Just to follow up on some of the excellent comments already made, it is indeed quite common for a consultant to be working with or for very technically competent parties. However, I have found that many very technically knowledgeable people have a knowledge based on a limited range of exposure and/or limited experience with the design and construction process. In simple terms, they may know a lot about how they do something but little about other ways to accomplish the same goals or how to work with the parties, processes and documentation involved in a construction project. I have had some clients that simply don't have the time to be a designer and Project Manager in addition to their other duties.
Such discussions always remind me of a particular project where we were working with very qualified and experienced tech staff who decided they could handle part of the project themselves. They did a great job of defining what equipment they wanted and initially apparently bragged to their superiors about how they were able to save them money. I heard through the grapevine that everything later went horribly wrong when it turned out that they thought they had bid an installed, functional
system but the bidders interpreted their documents as being limited to providing the equipment, which explained the low bids and which they apparently realized when the company awarded the bid dropped off the equipment and when asked when they would be back to install it told the Owner that installation was not included in their bid. A great example of knowing the technology but not the design and construction processes.
Another
point I wanted to bring up is that there seems to have been a lot of discussion on the specifics of the equipment but little or no discussion regarding the application or what you are trying to do. Unless the goal is to simply to use specific equipment then your client is probably more concerned about how the
system supports their goals and
vision and defining and documenting that, a needs analysis or assessment, is the place to start. You need to determine where you are trying to go before you can figure out how you should get there.
Finally, a professional Consultant, Contractor, Architect,
etc. is going to
address their
role and liability. It's great that they have resources that may help them but who is actually going to be responsible for developing and assuming liability for any design or Bid Documents? And it's fun to
play at being a consultant but that can take on a very different perspective when it means being held legally liable for your comments and work.