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Move Consultants – how to hire and what you buy when you hire

Renee McNiel, PMP - noemail@cmcimove.com — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 04:00:00 GMT

If you have never hired a move consultant or you don’t know what one is, this is the article for you! A move consultant is an organized, drill-sergeanty type of human being or group who really cares about your company, your company’s bottom line and how to get the company efficiently from Point A to Point B while ensuring you stay in business as long as possible. No small feat you say… and it is true.

Hiring a move consultant really is an easy thing to do. First, you will want to do a little homework. Your homework should include looking up moving consultants in your area. Second, ask around about move consultants. While I would not say you need to hire someone to vet this out for you, I would say a few prudent conversations with your friends, architects, property managers and brokers would get you a number of names. Call these companies, ask for referrals and check them out. Find out how they saved their clients money and time. If a move consultant is doing their job, they will save you time, save you money and make you look like the expert in your organization for having hired them. Here in Houston a moving company on a large move is likely to cost between $800 and $1000 per hour. It is imperative that you have someone with experience at the helm or you will end up with a very large bill and possible chaos in your new space come opening day. Interview your top two or three picks. If you are planning a large move, it is important that you like who you are hiring and feel like they are a fit with your company. It is also important that you know they know every pitfall and the solution for any issues that may arise. I would suggest coming up with a few scenarios and testing them out in your interview process. Further, ask for references around the scenarios they are discussing and call those companies for their take. One thing to avoid is anyone who will not be present on move day. When you hire a move consultant, you want them there for the weekend, day or night to guarantee that your goods are properly handled from beginning to end. If someone tries to hand you a book to tell you how to do it, be wary – you want the help and the expertise of the real consultant, not the one in the book who may or may not have conducted a move!

Following are a number of additional reasons to hire a move consultant:

1. Time - Your time is really better focused on what you do for a living. The move consulting wheel has been invented and you don’t need to try to figure it out while continuing to do your full time job, as this will be another full time job.

2. Processes - In addition to wanting their processes, you want their experience with those processes. While some move consultants provide purely scheduling, others go into great detail for every little thing associated with your business. They look at everything and make certain that all of your things are accounted for in “to do” lists. They then track those lists (and things) all the way to the new space.

3. Planning - The move consultant should make sure all things fit according to the plan. Not every consultant does this so you need to make sure yours does. It is imperative that everything you are sending to the new space fits and that you know it fits before you get it the room. This will save you time and money.

4. RFP’s (request for proposals) - A good move consultant will have all the RFP’s you need to conduct your move. They will take a template and hone it to fit your needs for a number of services including your mover, your shelving vendor, deinstallation/reinstallation of computer equipment and/or crate rental. The big one here is the mover RFP. It is imperative that it be written for exactly the elements on your job. Are you moving files, is the mover packing the files, and are the file cabinets being moved loaded –can the file cabinets be moved loaded safely and without damage? There are a number of items to be considered and most of all, you want an RFP to reflect that reality and get you a good number. Your move consultant will write mover contract directly to you and then oversee that contract making sure that the mover comes in on or under their proposed amount. A good RFP will ensure no “scope creep” and no surprises when the bill comes due.

5. Experience – A move consultant will have encountered broken elevators, broken down trucks, floods, fires, delinquent movers, etc. One of the more stressful activities a person can perform in their career is managing their companies move. All eyes are on you with the expectation that you will keep your company running as long as possible.

In a nutshell, you want and should have it all. A good move consultant will be concerned with all your pain points – furniture planning, movers, computers, communications, all the way down to the coffee and paper clips. You want someone with know how who cares about you and your bottom line. Good luck on your next move, I recommend hiring a move consultant so that you can keep on moving on!

Renee McNiel, PMP, has been a Move Consultant for twenty-one years. She has managed the moves of 3 people all the way to 5000 people for her corporate, institution and hospital clients. She owns Corporate Move Consulting Inc. in Houston, Texas.

