Risk Management, Participatory Decision-making, and Efficient Measurement of Cooperation in Alliance Projects

Skanska is one of Finland’s largest residential property, commercial and production facility, and infrastructure constructors and project developers. Skanska Group operates in the Nordic countries, Europe, and the United States. In Finland, Skanska’s operations cover construction services, as well as the project development of residential and commercial properties.

The partnership between Skanska and Inclus began in 2017, and this cooperation has since covered three major construction projects. The first joint project was the Valtari alliance, after which was the Ahvenisto hospital project Assi, and the latest cooperation has been the OYS2030 Future hospital project of Oulu University Hospital.

In large alliance projects, there are several project parties, which we involve in the various stages and processes of planning. In large projects, there is a danger of the risks remaining latent, if they are not proactively identified and managed through a careful risk management process. It is usually the case, that the more complex the project, the more expensive the risks. 

More reliable risk assessment through crowdsourcing

Skanska has several large projects and is eager to actively find new operation modes and tools with which to develop their operations. The cooperation with Inclus started when Skanska was searching for a tool and processes to better involve people in the decision-making specifically in the multiprofessional environments of alliance projects.

Inclus and Skanska have co-developed and deployed a risk management tool in the Valtari alliance of the Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency, city of Lahti, municipality of Hollola, Skanska, and AFRY. Valtari is an alliance for the construction of trunk road Vt12 Southern Ring Road of Lahti, where the risks and opportunities are shared among the parties. The estimated value of the Valtari project is 172 million euros.

In our projects, we have several identified risk subjects, where we were eager to get the perspectives and evaluations of the various parties. The key is to ensure both proper risk management, and time and financial objectives of the projects, as well as to improve quality. In other words, ensuring the achievement of various objectives simultaneously is essential. The Inclus software offers a platform, where the project parties’ potential differences of opinion on a specific matter - typical especially in the developmental phase of the project alliance - are brought visible to the same view. Based on this, the parties strive for a common understanding of the most appropriate approach to handling these matters.

Inclus is utilised for risk and opportunity management also in the OYS2030 project, which objective is to build the smartest hospital in the world.

OYS2030 is a renewal programme, where the operations and facilities of Oulu University Hospital are updated to respond to the needs of the special health care of the future. According to the project’s vision, by 2030 Oulu University Hospital (OYS) will be the world’s smartest hospital, where the newest technology, modern facilities, and up-to-date skills guarantee an efficient and effective, world's best healthcare. Inclus tools have been a great asset in the project.

Views brought more visible in decision-making

Skanska has made versatile use of Inclus’ tools. In addition to risk management, the tools have been utilised in decision-making assessment. Using Inclus helps bring out beneficial views from the right people.

In our projects, we occasionally face extremely complex, difficult, and multidimensional problems, as well as having important objectives as a part of decision-making. With the tool, we are able to elicit opinions more widely, which is often challenging in a large group of people. This offers us viewpoints we normally could have overlooked.

Inclus gathers the viewpoints into the same view, where they can easily be discussed, and no one needs to feel insecure about their opinion.

Through crowdsourcing we make better decisions. Also, when people are involved in the decision-making process at an early stage, they are more committed. All this equals to more high-quality operations. Decision-making situations are often delicate and tense, as the parties may initially possess a differing comprehension of the subject. Inclus has helped us support the decision-making process more comprehensively.

Enhanced quality in the measurement of cooperation

As more experience on Inclus was desired, Skanska expanded its use from risk management and decision-making to the measurement of cooperation in the Ahvenisto hospital project.

The estimated completion time of Ahvenisto hospital, Assi, is in 2025. The hospital is designed as a future health care and next generation hospital and service centre. It is built in the vicinity of Ahvenisto natural park in Hämeenlinna. The aim is to create a high-quality health care concentration in Tavastia Proper, which meets the needs of future health care with a customer-oriented approach.

With Assi, the measurement of cooperation has taken place quarterly. Starting from the second quarter of the previous year. The measurement and results have been incredibly positive and, also, promising in terms of development potential.