Engineering & Works

Christophe Laborde, Regional Director of the Pôle Tertiaire Centre Sud Est, shares his experience with the macro-works package, a solution he has been promoting within his scope for over two decades.

Could you tell us a bit about your career?

After graduation as an energy engineer in Lyon, I had an opportunity to join Cegelec Sud-Ouest in 1994 to set up the Climate Engineering activity within the Pau agency. I spent 15 years there overseeing climate engineering, then building electrical systems and finally grid activities. In 2009, I became head of Cegelec Perpignan and in 2016 I was appointed Regional Director in Bordeaux, reporting to the Pôle TCES.

At the time, very few business units were able to deliver both Electrical Engineering and Climate Engineering expertise. The Cegelec organisational structure in Pau put us in a perfect position to bid on macro-works packages.

Why did you begin bidding on them?

Because the macro-works package gave us a competitive edge. At VINCI Energies, we are able to bid on several technical works packages, unlike most of our competitors. And it works. In Bordeaux, between 2016 and 2017, the share of our revenue generated by macro-works packages rose from 1% to 7%!

In addition, this type of bid has several advantages. It enables us to:

• give the customer a single interface that focuses on all the technical works packages
• facilitate communication between the customer and the contractors
• optimise the sales and marketing process.

With the macro-works package, there is a single project manager who has a comprehensive overview of the technical and financial issues. This is the case within my scope. Our organisational structure enables us to deliver high-quality service by ensuring flawless coordination of our teams at the worksite.

The key to our success in this market is that we ensure that our business units make the same commitment, particularly financial.

Can the macro-works package be a way to win new contracts?

Let me give you an example to illustrate. Chatenet, which specialises in electrical works, bid on a call for tender issued by a longstanding customer, the Clinique Mutualiste de Bordeaux.  The tender covered a large-scale renovation project and given the phasing challenges, we realised the customer was looking for a macro-works package bid.

Chatenet therefore joined forces with Cegelec Bordeaux Génie Climatique to bid on the technical works packages. The two business units won the macro-works package. Chatenet retained its longstanding customer and Cegelec Bordeaux Génie Climatique won a new customer. Since then, they have moved on from the first trial to win a similar project for the same customer at Lesparre en Médoc.

Ultimately, I have always considered the macro-works package to be a win-win proposition. It enables business units to work well together, have full familiarity with each other’s works packages – especially the interfaces – and propose the best solution for the customer.