QBS takes a hit

This morning's Times-Picayune newspaper of New Orleans had this troubling headline: "St. Charles does away with quality-based engineer selection."

The story talks about The St. Charles Parish Council last night voting to do away with the QBS process for choosing engineers and architects, saying "the process was too cumbersome and was delaying necessary public works projects." The new measure allows the Parish president to select engineers for projects with fees of more than $20K, provided he gets councli approval.

This is bad news for the A/E industry, as everyone reading this knows.

I can't tell you the number of times I've had a conversation with a marketing professional or A/E firm leader that didn't include the following: "If the A/E industry ever loses QBS, we're all screwed."

Well, that reality is one step closer than it was yesterday.

Ed