The Ant Implementation Method (AIM - who doesn't love a sexy acronym?) delivers world class, professionally designed irrigation systems that are easy to manage and minimize lifecycle cost. Here is how we make things happen:

Step 1 - Getting to know each other:

1. We schedule a meeting (1 hr) to discuss the project.
2. In this meeting, we take a deep dive into your goals and requirements.
3. We follow up with a detailed project proposal based on our discussion, taking into account site-specific conditions.
4. Once we have agreed on our detailed  proposal, we then send you our services contract via Docusign. Once we have a signed contract, your project officially kicks off.

Step 2: - You supply us with the following (Alternatively, we can arrange some or all of this as part of our service):

1. Soils survey data.
2. Topographic data (contours) for farm.
3. Any water quality data available.
4. Other data may be required on a project-specific basis.
5. Your team structure and designated decision-maker. This person is responsible for ensuring buy-in across your internal team; we regard any decision approved by the designated-decision maker as final. If decisions, which have been signed off/approved by your selected decision maker, are re-visited, this will trigger extra-over costs.

The design process starts once we have all the required information.

Step 3 - Design Process:

1. We start the process with an onboarding questionnaire followed by an hour-long call, during which we confirm background and requirements.
2. We disappear into our offices and translate the requirements into a conceptual design. This takes two weeks.
3. Next, we come and visit you and your team, place the design on your boardroom table, and expect you to rip it to pieces. The goal here is to fully align on where we are going and how we are getting there. It is critical that your on the ground managers have input at this meeting, as the success of a design is very dependent on the operations teams buying into the concepts. 1 Week is allowed for this process.
4. After taking a walk around site and inspecting every rock and blade of grass, we disappear again, this time for 4 weeks, while we take the design from conceptual to detailed based on your feedback. During this time, we schedule weekly update meetings to ensure continuous feedback.
5. A second site visit is scheduled to present Detailed Design 1 and ensure full buy-in across the board (1 week allowed).  Again, it is critical that the all players provide input here.
6. We iterate the design, resulting in Detailed Design 2, based on feedback received and generate bills of quantities (2 weeks).
7. We finish up the design by supplying construction-ready drawing package, bill of quantities and design report.
8. The Professional Package includes conducting the contractor’s kickoff meeting, one site visit  during construction and one for commissioning.
9. The Enterprise Package includes facilitation of the procurement process and full construction supervision.

In terms of hard outputs, we provide:

• A maximum of 3 design iterations, namely Conceptual Design > Detailed Design 1 > Detailed Design 2. ANY design iterations beyond this will be billed at agreed hourly rates.
• Complete set of plug- and play- design drawings for all aspects of the scheme.
• Bill of Quantities.
• Concise design report.
• 2 Site visits through the design process.
• The Professional Package includes all of the above, plus 3 Site visits though construction process and priority response support (1 day turnaround) for all technical queries.
• The Enterprise Package includes all of the above, plus facilitation of procurement and full time site supervision and commissioning.

Timelines:

From the first call through to delivery of complete package from contractor to price is typically a period of 10 weeks. We recommend starting the design process a minimum of 6 months (we prefer 12 months) before the planned start of construction to allow time for design, contractor appointments and equipment lead times.

‍