10-Mar-10 10:00 PM

The Green Move - originally featured in International Facilities Management Association Houston Chapter newsletter and also featured in the Spring 2008 newsletter of IFMA - www.ifma.org

Renee McNiel - noemail@cmcimove.com — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 19:00:00 GMT

A corporate move is a challenging event for Facilities Managers in that it typically happens at the tail end of a major construction project handled by that same Facilities Manager. While more and more corporations are considering or opting for sustainable environments, the same choices hold true in the world of relocation. There are a number of ways to green your move such as; cleaning out prior to the move, recycling electronic equipment, using environmentally conscience building materials, utilizing crates and purchasing carbon credits.

There are pieces of the relocation puzzle that will aid in minimizing the amount of paper storage and thereby save on your square feet and will also save on your need for shelving to accommodate that paper. One method of saving space and saving dollars is by implementing a trash day prior to your move. Incorporate into that day, the information needed to effectively throw away what needs to be trashed versus items that legally must be kept with regard to records, logs, books, etc. Including your records retention information with trash day information will make employees more comfortable about actually throwing away unnecessary documents, etc. For a small investment in lunch, shredding containers, trash bins and a cleaning crew, your savings in both your footprint and your move can easily be realized.

Another issue for the sustainable conscientious is what to do with electronics that are no longer of use. There are a number of companies that offer services to recycle your computers and cell phones. Further, it is important to make sure that we are not throwing computers and cell phones into land fills. Here is an exert from the US Geological Survey website: "The metals contained in PC's commonly include aluminum, antimony, arsenic , barium , beryllium, cadmium , chromium , cobalt, copper, gallium, gold, iron, lead , manganese, mercury , palladium, platinum, selenium , silver , and zinc. Eight of these metals (shown in bolded type) are listed as hazardous by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), one of the Federal laws that control the disposition of waste in the United States. This law prohibits companies from incinerating some types of electronic scrap or disposing of it into municipal landfills."

On a recent project, I had a client who needed to get rid of a number of computers and a few servers. I called United Way to inquire about what they might do. Here in Houston, the United Way has a recycle program called Gifts in Kind wherein IBM technicians wipe the computers clean and United Way provides the computers back out to non-profit organizations.

Unless you have had a vendor provide you information on sustainable products in the relocation industry, it is not likely that you would have considered them or have even known they were out there. When it is time to consider relocation vendors, it is also time to consider the products they may or may not bring. If you are affiliated with a corporation who moves regularly (restacks), it is a good idea to consider purchasing or renting building protection materials. When considering building protection, you may want to include coroflex – a plastic material that is typically 4’ X 8’ and can be reused. Coroflex is used to protect your walls - it is large to store but really provides the protection of your walls where you need. There are also quilted pads for doors and elevators that can be purchased or specified in your bid requirements.

In addition to reusable building materials there are also a product for packing that is reusable - a moving crate. According to Rentacrate, a plastic moving crate saves our resources because they are reusable for a minimum of ten years and there are no logging of trees in making crates. Crates can be purchased for those continually restacking, be specified in your moving bid requirements or can be rented through a crate rental company. The return on investment on utilizing crates is in labor savings on your move and in knowing that you have not contributed to the further logging of trees to create moving boxes. Additionally, you are saving on the number of truckloads. With a box move, you would move 338 cubic feet per truck whereas utilizing crates, you could move 600 cubic feet per truck. Crates come with dollies and are packed by the end user with the dolly underneath. When the moving crew arrives, there is no loading/unloading of boxes on to dollies, it is already done – saving labor and time – and thereby, your money. A crate is twice the size of a typical moving box (boxes are 1.5 cubic feet and crates are 3.0 cubic feet), which will assist in ensuring that the end user unpack as crates take up more room in their offices.

