Friday, July 4, 2008
Guest Commentary: Review clears Collier County office furniture purchasing policy
At a May meeting of the Collier County Commission, D.M. Tidwell cited what he believed were a number of deficiencies in county practices for purchasing office furniture. Speaking on behalf of a Marco Island office supply firm that now employs him, Tidwell claimed the county purchasing department paid excessive prices for office furniture, refused to consider his employer’s competitive bid, wasted money for outside design services, etc. The claims were reported on by the media.
The county commissioners requested that the county Government Productivity Committee undertake a priority review of Tidwell’s various criticisms, which we completed last week. After a detailed study of both sides of the dispute, we concluded that the county has a sound approach to planning and acquiring office furniture that is consistent with widely established practices of government and business. There is no evidence of malfeasance by staff or suppliers, nor is there evidence of gross waste of county funds. Therefore, the Productivity Committee anticipates no further involvement in this vendor protest. Our findings are elaborated on below.
Purchasing strategy and policy
To put Tidwell’s criticisms in context, it is necessary to understand the current county policy for purchasing office furniture. The county commission established the standards for the office furniture through a deliberate and competitive process and selected two companies, Herman Miller and Steelcase, as primary suppliers. Advantages of focusing on a limited number of suppliers include:
Consistent office furnishings throughout county government facilitates interchange of furniture between departments and divisions due to reorganizations or new and reconfigured buildings. Examples of savings in recent projects were cited.
Standardization reduces the staffing required to purchase office furniture.
Due to an umbrella purchasing agreement negotiated by the state, prices paid by Collier County for the selected furniture are the lowest available nationally and within the state.
The Collier County policy of a few suppliers is a mainstream management practice. Lee, Charlotte, Sarasota and Broward counties, as well as FGCU and others, use the same furniture brands at similar price points. Steelcase and Herman Miller are not the lowest-price brands, but they are ergonomically sound (an estimated 85 percent of the population will experience low back pain in their lifetimes) and come with longer term and/or broader warranties than brands sold on price emphasis.
The downsides of a county focus on a few brands is that it may generate resentment among local merchants who are not franchised to sell the equipment specified, vigilance is required to assure that the county obtains all the discounts and services that it should from long-term suppliers, and the potential for using newer and/or less-expensive brands may be undervalued. In my experience supervising an office purchasing department (as an element of my senior vice president of human resources and administration position at the Quaker Oats Co. in Chicago), the risks are manageable and are outweighed by the benefits of standardization.
Design services
Tidwell stated that he could provide office layout design services to the county for little or no fee. He retracted his offer of design services after learning that neither he, nor his employer, meets the professional licensing requirements for that activity under Florida law. In any event, prudent use of outside office layout design services is a reasonable and customary procedure that provides access to skills that are impractical to retain on county staff due to the specialized and periodic nature of the work. Also, an independent viewpoint can be helpful to avoid pressure from departments for more or better furniture than the county standard.
The glass reception desk
Much attention has focused on a $10,000 glass reception unit sitting in a warehouse. We now know that the unit was purchased last year for installation in a public area of the new Emergency Operations Center. Perhaps a modest premium was paid to achieve aesthetic goals, but economic pressures will undoubtedly result in a more utilitarian approach going forward. Evidence that a frugal mind-set is now in place are efforts reported by staff to redeploy substantial amounts of existing furniture to new facilities and a variety of expense-reduction initiatives incorporated in the budgets now under development.
Conclusion
The Productivity Committee consists of 12 appointed volunteers with several hundred years experience in government, business and management consulting. Historically we have not been hesitant to flag deficiencies in county practices when observed. However, the committee does not concur with the substance of Tidwell’s claims of broad mismanagement in county office-furniture purchasing.
The county commissioners requested that the county Government Productivity Committee undertake a priority review of Tidwell’s various criticisms, which we completed last week. After a detailed study of both sides of the dispute, we concluded that the county has a sound approach to planning and acquiring office furniture that is consistent with widely established practices of government and business. There is no evidence of malfeasance by staff or suppliers, nor is there evidence of gross waste of county funds. Therefore, the Productivity Committee anticipates no further involvement in this vendor protest. Our findings are elaborated on below.
Purchasing strategy and policy
To put Tidwell’s criticisms in context, it is necessary to understand the current county policy for purchasing office furniture. The county commission established the standards for the office furniture through a deliberate and competitive process and selected two companies, Herman Miller and Steelcase, as primary suppliers. Advantages of focusing on a limited number of suppliers include:
Consistent office furnishings throughout county government facilitates interchange of furniture between departments and divisions due to reorganizations or new and reconfigured buildings. Examples of savings in recent projects were cited.
