Partnering for Agile ABW Success

Post 4 – Partnering for ABW

If you are anything like me, moving a building is not something you do very often. We have been a ‘lazy tenant’ in our current building for 19 years, so any IP we had was not only materially diluted, but irrelevant. When we designed and fitted out our current building, ABW had not even been considered. The technology wasn’t there for starters to make it a practical reality. 

So, when we came down to the decision of selecting a partner, we essentially had two options.

Option one was a traditional Design and Construct model where we would select a partner that could manage the entire process in-house from end-to-end. Option two (which we selected) was to select a partner that would manage the entire process for us, but outsourced components to specialist sub-contractors, in particular, the ability for us to select our design partner separate from the construct.

We chose option 2 for a few core reasons. Firstly, it gave us significantly more transparency over cost as there was a clear demarcation between the management of the process from the design, from the construct etc. Secondly, we were able to ‘shop’ the design element independently of the project management, which gave us far more flexibility on the end product we were looking for.

In essence, we have chosen as a “turnkey” solution that includes choice / best of breed for the overall program management, architectural design and services engineers? 

What was interesting for us is how critical the cultural fit of the partner was. There are lots of designers that can woo you with great looking graphics and the promise of end to end management of your outcome, but how they go about it, and more significantly, who they are and what they stand for, are totally different…so take your time to really understand ‘who’ you are partnering with versus ‘what’ you are partnering for.

Whilst, like any project, we have had our bumps along the way, the engagement from the CEO’s down has been incredible, and I am grotesquely excited about the impact our move will have on our people and clients when we move on May 7.