Services › Design & Sourcing
Water and treatment projects stall or go wrong at the same points: going to vendors before you know what you’re working with, getting proposals back that you can’t compare, or finding after award that the original intent has quietly been renegotiated.
Design & Sourcing is owner-side support through those stages, from building the information base your project depends on, through to keeping delivery aligned with what was actually specified. Six connected stages, each producing something you can act on, each usable on its own or as part of a full assignment.
A scope pack that suppliers can’t reinterpret. Performance criteria you can actually check. Clear boundaries between what each party is responsible for. And a design that can be extended without rebuilding from scratch.
Start where you are. Pick a focus area, scan what it clarifies, then use the Navigator to see what comes next.
1) Choose a focus area
Baseline → Requirements → Technology fit → Integration
2) Check the “why” and the basis
Constraints first: selection logic, KPIs, monitoring intent, approval checks, and information requests.
3) Move into delivery alignment
When you’re ready, carry the outputs into sourcing and implementation.
Why this exists
Vendors receive requests before the site data is solid. Technologies get shortlisted from brochures rather than tested against actual operating conditions. Connections between systems, physical, electrical, operational, get left to be sorted out during delivery. And commissioning gets treated as a final approval event rather than a performance check. By the time any of that appears as a problem, it’s expensive to fix. These stages exist to structure the decisions that matter before procurement begins, so what gets built is what was actually needed, and what gets handed over can be shown to work.
Streams we typically work with
We work between owner intent and delivery partners, tightening the decision basis without becoming a vendor or the detailed designer. Early, we set a clear design basis (outcomes, constraints, connections and assumptions), workable pathways based on site conditions, and approval information for commissioning and sustained operation.
What we do
What we don’t do
These are the specialist stages clients typically enter through. Each is a detailed section and each connects forward into delivery alignment.
Focus area
Before targets, before technology, before any supplier conversation, you need to know what you’re actually working with. Flows, variability, site constraints, and what’s still uncertain. This stage makes that explicit.
Focus area
A performance target that can’t be measured isn’t a target, it’s a starting point for a dispute. This stage translates what you need to achieve into approval criteria, check requirements and a savings case that holds up to scrutiny.
Focus area
Supplier proposals look credible on paper. This stage tests them against your operating conditions, your site constraints and your operators, before anyone is committed to anything.
Focus area
A technology decision made in isolation will fail at the connections. This stage makes connection points, controls intent and commissioning check explicit, so what gets built works as a system, not just as individual units.
Delivery alignment
Focus area
An RFP that leaves room for interpretation will get interpreted, differently by every bidder. This stage builds the procurement package that controls what suppliers respond to and keeps bids genuinely comparable.
Focus area
Award is where most projects start to drift. This stage keeps the original design intent visible through delivery, in submittals, in change requests, and in a commissioning process based on information rather than assumptions alone.
Engagement routes
Choose the pack that matches where you are. Each one ends with a defined output, documented, usable, and ready to move the project forward.
Pack 1
You need to understand what you’re working with and which routes are workable, without committing to a design direction yet.
Pack 2
The direction is agreed. Now you need targets, connections and approval criteria in a form suppliers can be held to.
Pack 3
You’re going to market or already looking at bids. This pack structures the evaluation so the decision stays well-supported and the contract reflects what was actually specified.
Share the outcome you need, the constraints you’re facing, and any timing drivers. If you don’t have all the data, that’s fine; we’ll define the minimum set to move forward.
What helps us respond quickly
FAQ
Short answers to the questions that usually come up before a specialist design engagement.
No, we don’t replace the appointed detailed designer/EPC/OEM. We define the decision basis, requirements, connections and approval information so delivery is clear and comparable.
We don’t sell equipment. Our role is to match needs to technologies through site-fit criteria and information requests, then support a fair, comparable sourcing process.
Yes. Many engagements start during vendor comparisons, tightening requirements, clarifications and scorecards so bids remain comparable and scope gaps are exposed early.
The outcome you need, what’s driving urgency, and any constraints you already know. If data is missing, we’ll define the minimum gap-closure testing plan as part of the baseline stage.