Standardization reduces the staffing required to purchase office furniture.
Due to an umbrella purchasing agreement negotiated by the state, prices paid by Collier County for the selected furniture are the lowest available nationally and within the state.
The Collier County policy of a few suppliers is a mainstream management practice. Lee, Charlotte, Sarasota and Broward counties, as well as FGCU and others, use the same furniture brands at similar price points. Steelcase and Herman Miller are not the lowest-price brands, but they are ergonomically sound (an estimated 85 percent of the population will experience low back pain in their lifetimes) and come with longer term and/or broader warranties than brands sold on price emphasis.
The downsides of a county focus on a few brands is that it may generate resentment among local merchants who are not franchised to sell the equipment specified, vigilance is required to assure that the county obtains all the discounts and services that it should from long-term suppliers, and the potential for using newer and/or less-expensive brands may be undervalued. In my experience supervising an office purchasing department (as an element of my senior vice president of human resources and administration position at the Quaker Oats Co. in Chicago), the risks are manageable and are outweighed by the benefits of standardization.
Design services
Tidwell stated that he could provide office layout design services to the county for little or no fee. He retracted his offer of design services after learning that neither he, nor his employer, meets the professional licensing requirements for that activity under Florida law. In any event, prudent use of outside office layout design services is a reasonable and customary procedure that provides access to skills that are impractical to retain on county staff due to the specialized and periodic nature of the work. Also, an independent viewpoint can be helpful to avoid pressure from departments for more or better furniture than the county standard.
The glass reception desk
Much attention has focused on a $10,000 glass reception unit sitting in a warehouse. We now know that the unit was purchased last year for installation in a public area of the new Emergency Operations Center. Perhaps a modest premium was paid to achieve aesthetic goals, but economic pressures will undoubtedly result in a more utilitarian approach going forward. Evidence that a frugal mind-set is now in place are efforts reported by staff to redeploy substantial amounts of existing furniture to new facilities and a variety of expense-reduction initiatives incorporated in the budgets now under development.
Conclusion
The Productivity Committee consists of 12 appointed volunteers with several hundred years experience in government, business and management consulting. Historically we have not been hesitant to flag deficiencies in county practices when observed. However, the committee does not concur with the substance of Tidwell’s claims of broad mismanagement in county office-furniture purchasing.
Adding a touch of class to the office
By Ong Bi Hui
Office furniture is mostly functional rather than flashy in design, but two Singapore entrepreneurs are determined to add a touch of class to the workplace.
Mr Gavin Woo and Ms Katrina Tan are former colleagues who decided in 1997 to venture out on their own.
They used a modest $50,000 of their own money to set up Office Planner, a company that distributes designer furniture for the masses, with a focus on supplying inspiring designs for offices.
Just over a decade later, they are well and truly in the global league. They recently signed a deal to be the sole furniture distributor in Asia for leading French designer Philippe Starck.
Mr Woo and Ms Tan got to know each other when they worked together in the sales department of Corten Furniture. 'When we were at Corten's sales department, we were more or less solving most of the problems there using our own devices, so we figured that we might as well run a business ourselves,' said Ms Tan, a former stewardess with Japan Airlines.
Singapore-based Office Planner started with only four workers in 1997. Today, it has grown into a 70-man operation and has franchises in Australia and South Korea, with one more slated to open in Malaysia by October.
The company's annual revenue has soared to more than $10 million, a tenfold increase from its first year of operations.
Apart from distributing furniture from renowned brands such as Philippe Starck, the company also works with European designers to come up with its own line of office and home furnishings, some of which will be manufactured at its Sungei Kadut factory.
Ms Tan said the duo managed to break even in the first year of operations, which she added was 'no mean feat'.
'We had to survive without salaries for six months.'
While the 'bread-and-butter' income of the company comes from its line of office furniture called Mobilink, other lines are also selling like hot cakes. The most notable is Philippe Starck's xO series - home furnishings with the signature Starck look but at mass-market prices.
The duo had direct dealings with Mr Starck, including a trip they made to Milan to express their interest.
Mr Woo joked that Mr Starck 'speaks very little English - or so he led us to believe'.
But they almost missed the opportunity to clinch the deal.
