These details are still being finalised, and Maruma is hesitant to disclose the partners' names. But we realise that we must do it now or perish. This creates a problem for bigger engineering companies like Stewart Scott. Established firms make a huge investment in intellectual property. We can, because we have critical mass, but many smaller firms can't.
Structural changes go deeper still.
Erasmus adds that traditionally, civil engineering firms were fairly loose groupings of partners offering a professional skill, closed and secretive. The challenge is to change, rapidly, to professional businesses offering a holistic set of services. Risk management has been introduced as a job criterion in the company's staff assessment system. And the company believes it is one of the first to be awarded ISO 9001 certification, which encompasses a set of international quality standards. Instead of just designing infrastructure, engineers are becoming involved in conceptualising, financing, building, operating and maintaining infrastructure .