Frequently asked questions

Sami Strategy Co. is a Melbourne construction consultancy that provides estimating, tendering, contract administration, project management and development management. It works with subcontractors, builders and head contractors, developers, homeowners and owners corporations, and each group uses a different mix of those services. The company is led by directors Sandra Seo and Mina Song.

Working with Sami Strategy Co. can begin with a complimentary consultation about the project or the work you want to hand over. Ongoing estimating, tendering and contract administration then start with a short signed agreement that sets out the scope and how the work will be delivered. Builders, developers and homeowners who need a single estimate can usually send the drawings straight away.

Sami Strategy Co. returns ad-hoc construction estimates within 1 to 5 working days, currently averaging 3. Where a job falls within that range depends on the size of the project, the number of trades to measure and how complete the drawings and documents are. If a tender closes sooner, send the closing date with the documents and Sami Strategy will confirm whether it can be met before work starts.

For an estimate or a tender, have the current drawings, the specification, any tender conditions, scope letters or contract documents, every addendum with its revision schedule, and your deadline. For project management, the building contract, drawings, program and any claims paid or correspondence to date give the starting picture. If some documents are still outstanding, an estimate can be prepared from what is available with the assumptions listed.

Sami Strategy Co. is based in Melbourne and works on projects across Victoria. Estimating, tendering on EstimateOne and document reviews are done remotely for clients elsewhere in Australia, because drawings and tender documents can be shared online. Site-based work, such as inspections, is agreed as part of each engagement.

Ad-hoc estimating with Sami Strategy Co. is engaged one job at a time with no long-term commitment, and many clients start that way. Builders and subcontractors who want continuity can move to a standing estimating or tendering arrangement under a signed agreement. Project management and development management are scoped in writing for each project.

Sami Strategy Co. is led by directors Sandra Seo and Mina Song and supported by estimators, including estimators with engineering backgrounds, and an associate project manager. The same team prepares estimates, tenders on EstimateOne, administers contracts and manages projects client-side. Claims and variations on a client's project are therefore checked by people who also price and administer construction contracts.

A construction estimator measures the work shown in the drawings and specification, then applies rates to those quantities to arrive at a cost. The estimator also reads the tender conditions and contract, because scope letters and contract clauses can add work the drawings do not show. At Sami Strategy Co. the result is a take-off, marked-up drawings and written notes on scope gaps, discrepancies and risks.

Builder quotes can be compared item by item when every builder prices the same scope, and an unrated bill of quantities prepared from your drawings gives them one template to price. A market-rated version of the same bill gives you a reference price to test each quote against. Read each quote's exclusions, provisional sums and prime cost items before comparing totals, because those items decide what each total covers.

A bill of quantities lists each item of work measured from the drawings, with a description, a unit and a quantity. Owners and developers issue it to builders so every tenderer prices identical quantities, and builders use it to price the job, order materials and let trade packages. Sami Strategy Co. prepares bills of quantities unrated, as a template for builders to price, or market rated, as a price reference.

An external estimator adds measuring hours when tender volume is uneven, when the in-house estimator is at capacity, or when several tenders close in the same week. Work is sent one tender at a time and priced at the business's own rates or handed back as quantities, so the margin decision stays with the business. Hiring suits a business with a full week of measuring every week, and some builders use both.

Sami Strategy Co. measures the trade packages a builder or head contractor nominates from the tender set and returns quantities in the builder's pricing format, with marked-up drawings and notes on scope gaps and risks. There is no set-up meeting for builders, so work starts when the documents arrive. The same quantities give the builder a benchmark for checking the subcontractor quotes that come back.

An estimator is usually enough when the aim is to set a budget, compare builders' quotes or price a tender, using a take-off, a bill of quantities and a market-rated estimate. A quantity surveyor is needed for a tax depreciation schedule, or where a financier or another party asks for a report from a certified quantity surveyor. Sami Strategy Co. provides estimating and does not offer quantity surveyor certification.

An estimate can be prepared from the documents available, with the assumptions made for any missing information listed alongside it. An estimate is only as firm as the documents behind it, so projects are often estimated more than once as the design develops. When revised drawings are issued, sending them with the revision schedule lets the affected quantities and mark-ups be updated.

EstimateOne, often shortened to E1, is an online tendering platform that Australian builders use to publish projects, share tender documents and invite subcontractors to quote on trade packages by a closing date. Subcontractors lodge their quotes on the platform, and addenda and answers to questions are issued through the same project listing. Sami Strategy Co. uses EstimateOne as its primary tendering platform.

Sami Strategy Co. reviews a subcontractor's E1 invitations, measures and prices each chosen package at the rates agreed at the start, and lodges the submission before the closing date. The business can be represented through the tender process while Sami Strategy does the measuring, pricing and lodgement, and someone in the business signs off each price before it goes in. After lodgement Sami Strategy liaises with the builder and records the outcome.

A tender can lose after the builder adds back the cost of its exclusions to compare quotes on the same basis, a step called levelling. Missing items, unclear qualifications and a submission the builder has to come back about also count against a quote, and so can a rushed price that carries a gap or a rate error. Asking for feedback after each result and recording it in a tender register shows which of these is happening.

A scope gap is work the tender documents leave unclear or unallocated, such as an item drawn with no matching specification clause, or an interface between two trades that neither scope covers. A scope gap that is still unpriced, unqualified or unanswered at the closing date can become a cost once the job is won. Every Sami Strategy Co. tender includes a scope and contract review that writes these findings into inclusions, exclusions and qualifications.

