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If you've watched Tenzing on Apple TV, you already know part of our story.

We named our company for Tenzing Norgay. On May 29, 1953, he and Edmund Hillary became the first two people confirmed to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Long before that day, he was a young man from a Sherpa family, carrying supplies for other people's expeditions. The name is a tribute to the expertise, experience, and guidance he brought to every climb, and in that spirit, we see ourselves as the “Sherpas” of process-enabled project management.

Change orders are one of the leading causes of construction cost overruns and project delays, but many can be prevented before construction even begins. In this guide, Ian Parr shares practical insights from 47 years of capital project management experience, helping owners identify the root causes of change orders and implement processes that improve project outcomes.

Capital projects succeed or fail long before construction crews arrive on site.

Owners invest millions, sometimes billions, into facilities, infrastructure, healthcare campuses, education buildings, data centers, and commercial developments. Yet despite sophisticated technology, experienced project teams, and detailed planning processes, many projects still struggle with budget overruns, schedule delays, stakeholder conflicts, and avoidable risk.

Why?

Because successful project delivery requires more than project management. It requires ownership representation.   Massachusetts has gone so far as to require public agencies to engage an independent Owner's Project Manager (OPM) on many public building projects, underscoring the critical role owner representation plays in managing risk, improving accountability, and delivering successful capital project outcomes.

How owner's representative firms can stand out in RFPs with a Process-First approach that gives owners visibility and a lasting project record.

Most capital project owners don't set out to run their program on someone else's system. It happens gradually. A general contractor (GC) onboards with their preferred project management information system, RFIs start flowing through it, submittals and change orders follow, and within a few months the GC's platform has quietly become the project's system of record.

Capital projects generate an extraordinary volume of information: budgets, schedules, contracts, drawings, RFIs, submittals, meeting minutes, change orders, pay applications, field reports, emails, and decisions. The problem is rarely a lack of information. The problem is knowing which information is current, complete, and trustworthy—and whether the owner can access it when it matters.

That is why an owner-controlled system of record is essential.

Capital project owners need their own digital backbone for planning, execution, and governance; relying on your general contractor’s PMIS as the “system of record” is a structural risk that erodes visibility, control, and long-term value.

In the construction industry, a Project Management Information System (PMIS) serves as the central hub for project data, communication, and documentation. While contractors often have their own PMIS platforms, there are significant advantages for architects when the client—rather than the contractor—provides and manages the system. This shift in control can enhance transparency, streamline collaboration, and protect the architect’s role as the client’s trusted design advocate.

Naperville, IL – April 7, 2026 – CCS International has announced the retirement of Ian Parr, former Founder and leader of CCS for 47 years. Ian will now focus exclusively on leading Tenzing a capital project management platform.

Every experienced owner's representative has lived some version of the same story: a strong project manager carrying a critical capital project leaves the firm, gets pulled to another assignment, or falls ill right in the middle of design or construction. The work does not stop. The owner does not care that your org chart changed. They still expect continuity, risk control, and clear answers.

What determines whether you survive that moment isn't talent alone is how well your firm captures and structures project knowledge in an owner‑controlled system of record.