Complex solution for commercial premises: what for and who needs it

Imagine you decided to buy an automobile. You would not want to buy a set of spares and get to use a screwdriver, a rasp-file and a few ruff words to assemble a vehicle on your own in your garage. You would visit an official dealer, sort out the paperwork and leave the dealer showroom in a brand new car. The move to a new office is very much like a purchase of a new vehicle. Some people are still convinced that it’s better to do things on one’s own, which allegedly is simpler and cheaper. I have serious reasons to think that a more intelligent and economically viable solution is to assign an expert to resolve all issues related to the move to a new office – exactly as one would reasonably rely upon an automobile manufacture to assemble the vehicle. Why is a complex solution a reasonable one in all aspects? Let me tell you about it right away.

What is more convenient – assembling a vehicle from spares or buying a ready-to-run product?

Long live Patchwork Quilt!

Normally the “complex approach” presumes a comprehensive set of services rendered by one service vendor. We apply a principal which is based on professional engagement and contract work with specialist service vendors and suppliers who are the best experts on the market. Therefore, as far as I see it, the complex solution for commercial premises is a comprehensive set of services rendered by a number of approved and reliable service vendors.

«But then the project will look like a patchwork quilt! Different service levels, uncoordinated timing, set aside conflicts among contractors and suppliers!» – would be the arguments of the experienced ones. I fully agree. That is exactly how it will work out, if different suppliers and vendors are engaged without an expert controlling them all. But if you engage a third party – an expert who is well informed and has in-depth understanding of all suppliers and service vendors’ businesses and therefore is able to manage and control every one of them then the situation is different.

In this case, the many suppliers and vendors working on a project – indeed they do create a patchwork quilt, but then it is a beautiful, high quality, luxurious exclusively handcrafted quilt. Not a grey typical rag tailored agley but a stylish masterpiece each part of which is ideally matched.

Every stage of the project must be in the hands of a specialist

A lot does not mean bad

Non need to apprehend involving different companies in a project. Their professional specialty, experience and opportunities are advantages rather than disadvantages. It is just a matter of being able to properly take advantage of all that.

Do you know how we work with service vendors and suppliers on different stages of a project?

The search and selection of an office premise and compilation of paperwork

Let’s start with the search and selection of the premises. We contact a broker to start off with. The broker has a serious resource of actual office premise options and vital business contacts, an immense resource of valuable data. An experienced expert is aware of a whole set of peculiarities. Our task at this stage is to specify the exact objective of the search. We clarify specific requirements related to the premises, and select the most suitable options. This is what protects the client from a massive flow of unnecessary information and waste of time. The client makes the choice at the final stage of the search, when there are only a few really favorable options. By that time, we have all the required information on each of the shortlisted options.

Once the option is chosen we commence the legal review. Our lawyers are focused exclusively on real estate deals of all kinds.

Technical review and design planning

Let’s get on with the technical review. At this stage the clients tend to contact the construction contractor thinking that the review is also the job of a construction contractor. We have a different opinion on that. The engineering matters are better to be delegated to experts who are independent and not connected with the rest of the project.

The next step is involvement of the designers, who arrange the project design. The designers need to get a clear statement of work, which sets the direction of their creative activity. Simultaneously we get ready for the pre-qualification to select a vendor for engineering design planning to cover utilities, constructive part and other technical aspects.

The design is approved? Excellent! It is time to pass the project on to the design planners. Following “one vendor-one service” we try and avoid delegating the design planning work to the designers as in many instances they become intermediaries between us and the design planning engineers. So why would we need an intermediary if its easily possible to arrange direct cooperation?

Based on the results of the tender we select the design planning engineers and then remain in full control of their performance. Our main advantage is our practical experience in all project stages. Therefore, the client does not have to check and correct the design plan. All of the routine with details is performed by the experts. The client gets the fine result of the work which fully complies with its expectations, the project budget, specified objectives and approved assignments.

Construction

There are completed project pre-requisites such as the design work, constructive design plan, utilities design plan and the only thing that needs to be done is to implement the project step-by-step. So it’s time to select a general contractor to perform the construction work. We conduct a tender process, select 2-3 propositions which match the project objectives in most of the aspects. We then prepare an expert opinion to help the client make a decision and one is made.

The general contractor is executed.

We commence construction work management on the project.

We focus on both the current assignment and the main project objectives. The expert coordinates and makes estimations on every action, monitors consistency with the project schedule, project objectives and the assignments. The expert-performer is interested in the quality and the timing of implementation as well as performance of all agreed terms.

Projects with many performing parties involved are not a problem in the event such projects are managed in a professional manner. As an old saying states: “too many cooks spoil the broth”. Therefore, one expert performer who understands the full scope including the project objectives, the assignments and the sequence of project stages is essential.

The main thing

What are the client’s benefits from delegating the project to one performer?

• Clear-cut project arrangements. We develop a distinct project routing with all of the steps in between the stages. We determine the starting point, the interim and final destination points and the arrival timing. Remember the earlier proposed analogy of the complex approach with an automobile? Well, here is another one: the client’s automobile navigation system gets the optimal routing.
• Cost effectiveness. Our task is not to use up the entire budget but manage to distribute it in an optimal way and make sure the funds are spent rationally. What is it the client loses money on most of the time? It is the rearrangements and readjustments made in a rush and the results of premature decisions. However, such issues do not rise in the event the project is managed by experts. We optimize the costs the client incurs due to the fact that we know how and at what cost certain ideas can be implemented. When we work out the project budget we do not just estimate the cost of design solutions, design planning and construction but everything else there may be, including the furniture with all standard and special requirements, office navigation, information tablets, branding, utility and facility utilization services. We estimate costs associated with the cleaning, equipment, kitchenware, the costs associated with informing suppliers and contractors. So, in a nutshell, everything is considered and estimated for.
• Rational allocation of resources, time and focus. The client does not have to spend any time to select the ones who would perform project work as well as to carry out the routine control over the project participants. The client does not have to learn peculiarities of technology, the functional elements or engineering solutions. However, the client can make a balanced decision to choose an optimal one from those shortlisted with the help of an independent expert. The client does not spend any time washing gold-bearing sands – that is our job. The client just picks one the few nuggets we find and propose to choose from.

A good expert is like an orchestra conductor – everyone in his orchestra play a joint piece not a separate melody for each instrument.

One of our clients visited the project site only twice for the entire project period. On the day the company moved in the person entered the office took a look around and asked where his office was. Then he sat at his desk, turned on the PC, tested the office telephone and started to work. There were no problems for him to solve, he just changed an office room to an office room. The rest was something we took care about. The client should not and does not observe the routine hard work on the project. Using the same analogy which we started with, the client needs to get in a car he’d paid for and drive it in the needed direction without any difficulties. The expert’s job is to manufacture a safe, comfortable stylish transport considering the client’s individual expectations. That is what the Office Times team which has a lot of practical experience does.

Complex solutions for commercial premises always lead to excellent results. That can be proven by our clients including Ile De Beaute, Metro, Premierpharm, ANCOR, EGIS and other renown companies.

You want to by-pass the necessity to resolve problems of moving to a new office, are facing hot time constraints or have special expectations from the new office space? Let us discuss this.