Expert Insights – Claims mitigations and solutions with OGCS Global SVP Michael Ibarra

Everyone in Construction Project Contract Management will encounter a claim or dispute at some point.

We spoke with Michael Ibarra, OGCS Global’s Senior Vice President for Claims Advisory services. In this piece he offers his expert insights for claims mitigation and avoidance.

After 25 plus years in contract management, Michael Ibarra has experience at every level, from small facility projects to complex giga projects on the owner/operator and EPC project team sides.

“Skilled contract management can significantly reduce the risk of future claims but cannot eliminate every occurrence” he states.

“Nobody can forecast and build stop gaps for every potential claim that may arise. However, we help with identifying claims risks and developing mitigations to those risks.”

“We deliver many “cold eyes reviews” for clients – they have a great team on the project, but sometimes you get so close to the detail, and it’s hard to see the bigger picture. With our experience and benchmarking data, we can identify areas of risk very objectively.”

Michael Ibarra is SVP Claims Advisory for OGCS Global. Based in Houston, TX, he applies his skills honed from 25+years of experience to find claims solutions for clients in North America and worldwide.

A differentiator between OGCS Global and other providers is the experience in the team. 

“All of our consultants have experience on project teams onsite and in the field. The relevance of our experience allows us to build rapport quickly with our client’s project teams – we’ve made similar footprints onsite ourselves.”

“We get a lot of business because we go beyond a regular audit. We can review data with the client team in the room, to give them feedback on their processes and documents. We provide training on contract negotiations to tighten up any loose threads and also call out and reinforce our clients already established strengths – it all contributes to claims avoidance, and we leave the client’s team in better shape for the next project – that’s the quality of relationship we are focused on developing.”Start-up clients often use a consultant in the early stages to give confidence to their stakeholders.

“We’ve been pulled in to provide support for emerging and renewable energy projects as well as those of traditional energy projects.”

“We have so much fresh data from a range of situations and locations, plus we have our own bench of expert estimators and quality surveying experts, who can validate the numbers for multiple industries.”

“When you combine this kind of data with our proven experience on how to apply it to projects, our involvement closes the gap to cost and schedule certainty.”

OGCS Global offers supporting services for any operation.

“If we’re already doing benchmarking then it’s straightforward to advise on contract strategy and negotiations. We can deliver bespoke processes and contract templates that minimize financial and claims exposure, which fit our client’s project delivery team.”

“That’s the real advantage of a one-stop service like ours. I have an expert project controls team working on the other side of the building which we can quickly leverage for forensic work such as critical path analysis to comparable cost and schedule data to strengthen our client’s positions should they end up in dispute.”

When should an owner/operator reach out for claims assistance?

“With early engagement we can help project teams that are stretched trying to deliver the project, while trying to analyze and resolve claims. We can quickly get up to speed and help expand the project team’s bandwidth to quickly resolve their claims while continuing to support the ongoing project.”

Michael clearly relishes this part of his role.

“Helping our client’s project teams get their heads above water when they are encountering a volume of claims – while also doing our forensic work on our client’s issues – helps them with more honed approaches in their counter claims and claims defense. With our technology tools and experience, we help project teams and their executives see the ‘forest through the trees’ so they can see – and steer – towards satisfactory outcomes.”

Michael has a Masters in Law as well as a Masters Certificate in Negotiation. He uses all his training and skills when negotiating claims.

“You must be able to build trust, be an active listener, have such an eye for detail, be thorough in your root cause analysis and a great communicator.”

“It sounds like a cliched list but it really matters that you understand the story behind the figures – so you can define a position and supporting arguments. Our service, that provides these skills, expertise and experience, is a highly cost effective route to mitigation and claims solutions.” 

Find out how Michael and his team can help your project – get in touch at Michael.Ibarra@ogcsglobal.com