'When his representatives came to Singapore to find an Asian partner, we were doing a job for the Singapore Embassy in the Philippines, ' Mr Woo said. 'By the time we rushed back, we had to meet Mr Starck's representatives at 11.30pm because they had to fly back the next day.'
Eventually, Mr Starck picked them as he felt that they were 'passionate about the business and not about the dollars and cents'. However, this was only after they personally flew over to Milan to express their interest in the deal.
Office Planner has also just launched a new line of colourful office furnishings called Itaca, and has been collaborating with Philippe Starck since last year on a series of office furnishings to be launched soon.
Despite their success, a niggling concern remains over whether office furniture will continue to be a neglected aspect of the furnishings market.
'At least 90 per cent of furniture design graduates end up doing home furnishing designs,' said Mr Woo.
Though the company currently works mainly with European designers for its collections, the duo hope they can one day hire design students as in-house designers, for that truly uniquely Singapore design that combines the best of East and West.
This article was first published in The Straits Times on 2 July 2008.
Office furniture is mostly functional rather than flashy in design, but two Singapore entrepreneurs are determined to add a touch of class to the workplace.
Mr Gavin Woo and Ms Katrina Tan are former colleagues who decided in 1997 to venture out on their own.
They used a modest $50,000 of their own money to set up Office Planner, a company that distributes designer furniture for the masses, with a focus on supplying inspiring designs for offices.
Just over a decade later, they are well and truly in the global league. They recently signed a deal to be the sole furniture distributor in Asia for leading French designer Philippe Starck.
Mr Woo and Ms Tan got to know each other when they worked together in the sales department of Corten Furniture. 'When we were at Corten's sales department, we were more or less solving most of the problems there using our own devices, so we figured that we might as well run a business ourselves,' said Ms Tan, a former stewardess with Japan Airlines.
Singapore-based Office Planner started with only four workers in 1997. Today, it has grown into a 70-man operation and has franchises in Australia and South Korea, with one more slated to open in Malaysia by October.
The company's annual revenue has soared to more than $10 million, a tenfold increase from its first year of operations.
Apart from distributing furniture from renowned brands such as Philippe Starck, the company also works with European designers to come up with its own line of office and home furnishings, some of which will be manufactured at its Sungei Kadut factory.
Ms Tan said the duo managed to break even in the first year of operations, which she added was 'no mean feat'.
'We had to survive without salaries for six months.'
While the 'bread-and-butter' income of the company comes from its line of office furniture called Mobilink, other lines are also selling like hot cakes. The most notable is Philippe Starck's xO series - home furnishings with the signature Starck look but at mass-market prices.
The duo had direct dealings with Mr Starck, including a trip they made to Milan to express their interest.
Mr Woo joked that Mr Starck 'speaks very little English - or so he led us to believe'.
But they almost missed the opportunity to clinch the deal.
'When his representatives came to Singapore to find an Asian partner, we were doing a job for the Singapore Embassy in the Philippines, ' Mr Woo said. 'By the time we rushed back, we had to meet Mr Starck's representatives at 11.30pm because they had to fly back the next day.'
Eventually, Mr Starck picked them as he felt that they were 'passionate about the business and not about the dollars and cents'. However, this was only after they personally flew over to Milan to express their interest in the deal.
Office Planner has also just launched a new line of colourful office furnishings called Itaca, and has been collaborating with Philippe Starck since last year on a series of office furnishings to be launched soon.
Despite their success, a niggling concern remains over whether office furniture will continue to be a neglected aspect of the furnishings market.
'At least 90 per cent of furniture design graduates end up doing home furnishing designs,' said Mr Woo.
Though the company currently works mainly with European designers for its collections, the duo hope they can one day hire design students as in-house designers, for that truly uniquely Singapore design that combines the best of East and West.
This article was first published in The Straits Times on 2 July 2008.
U.S. office furniture orders up but outlook cloudy
NEW YORK, July 2 (Reuters) - U.S. office furniture orders rose 2 percent in May compared with a year earlier, to $990 million, but a slump is likely later this year, a trade group said on Tuesday.
The Business and Institutional Manufacturers Association said May shipments rose 1 percent to $945 million.
For the year to date, orders are up 1 percent and shipments are flat, it said.
But the trade group said it expects full-year orders and shipments to fall 4.7 percent and 6.8 percent, respectively.
"The industry's primary macroeconomic drivers are either negative (business confidence, corporate profits) or deteriorating (service sector employment, new office construction)," Raymond James analyst Budd Bugatch wrote in a note to clients commenting on the BIFMA data.
