Mentor-Protege Programs
Our pre-qualified process is intended to measure a vendor's capabilities. It benefits Jamail & Smith Construction to have a large pool of cost effective, reliable vendors with growing capabilities, to better support our need to execute projects. It is our desire to grow this pool and, while adding new vendors is one method of growing the pool, the development of additional skills and capabilities in existing vendors is another method of growing the value of the vendor pool. From our pre-qualification process, we will determine if a vendor needs the technical, management or financial capabilities to achieve their maximum potential in accordance with their growth desires. Vendors who lack the capabilities but demonstrate the desire will be mentored with a specific business mentorship program tailored to their needs. Areas which subcontractors may need mentoring support include: Project operations (scheduling, subcontracts, inspection, testing, project documentation, project management technology), business operations (accounting and finance, human resources, safety and health plan development, payroll administration), business development (bidding and proposals, marketing materials), and technical skills (information gathering, engineering, architecture, code compliance, office automation).
Mentorship is an active process which takes the time and attention of our project management staff. For this reason, our ability to mentor vendors is not unlimited and thus, at any point in time, mentorship will generally include several eligible minority subcontractors.
The Mentorship program is designed to share the technical and management skills of our project management staff with the subcontractors. Unlike most resources, knowledge and education is not finite and it is our goal to make subcontractors more efficient and more profitable - the result is a greater level of reliability and responsiveness to the owner and Jamail & Smith Construction.
Jamail & Smith Construction has successfully mentored in three Mentor-Protege Programs. Our first, with Alberti-Design, was provided for the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, and involved the development of a "best value" proposal system and project management skill enhancement. Since graduation from this program, Alberti-Design has competed effectively for several design-build contracts for the University of Texas and other State agencies. Our second Mentor-Protege Program, delivered under our Job Order Contract with the Houston Independent School District, involves the development of a small engineering firm into a full service Job Order Contractor. This program, now in its 4th year, has equipped Healthy Resources Enterprises, Inc. to provide Job Order Contracting, not only to the Houston ISD with Jamail & Smith Construction, but also through stand-alone contracts procured directly by HRE in support of the Harris County Department of Education's Texas Choice JOC program and the Texas National Guard. HRE has developed the estimating, project management, bonding capacity, and business development systems, becoming a real competitor in the JOC industry, even to us, their Mentor. We are currently in our first year of our third program with Nex-Level Mechanical.
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If you are interested in becoming a part of our Mentor- Protégé Program, please contact Jennifer Kim, Vice President of Client Relations, at 512.288.1200 JKim@jamailsmith.com. |
