What should be taken into account when equipping the office with furniture?

Once we got a question: «What makes it so difficult to go and buy a few desks chairs and drawer units? The only challenge is to fit into the budget!» There really is nothing difficult with that, provided one knows the suppliers, the assortment such suppliers work with and, if a tender process is organized properly, if the delivery process is controlled from start to the end, if each functional element of the furniture is thoroughly reviewed in details and the best balance of the price, quality and timing of the delivery is found. Read our article to see how and where to look for the furniture to fit into a modern office space, how can one save on furniture bills and why is it better to get some expert assistance.

A workstation at an office

Where to start?

Before turning catalogue pages and looking through samples one needs to have a clear idea about what kind of furniture is required. To end up with an ergonomic and functional office space a whole set of factors need to be considered. Normally we try and get a series of answers from our client.

• What is your employee headcount?
• How would you like them seated in groups, departments, clusters?
• Where and how do you expect your office equipment to be placed and connected?
• What are the safety requirements applied I your company?
• Is there a common company concept and how can the office space help implement it?

These are just the general boundaries. The preliminary preparation work depends on the applied standards, requirements, regulations of the company and many other factors which are individual in each project.

The next step is to prepare the employee seating layout which includes the furniture placements. The correctness and adequacy of the layout depends on how precisely one collects the initial information and how carefully the requirements of the business, the safety and ergonomics are considered.

An office project rendering

The individual project requirements need to be identified thereafter. Such requirements can relate to arrangement of the workstations or the client zone, there are such requirements almost in every company. It is obvious that there is enough to do even at the planning stage.

Good thing if there are specialists employed by the company who could perform the whole scope and competently complete the preparation work. In the event there are no such specialists the best thing to do is to engage experts.

The worst thing is to dump all of that work on an administrative assistant. There is quite a chance to recall the “buy nice or buy twice” saying.

If an amateur gets to do the job there is a very high risk of mistakes. They made wrong measurements and it is impossible to put tables at the place, did not consider the location of equipment – wires stretching through the entire office, not thought through functionality and documents lying around on all the windowsills. And this is only the most innocuous incidents that can occur. Do you want to insure against such overlays? Entrust the project to professionals.

Where can I see everyone?

After the plans are approved, the accounting Department won back the cabinets on a special order, and marketers convinced the management that sofas for customers are better than chairs, you can move on to the main part.

All the furniture needs to be bought somewhere. Although modern furniture stores are diverse, we purchase office furniture from suppliers.

The reasons are obvious.

• We need the furniture not domestic purposes. Manufacturers are designing office furniture with the operating margin. This applies not only to tables and chairs, but also objects of office life. Imagine that you need to buy cabinets and cases, refrigerator and coffee machine, which will be used by 200 people. It is clear that all these items should have an increased margin of safety. Therefore, even for kitchen furniture, we turn to specialized manufacturers.
• For the office we need furniture in large quantities. The square footage of one table can be counted in thousands of square meters. This amount can not accommodate the store, it can only be obtained from the manufacturer.
• Individuality of the project. Each customer has its own requirements for the functionality of furniture, its appearance, color, size, configuration. For one office we need tables with a mobile Cabinet, for another-with the ability to lower the monitors under the transparent work surface. The third project requires masking a large number of wires, and the fourth needs acoustic furniture. All these requirements can be taken into account only by a specialized supplier.
• The maximum functionality of the furniture. Modern office space is becoming increasingly complex. We will achieve the necessary functionality only from specialized suppliers. The mass market segment will not provide the necessary functionality, it does not have such a task.
• Ability to test. The manufacturer or its representative will be happy to deliver test kits to the office. On one of the last projects 18 samples of chairs were brought to the office of our customer. Employees tested each of them, and then chose the best. In the same way tested and desktops. In the store there is no such possibility, there you will see only showcase samples.

The office of the head of natural wood

Factory or shop?

Most of the furniture for office projects really need to be ordered from manufacturers or their dealers. But furniture stores should not be ignored. They are advantageous to purchase individual elements of office space. For example, you need three low cabinets for lawyers and the client Department. Such a small batch from the manufacturer will be expensive. But almost any furniture store you can find such cabinets at an easy price.

