Balfour Beatty, the international infrastructure group, has achieved an industry-first with a company-wide international accreditation for collaboration.
The IS044001 accreditation, which is the first international standard for collaborative business relationships, is a result of the evolution of British Standard BS11000, which Balfour Beatty was accredited for in 2013. BS11000 has since evolved into international standard IS044001 to help organisations to build and develop effective competitive business relationships based upon a collaborative approach.
Balfour Beatty will work to apply the standard to support effective relationships across the Group; from individual business relationships with customers to more complex relationships such as partnerships and joint ventures. The Company will utilise a collaborative business relationship management system, a tool which supports the delivery of best practice management approaches to help ensure that businesses of all sizes get the maximum value from working with each other to achieve a common goal or outcome2.
Collaborative business relationships have been shown to deliver a wide range of benefits, including enhancing competitiveness and performance, through improved engagement and efficiencies, process strengthening and management of business risk with improvements as significant as 53%1. .
The accreditation is further testament to the strength and importance of Balfour Beatty’s company-wide values - ‘talking positively, encouraging constantly and collaborating relentlessly’.
Assessment for the standard included review of related project performance on the Balfour Beatty Living Places contract for the servicing of local highways for Southampton Council.
Catherine Crespin, Balfour Beatty’s Group Head of Customer Experience, said, “We are extremely proud to be the first company to achieve certification to the new ISO44001 international standard across the company. This achievement is testament to the strength of Balfour Beatty’s collaborative culture and our commitment to a more collaborative industry”.
Leigh Verrall, Client Manager, British Standards Institution, said, “Aspirations for the future are that collaboration is accepted as the way forward for the construction industry and that Balfour Beatty is recognised as a leader in collaborative working”.
Richard Crouch, Interim Chief Executive Officer, Southampton City Council, said, “This is excellent news for all. Strong relationships are key to great partnerships. This accreditation recognises the strength of our relationship with Balfour Beatty and the hard work that has been invested in making it work. Congratulations to everyone involved in securing it.”
ENDS
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Antonia Walton
Balfour Beatty
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antonia.walton@balfourbeatty.com
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References:
- 1 Introducing ISO44001 Collaborative business relationship management https://www.bsigroup.com/LocalFiles/en-GB/iso-44001/Resources/ISO-44001-client-Guide.pdf
- 2 ISO44001 Collaborative business relationship management – your implementation guide https://www.bsigroup.com/LocalFiles/en-GB/iso-44001/Resources/ISO-44001-Implementation-Guide.pdf
Notes to editors:
- Balfour Beatty (balfourbeatty.com) is a leading international infrastructure group. With 28,000 employees, we provide innovative and efficient infrastructure that underpins our daily lives, supports communities and enables economic growth. We finance, develop, build and maintain complex infrastructure such as transportation, power and utility systems, social and commercial buildings.
- Our main geographies are the UK & Ireland, US and Far East. Over the last 100 years we have created iconic buildings and infrastructure all over the world including the London Olympics’ Aquatic Centre, Hong Kong’s first Zero Carbon building, the National Museum of the Marine Corps in the US and the Channel Tunnel Rail Link.
