Nicola Fleuty, technical director for RAM Consultancy, reflects on 2016
Certainly a historical year for international politics and worldwide conflicts close to home. Add to that seemingly endlessly sad loss of talented entertainment industry stars, including some real legends. Whenever things get on top of us, we should spare a thought for those poor innocent souls caught up in some truly horrific conflicts around the globe.
Well, it may not have gained such public attention or have been of such significance in global terms, but 2016 has been a significant year for RAM Consultancy. Building upon over 15 years of steady growth, RAM has extended its client offering to a much wider scope of specialist building envelope services, full design and project management services, as well as the established defect analysis and expert witness services that have been so successful these last two decades.
Our client demands have become so much more sophisticated and we have responded positively to this by taking up membership of the RICS to ensure we operate within established professional service guidelines. Several members of staff now carry full professional qualifications, including building surveying, construction management, façade engineering, civils and building technology as well as those already fully experienced expert roofing consultants.
We have engaged with many clients in some quite innovative and very open ways. During these developments, we have never made a secret of our association with the M&J Group, in fact we see this as a positive, mainly due to the added levels of expert knowledge and experience this brings. However, this should not and does not stop RAM working with other roofing and building contractors, in fact they remain the larger proportion of our client base and many have recognised the real added value of working closely with RAM Consultancy: the extra professionalism with the absolute guarantee of confidentiality. We have found that for many clients increasingly, they like the idea of a “one-stop shop” and having a specialist consultant like RAM as the partner to a contractor is very enticing to them. This has created many a situation that permits the negotiation of works rather than traditional tendered routes.
What is next? What is 2017 going to mean to RAM Consultancy? Certainly RAM will continue to maintain a high industry profile – once again we will be a major sponsor at the NFRC Awards – and sustained growth is part of our overall plan. New custom-built offices this year, an increasingly wider service offeriing, adding further professional staff and sooner rather than later the opening of regional offices.
Nicola Todd, business development manager for RAM Consultancy sets out just one of her targets: “In 2017, RAM wants to build upon its roofing industry relationships, to make it clear to progressive contractors and product suppliers that by working together we can create a formidable team that produces the highest quality results for one another. If you want to be part of that success, please call me, I would be very happy to prove how this can work for you.”
