Balfour Beatty collaborates relentlessly to achieve international accreditation for collaboration

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.”