architectural CAD services, it is important to know how the pricing models are designed and cost structures are built and get a custom quote around that for your solution. Explore the proposed pricing models, and validate their feasibility in your case. While discussing this, dissect different cost factors and evaluate and compare the applied and projected fees and charges doing a full-framework cost-benefit analysis.

Question To Ask #15: Can you provide case and client references?

This will allow you to get a concrete picture of the company's execution-level expertise and on-ground capabilities as they provide you detailed use cases and references for the projects that they have already executed in the past. This gets you a realistic idea of the technology curve, resource integrity, process efficiency, and value compliance levels and how reliable and credible the company can be for your project and deliver as per your requirement and expectation.

Question To Ask #16: What process do you follow for escalation and risk management?

A project may face many types of issues related to timelines, quality, compliance, or coordination. Discussing with the team about how they provide for situations that may get futile for the project output or may deviate results, helps in detecting risks in time and providing an apt solution to fix them. Ask this question to explore how the partner firm will identify, process, escalate, and resolve any adverse occurrences to prevent any possible downturns or failures.

Question To Ask #17: In what ways do you support scalability during peak workloads?

Most of the project owners outsource their work to agencies for operational flexibility. As outsourcing firms have full-blown service capability and expert resources with an all-equipped setup to help them deliver projects meeting varied client requirements, they are prepared to work flexibly, address any situation, and deliver at scale. As you interview a service provider, you must seek answers to how effectively and quickly they can scale up and down to serve shifting project requirements without compromising quality and service schedules.

Question To Ask #18: What do you do for client satisfaction and continuous improvement?

Outsourcing agencies that have spent some time in the market have frameworks built for client satisfaction and continuous improvement. They follow a dedicated system to actively seek feedback, conduct project reviews, track progress, and drive continuous improvement practices built on a cohesive client satisfaction and value enablement framework. Ask your provider about their approach towards these practices to ensure progressive collaboration and optimum outcomes.

Question To Ask #19: How do you manage time zone differences?

In most of the situations outsourcing processes operate in different time zones. Time zone differences can be a deterrent factor in the project workflow and may affect communication and delivery in different ways. It is always a practical and viable move to engage with a team that works within your time zone so you may overlap with their production hours and communication timelines optimally. Considering these facts you should ask your provider about their active time zone, and if there are any process rosters and communication protocols they follow to meet off-time emergencies.

Question To Ask #20: What is your approach to sustainability and energy-conscious design?

With growing need and awareness toward sustainable building solutions and more technologies growing to support energy-conscious practices, it is important that project owners keep accessible room for aligning their architectural solutions with sustainable construction designs. This is where the need for prior checks comes in, where the provider should be asked for green building standards, energy modeling processes, and sustainability design practices.

To Conclude

Outsourcing architectural services involves various production design and application factors alongside uncertain turnaround possibilities that need to be taken up by specialized professionals who have proven experience in the domain. Selecting the right service partner who can provide the needed support and drive your project toward desired results needs to be done with careful consideration. The above list of questions should help you explore and navigate through various aspects and criteria of choosing the right outsourcing partner for your project.

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