A complete tender submission carries the price in the form the invitation asks for, each addendum acknowledged, and clear inclusions, exclusions and qualifications. It also lists the questions raised with the builder and the answers given, the program assumptions, the validity period of the price, and the insurances, licences and safety documents the invitation requests. A submission the builder can evaluate without coming back to the subcontractor is simpler to compare.

Builders usually start with ad-hoc estimating on a single package, and a partnership follows once that work has proved itself. Sami Strategy Co. then meets the builder to understand its current estimating process, a signed agreement confirms the scope, and tenders are handed over as they arrive. The work can sit alongside the builder's own estimators, or Sami Strategy can represent the company through the tender process.

A contract administrator runs the paperwork a construction contract creates once it is signed: progress claims, variations, notices, procurement records and correspondence. Each item is prepared in the form the contract requires and served within its timeframes, and registers record what was claimed, agreed and paid. Sami Strategy Co. provides contract administration for subcontractors and builders, who keep the commercial decisions and approve everything before it is sent.

A progress claim is easier to approve when its figures reconcile to the contract sum and the previous claim, and each line is backed by a record such as a marked-up drawing, a dated photo, a delivery docket or an approved variation. Listing pending variations separately from approved ones keeps the claim to what can be supported. Serving the claim on the date and in the form the contract allows also matters, because a late or informal claim can delay or reduce payment.

Extra work requested on site should be confirmed in writing before it proceeds where the contract allows, stating what was asked, by whom and when. The change is then priced, submitted for approval and tracked in a variation register until it is agreed and paid. Many contracts make a written instruction a condition of payment for a variation, so a daily record of the work also helps until the price is settled.

The construction contract sets when retention is returned, and a common pattern is part at practical completion and the balance at the end of the defects liability period, once defects are made good. Retention release is claimed like any other amount, so note the release dates from the first claim and serve the claim when each date arrives. Unresolved defects can be raised as a reason to hold back the final release.

Before signature, scope gaps, unclear payment terms, exclusions and allowances can still be changed by agreement. A review at that point checks the scope documents, exclusions, variations clause, time and payment terms, security and dispute steps. Sami Strategy Co. reads contracts for scope gaps and risk and explains each clause in plain words, and legal questions go to your lawyer.

Four contract families are common in Australia: lump sum, where the builder agrees a fixed price for a defined scope; cost plus, where the owner pays actual cost plus an agreed fee; design and construct, where one contractor designs and builds; and construction management, where the owner holds the trade contracts and pays a manager to run them. Each divides the risk of cost and time overruns differently. Major domestic building contracts in Victoria also follow state rules on deposits and progress payment stages.

Owners appoint a client-side project manager on a knock-down rebuild when they want construction knowledge working on their side of the building contract. The project manager reads the contract before it is signed, checks each stage claim against the work on site, reviews variations and lists defects before handover. Where the owner also wants design, planning approval and builder selection carried for them, development management covers those stages as well.

The builder's project manager is employed by the builder to run the program, coordinate trades and prepare the builder's claims. A client-side project manager is appointed by the owner to check that same work from the owner's side: reading the contract, assessing each claim and variation and inspecting the works. The two roles sit on opposite sides of the same contract, and a project can have both.

Before a progress claim is paid, a client-side project manager checks it against the contract sum, the agreed payment schedule and the work completed on site. On a home build that includes confirming the stage claimed has been reached as the contract defines it. The owner then receives a written recommendation to pay the claim in full, pay it in part or decline it, with the reasons.

A client-side project manager can join a build that is already under way, and the engagement starts with a review of the contract, the program, the claims paid so far and the work completed on site. From there the project manager takes over checking claims, variations and inspections through to completion and defects. Bringing one in before the contract is signed gives more room to change the scope and payment terms.

An owners corporation committee can appoint an independent project manager to scope the works, run the tender, check the builder's claims and variations and report back at each stage. This suits defect rectification, waterproofing, facade, roof and structural repairs, and planned maintenance programs. The committee keeps the decisions and gains a written record of how lot holders' funds were spent.

A developer with a construction background may still want an independent project manager watching a particular builder, assessing progress claims and managing variations through the construction phase. The project manager's reports can be shared with financiers and partners. Client-side project management can be engaged on its own for construction, or as part of Sami Strategy Co.'s development management service.

A development manager can start before the land is bought, when due diligence and a feasibility estimate test the purchase against realistic construction costs. Sami Strategy Co. can also join a development at the design, approvals or tender stage, or for construction only, and the engagement picks up from the stage the project has reached.

Town planning applications, permit coordination and authority approvals are part of development management at Sami Strategy Co. The development manager coordinates the consultant team through design and keeps a tracked record of applications, permits and authority conditions. Estimates are updated as the drawings develop, so cost is checked at each approval stage.

A feasibility estimate is prepared before a site is bought, or before a design is committed to, so the decision is made with realistic construction costs. It sits alongside a review of the site's constraints, zoning and likely yield. In a development management engagement it then becomes a cost plan that is updated as the design develops.

Under development management, the development manager coordinates the architects, engineers, surveyors, planners and builder on the owner's behalf, so the owner deals with one team for the whole program. At each decision point the development manager brings the current costs, the risks and a recommendation, and the owner makes the decision. During construction the same team acts as the owner's client-side project manager.