The reason is simple. The cost of furniture at the factory is beneficial only for large purchases. Most manufacturers range is divided into factory, warehouse and individual line. The latter is done on special orders and is more expensive simply because it has to rebuild the production process.

Buying furniture factory or warehouse line-solid savings. Of course, provided that the purchase of an impressive volume. Five or ten tables and chairs from the manufacturer may be quite unprofitable, and then come to the rescue again furniture stores. They are convenient and as a system of "single window" - came and bought everything for the office in one place.

They also are custom vendor things, for example, low shelves, bar chairs, sofas, coffee tables.

It is logical to buy furniture from the supplier according to the warehouse or factory program, and according to special programs it is not always reasonable. Special furniture can be more expensive. Separate not common elements or furniture for visitors makes sense to look in furniture stores.

Why do we need experts?

If you want to design office space ergonomically, conveniently, functionally and beautifully, you will have to approach this issue as a project. Its implementation will require expert assistance. As experts, you can attract designers and architects who designed the office, turn to their own qualified personnel or invite third parties. so, what will the experts do after the approval of plans and projects?

Discussion of plans for the arrangement of office

Supplier selection

To be honest, if you have never faced with a furniture issue, then choose the right supplier is quite difficult. And even the tender will not help here. There are many companies, they have beautiful catalogs, interesting offers, courteous managers.

To monitor prices, visit showrooms, select samples, agree on testing, draw up a procurement program, agree on a suitable price, control delivery-all this requires effort and time.

The Office Times company works with all furniture suppliers in Russia. We are familiar not only with the range, but also with the capabilities, features and even potential of almost every large specialized factory. We know the range of each supplier and choose the best option for the customer, taking into account all factors, requirements, wishes and, of course, the budget.

How long does it take to thoroughly study all the suppliers ' offers?

Organization of tender and evaluation of suppliers ' offers

Of course, participation in the tender is beneficial to suppliers, because companies with a reputation are invited to the tender. You already know (heard-read-saw) that the invited suppliers are reliable and the furniture is made in good faith. It remains to be understood - will they provide your company with the necessary range, will the amount for their product meet the budget and will you get what you want for your money?

A small example from practice. 13 suppliers participated in one of the tenders. Visually, the sentences were almost the same. The difference was in the thickness of the countertops, in the texture of the material, as accessories and metal supports. For optimization, we developed each functional piece of furniture: material table tops, pillars, fixtures, additional options. As a result, the customer received an option that completely satisfied him with the quality, design and budget.

Optimization of the tender

The participation of experts in the tender for the optimisation. Typically, optimization is 10-20% of the budget, but there are much more impressive examples.

At one of the projects we saved 1.5 million rubles due to the fact that we ordered different types of furniture from different suppliers. Some had excellent tables, others-ideal upholstered furniture, the third had an excellent offer on chairs.

As a result of optimization, the net savings of the customer amounted to 1.5 million rubles. Instead of 9 million paid 7.5 million.

Optimization is necessarily ensured by attracting the right experts, whose interests are the interests of the customer. To the office environment should be approached not as entertainment, but as a serious project that requires considerable effort, time and appropriate skills.

Control

Do you want your furniture, paid for by money, nerves and time, stood in its place at the appointed day and hour? You have to keep your finger on the pulse. It is important to control the stages of the order, to know what is happening and how. This laborious and demanding process, too, can pass into the hands of experts. It is especially convenient to do this when the furniture is ordered from different manufacturers, and its installation and installation requires joining the efforts of several companies.

Modern office space

What’s the result?

Do you want to get the best functionality, keep the style, save resources and furnish the office on time? Then it is most reasonable to involve experts (the reference to the section with design) in the choice of office furniture. We will make a project, identify the most suitable suppliers, optimize the tender, organize testing of samples or an expedition to showrooms, get the best price, control the execution. We invite you to join the company "Ile de Beaute", Metro, Ferrero, Incanto, Premier Farm and our other worthy customers who have already appreciated the professional approach to the choice of furniture.