Early Procurement by Partnering

The procurement strategy ”Partnering” has been and is used in Sweden, although to a rather limited extent. One variant of this strategy is when the contractor very actively works in the market in order to get in touch with a client and in order to enter into a building or construction project in a very early phase. This variant can be called ”Early Procurement by Partnering” (EPP). This paper describes a project with the aim of studying and analysing this special procurement strategy. Based on interviews with four individuals, three cases are described and analysed. The results of the project are mainly the following: • In order to have successful EPP-activities, the construction company must have employees with a suitable character, attitude and interest and with appropriate technical and economic competence. • EPP-projects can have a great economic importance for a local division of a construction company. It has not been possible, however, to express this importance in quantitative terms. • The interviewed individuals have mentioned that there are several advantages of EPP-projects. Among the most important is a simplified situation for the client and possibilities for the construction company to have long-range planning and to take its experience and wishes into consideration at the design stage. For individuals within the construction company the main advantage is that they have the possibility of joining a project very early and thereby having the potential to influence it and to be creative and innovative