In July 2020, Sydney Water entered a 10-year partnership with three Regional Delivery Consortia (RDCs) across the North, South and West regions. They have the responsibility to deliver water solutions and infrastructure in the areas of:

• design
• construction
• maintenance
• facilities management.

P4S transformed Sydney Water’s $2.5 billion infrastructure program, achieving Sydney Water’s most successful capital delivery performance on record. With cost efficiency improved by 15%, it became an industry leading, and internationally acknowledged, operation.

Through strategic change leadership, Mark Simister created an innovative “performance partnering” framework with a Key Performance Indicator “yours to lose” foundation, delivering 72% improvement in safety and zero environmental incidents.

Mark had full accountability for developing a high-performance team of 250 staff, with leading staff engagement and 85% satisfaction results, enabling a three-fold increase in delivery through streamlined contract allocation, enhanced collaboration, and innovation.

In 2018, the UK Major Projects Association – Global Client Models Study identified the framework as “an exemplar responsive model, which is improving commercial efficiency with customers at the heart of the strategy”.

Following the success of the performance partnering model, having recognised the future challenge associated with a trebling of the capital program, Mark became the architect of, and leader in establishing Sydney Water’s ground-breaking new $10 billion collaborative infrastructure procurement framework: Partnering for Success (P4S).

Based upon lean principles, P4S incorporates ICE Project 13 best practice framework and the full suite of NEC4 contracts which are aligned with the NSW Government’s ten-point plan for infrastructure delivery.

By applying global best practice and collaborative contract fundamentals, the award winning P4S model is now embedded as a fully integrated environment. Over 2000 Sydney Water and supplier staff now partner to enable Sydney Water to successfully achieve its infrastructure delivery and maintenance ambitions for the next decade.