Another possibility is to purchase carbon credits to off-set the CO2 emissions of the moving trucks. Wilkipedia defines carbon credits as follows:

“Carbon credits are a key component of national and international emissions trading schemes. They provide a way to reduce greenhouse effect emissions on an industrial scale by capping total annual emissions and letting the market assign a monetary value to any shortfall through trading. Credits can be exchanged between businesses or bought and sold in international markets at the prevailing market price. Credits can be used to finance carbon reduction schemes between trading partners and around the world.

There are also many companies that sell carbon credits to commercial and individual customers who are interested in lowering their carbon footprint on a voluntary basis. These carbon offsetters purchase the credits from an investment fund or a carbon development company that has aggregated the credits from individual projects. The quality of the credits is based in part on the validation process and sophistication of the fund or development company that acted as the sponsor to the carbon project. This is reflected in their price; voluntary units typically have less value than the units sold through the rigorously-validated Clean Development Mechanism.”

Carbon credits can be purchased at a number of companies. I spoke to Terra Pass and they said on a 25,000 square foot move, the cost of the carbon credit off-set would be about $11. This cost is to off-set one metric ton of CO2 emissions created by the moving company trucks.

At the 2007 IFMA World Workplace Conference, the topic most discussed was sustainability. The relocation industry has changed in the last decade and is striving to ensure it meets the needs of its most important client – the Facilities Manager. By including the items discussed here, you can save the earth’s resources, assist in your sustainability program and goals and save your corporation money.

Companies who provide crates:

*New Haven Moving and Equipment – www.newhaven.com

*Rentacrate, Inc. – www.rentacrate.com

Tyga Box – www.tygabox.com

* - companies who also provide building protection

Companies who provide computer disposal:

Capital Asset Recovery – www.capasset.com

Rentacrate – www.rentacrate.com

Companies who provide shredding services:

Rentacrate – www.rentacrate.com

Shred-it – www.shredit.com

To purchase carbon credits:

Carbonfund – www.carbonfund.org

Native Energy – www.nativeenergy.com

Terra Pass – www.terrapass.com

29-Jan-08 1:00 PM

Crates versus boxes

Renee Lesley-McNiel - noemail@cmcimove.com — Tue, 09 May 2006 14:00:00 GMT

To use crates or boxes, that is the question! As a move consultant for 15 years, I was sceptical when the crate vendor came to call. She told us that utilizing crates on a move would save us money. All I could go back to was the simple math - they cost more money, how could you possibly save my clients money when the cost of a crate is more than the cost of a box? She kept insisting that the savings was in the labor. Being the cynic, I politely requested that she prove it and preferrably, at her cost. She did!

I know that it seems unbelievable, but crates will save you money on the labor side of the move. The fact is, the movers no longer have to touch every box. When the movers show up at the job site, the crates are on the dollies. The labor savings is phenomenal and so is the rate at which your belongings will be moved. You will be in your new space at lightning speed.

Another way crates will save you is - safety. Simply put, crates are easier on your back both to pack and to move out of your way. My clients love them.

I know there are times when boxes have to be utilized. When they do not, I highly recommend utlizing crates while saving your back and your money.

9-May-06 9:00 AM

A Tale of Two Buildings (from Legal Times)

E. Pete Karelis - noemail@cmcimove.com — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 22:00:00 GMT

Moving to a new office wasn’t just a headache—it was an opportunity.

Every office move is a critical time for an information technology department. Unsuccessful office relocations can mean work disruption, angry clients, and lost billings. Successful moves, on the other hand, will go unnoticed by your clients.

Office moves can also be a good opportunity to revisit your IT infrastructure, and ensure that your technology is ready to meet the future needs of your firm.

Venable recently relocated our D.C. office to our new flagship facility at Terrell Place on 7th Street, N.W. The move took place during the last two weekends of September 2003.

More than 290 employees moved on the first weekend, with the remaining 195 employees moving on the second weekend. And being a law firm, all systems absolutely needed to be 100 percent available on both Monday mornings following the moves. Click here to read the entire article on Legal Times

28-Apr-06 5:00 PM