Lowry Consulting Pty Ltd

03/04/2023

Automation is coming - embrace it.

Business Process Automation is a game-changer in the world of all business processes, including contract management processes.

26/02/2023

Adapted from insights by Martin barnes, one of the founders of modern project management.

Louis XIV, 1683,"re-establish good faith, give the quantities of the work and do not refuse a reasonable extra payment to the contractor"

26/02/2023

Construction is complex. Management tools are just as important as a hammer.

Worldwide events over the past three years have exposed serious deficiencies in the Australian construction industry.

18/01/2023

Excellent advice. It poses a lot of questions about the "how" in a fast-moving and challenging environment.

Construction sector insolvencies make up almost a third of business fails in Australia.

25/08/2022

It is imperative records are kept by both clients and contractors. With rising inflation, material and labour shortages and the effects of COVID still...

11/08/2022

Are you really interested in getting paid? Then take it seriously!

Construction Payment has become a specialist area of competence. It is a complex process that requires special knowledge and skills.

10/08/2022

Term or period contracts and standing orders can cost time and money collecting invoices. if you are looking at a term maintenance or ongoing subcontract you need to make sure you are not walking into a payment maze.

Contractors and subcontractors entering into a period maintenance or standing order contract, should be aware of the risks.......

28/03/2022

RED FLAGS -
The introduction of payment trusts in Qld has again been pushed out to 1 April 2023 for contracts over $3 million and 1 October 2023 for contracts over $1 million.

The reason for this cautious delay is understandable, with the turmoil in the industry with sharply rising costs and the collapse of major contractors.

However, subcontractors continue to be exposed at the worst possible time. Subcontractors MUST ensure they protect their entitlement to payment at all times and do not hesitate to collect invoices on time.

10/02/2022

SUBCONTRACTORS PAY ATTENTION: You must keep your contractual processes up to date to guarantee your entitlement to be paid, and INSIST on payment under the BiF (Qld) Act.

Crying over spilt milk does not help. Do it NOW......

2022. The prediction in Creditor Watch’s Business Risk Report for January comes as ASIC’s latest data on insolvencies shows a 38 per cent increase in insolvencies in the construction sector. The number of construction firms going into external administration jumped from 237 in the third quarter ...

15/12/2021

Why do governments around the world refuse to engage independent cost managers for infrastructure projects?

It can not possibly be a budget "blowout" this early into the design....it is just incompetent cost planning (unless it's deliberate to 'fit' a business case), and it costs the public a fortune. Bent Flyvbjerg (Oxford University), asked this question 20 years ago, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2278415. Our business had direct experience with such incompetence and cover-up on road infrastructure projects around that time.

When will they ever learn, when will they ever learn?

The federal government has been forced to chip in more money to get construction of the second M1 on the Gold Coast underway. The cost of the Coomera Connector has blown out by over $630 million to $2.

22/11/2021

The right tool for the job

It’s almost a cliche among the trades that create with their hands. The difference between the right tool and the wrong one is time, money and safety. The satisfaction of having an appropriate lever for your effort is extraordinary.

Watching people wrestling with their phones or their laptops is sad and frustrating. People continue to use the wrong tools. Perhaps they were the ones they learned a long time ago. Perhaps they came free with the device. More likely, they’re the result of a software company pushing forward an agenda that doesn’t take the user’s needs into account.

There’s probably a better digital tool for the thing you’re trying to do next online. It might be worth a few cycles to ask and discover and learn.

Invest once, benefit for a very long time.