Rising commodity costs are also pressuring margins, forcing manufacturers to raise prices in the face of soft demand, Bugatch said.
Nonetheless, the analyst affirmed his "outperform" ratings on Herman Miller Inc (MLHR.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Knoll Inc (KNL.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and his "market perform" rating on Steelcase Inc (SCS.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).
"Each of our companies under coverage is well managed and high quality, boasting individual competitive strengths and positive cash flow dynamics," Bugatch wrote.
He affirmed his "underperform" rating on HNI Corp (HNI.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), saying the company is exposed to the struggling low end of the office furniture market as well as the housing slump. HNI makes fireplace products in addition to office furniture.
BIFMA compiled its May report from 38 companies that account for about 75 percent of the industry's volume. (Reporting by Helen Chernikoff; editing by John Wallace)
The Business and Institutional Manufacturers Association said May shipments rose 1 percent to $945 million.
For the year to date, orders are up 1 percent and shipments are flat, it said.
But the trade group said it expects full-year orders and shipments to fall 4.7 percent and 6.8 percent, respectively.
"The industry's primary macroeconomic drivers are either negative (business confidence, corporate profits) or deteriorating (service sector employment, new office construction)," Raymond James analyst Budd Bugatch wrote in a note to clients commenting on the BIFMA data.
Rising commodity costs are also pressuring margins, forcing manufacturers to raise prices in the face of soft demand, Bugatch said.
Nonetheless, the analyst affirmed his "outperform" ratings on Herman Miller Inc (MLHR.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Knoll Inc (KNL.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and his "market perform" rating on Steelcase Inc (SCS.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).
"Each of our companies under coverage is well managed and high quality, boasting individual competitive strengths and positive cash flow dynamics," Bugatch wrote.
He affirmed his "underperform" rating on HNI Corp (HNI.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), saying the company is exposed to the struggling low end of the office furniture market as well as the housing slump. HNI makes fireplace products in addition to office furniture.
BIFMA compiled its May report from 38 companies that account for about 75 percent of the industry's volume. (Reporting by Helen Chernikoff; editing by John Wallace)
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
15 things everyone should have at their desk
When you add up all the time you spend in a day getting up and heading to the supply cabinet or asking a coworker to borrow a paper clip, it turns out than you could have gotten about a month’s worth of extra work done in a year…if you had just had everything you need to flow through the day right at your fingertips.
Still, workers at offices around the globe don’t keep the office essentials they use most right there at their desk.
Here’s a basic list of office supplies and organizational items that every worker – from CEO on down – should keep handy throughout the course of the day.
· Company letterhead
· Envelopes
· Stamps
· A Ruler
· Scissors
· Kleenex
· Paper clips
· Stapler
· Post it Notes (lots and lots of Post it Notes!)
· Scratch paper
· A moistener for stamps and envelopes
· Advil or other form of headache relief
Now that you’re all set with the basics, visit www.aceofficesystems.com for the best office furniture at unbelievable prices! Call us at 1866-964-8457. Or contact us via e-mail @ sales@aceofficesystems.com.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
How to prepare for corporate downsizing
Lately, the business climate in this country has been unstable at best. Even the most well-heeled companies are finding it hard to make ends meet, and letting go of people as a means if staying afloat.
If you’re concerned that your company may begin downsizing, the first thing to do is NOT PANIC! This can be a stressful time to be sure, but it is those who act calmly and prepare wisely that will rebound quickly if they are indeed let go from their job.
Here are some sure-fire tips for surviving corporate downsizing:
• Start saving. If you are let go, chances are that money is going to be tight during the period when you’re searching for a job. Penny-pinch wherever you can to make it through this time financially unscathed.
• Polish your resume. If you haven’t updated your resume in a while, take a few hours at home and make sure all the entries are current and looking sharp.
• Check in on your references. Make sure that the individuals you use as professional and personal references are still available and willing to sing your praises. Make sure that you have all their current contact info as well.
• Study the job market. This is a good time to look at sites such as Monster.com or HotJobs.com to see who is hiring in your industry or chosen field.
• Don’t freak out when you leave. If you are let go, don’t let any negative feelings or personal frustrations show. This is NOT a good time to burn bridges! You never know when your company might right the ship and start hiring again.
Visit www.aceofficesystems.com for the best office furniture at unbelievable prices! Call us at 1866-964-8457. Or contact us via e-mail @ sales@aceofficesystems.com.
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