Case Study – Riverstone
In 2006 a decision was taken to close the RiverStone France offices, located in central Paris. A project plan was drawn up that involved the migration of operations and associated paperwork to the UK facilities in Brighton and central London. The documentation held in the French offices ran into thousands of individual files of a legal and insurance nature, some of which were racked individually and some packed into European ‘outsized’ boxes: 3 stories of a typical sized office block were populated with files.
Due to circumstances beyond our control, the comprehensive cataloguing and shipping of the documentation could not be arranged internally on French soil as had been originally intended, and so the project specification was given to the DOI Group with just 3 weeks notice to commence works. The relevant fee was agreed and the project defined as follows:
1. To inventorise unidentified files in a ‘trackable’ system;
2. To efficiently pack and label for shipping all relevant materials;
3. To ship content to various UK facilities (in excess of 10 sizeable shipments);
4. To store all materials not required in the operational offices;
5. To offer a bespoke storage and retrieval service thereafter.
Whilst the specification itself appeared clear, there were several eventualities that the project team had not considered, and had DOI not have delivered a rapid and competent response, a large number of working hours would undoubtedly have been lost:
1. Paperwork involved in import and export of goods between EU countries;
2. Parking for loading in central Paris;
3. Limited size of vehicles that could be used in narrow central streets;
The project was delivered on time and within the agreed budget. Thereafter, the bespoke retrieval service ran as specified, with 3 different destinations and agreed fees for urgent, non-urgent and sizeable retrievals/collections.
The final step of the project was to re-site all boxes to an in-house facility in Brighton some months later. This was run in the same manner as the French service and was again delivered within budget and on time.
The DOI Group was not only conscientious and highly flexible in its approach to the project as a whole, but also displayed considerable competence in considering and organising the aspects of the move we were unaware of; RiverStone was protected and compliant.
Jane McCarte
Facilities Manager
RiverStone Management Limited |
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Case Study - Match Group
The Match Group is the UK's second largest healthcare staffing company, operating six independent brands throughout the UK with an annual turnover of £200m. Catering for both the public and private sectors for the last 16 years, we now have over 400 clients and 5000 employees. As part of our 2002 - 2004 Strategy, it was decided to relocate 5 of the brands and the Head Office to a single building near Cheshunt in Hertfordshire.
In the early spring of 2002, Match Group entered into discussions with DOI to conduct this key move. The total project cost was approximately £1m. They offered us a complete turnkey process, which included advice on the following: building refurbishment, space planning, IT and telephone infrastructure, removals and full project management. During the design phase, the advice given by DOI was innovative and constructive, yet always relevant to the task in hand and budget. By mid summer the plans were in place and once the lease negotiations were completed, the project began in August 2002 and finished when the staff were moved in October 2002. The key aspects of the project were:
To strip out and refurbish approx. 22,000 sq.ft. of offices into light, efficient and modern open-plan offices;
To install electrical and data infrastructure for 300 staff;
To install a fully programmable telephone switch and telephone system;
To fit out the offices with £350k worth of new furniture, in addition to items brought from other buildings;
To relocate 220 staff from 4 locations in the Home Counties.
The project was managed very effectively throughout by a project manager and supervising director who dealt with all agents, contractors and relevant public bodies. Weekly review meetings were held with our own project manager who acted as the single link to our staff. The remit was to ensure that after the staff left their old offices at 5.00pm on Friday, they would next start work at 0900 hrs on Monday at the new offices without 'missing a beat'. This was a complete success and the company trading did not suffer at all. The project came in on budget, on time and to specification.
Following the move, DOI have proved invaluable in undertaking a number of other spin-off issues including:
£250k worth of dilapidations works to old offices in Hertfordshire;
£50k worth of dilapidations works to our old Head Office in Wandsworth;
A weekly maintenance contract for the new building, including general DIY, plumbing, electrics, air conditioning and statutory testing;
Ad hoc maintenance requests at some of our 26 branch offices;
Design and amendments to offices within the new building.
Match Group has never, to my knowledge, written a testimonial for any other company before. It is only because of the professionalism, reliability and complete rounded service of DOI that we are prepared to endorse their services. Throughout their dealings with us we have built up an excellent working relationship based on the knowledge that what we ask for actually gets done on time, to our specification and within budget.
If you would like to know more, visit our offices or ask about DOI's services, please refer them to our Jerry Reece-Jones, Operations Manager at the Turnford Place address.
Yours sincerely
Alan Pilgrim
Chief Executive Officer |
