Ultimately, we were able to keep growing the business during what we knew, if we had managed internally, would have been a very distracting and disruptive project for the whole company, and potentially our clients.
The AJ Group is an award-winning Social Care and Health Care business delivering recruitment solutions, specialist training and direct care services to individuals and organisations. They approached Barclay Jones because they had ambitious growth plans which involved moving their head office operation.
The project took 3 months from start to finish and culminated in a move to a 6500 square foot office. It consisted of operational elements as well as IT-related ones, which ensured that the Directors could remain focused on the day to day needs of their business operation.
We began by understanding the specific requirements of the business and its needs going forward. We managed the project from start to finish by:
- Working closely with the client to ensure they were always fully informed and ready to make decisions when they needed to.
- Sourcing, negotiating with and managing the contractors (fit-out, designers, communications and telecoms, data infrastructure, security, electricians, moving company etc…)
- Configuring systems to ensure minimal downtime and disruption.
- Identifying what operational elements would need to be managed and working with the management to deliver solutions to: communicating with existing clients and suppliers, marketing the plans of our expansion, post, etc…)
We created a clear and concise project plan which documented the costs of the project and the timescales. We held regular meetings with AJ to communicate our progress and advise when decisions had to be made. We negotiated with the contractors to ensure best price and that appropriate contracts were signed to ensure expensive mistakes were not taken. We were also on-site to ensure the work being completed was done to the high standards expected by our client and ourselves.
On the days leading up to the move our role was extremely hands-on . This part of the move is always the most technical – everything comes together and it’s here that mistakes can lead to escalating costs or disruption to the business and thus service levels.
The move was a success – AJ’s objective: to continue to grow rapidly during the move project, whilst not being distracted by the move, was achieved. They were able to continue trading within a couple of working hours of the move date, thus their customers and staff were not disrupted. This move has put AJ in a great space from which to expand their operation even further.
Read The AJ Group's testimonial on our approach to office expansion and relocation.
Read our Blog post on office expansion and relocation.
If you are planning to expand or relocate your office, and your ideal is to continue to grow, uninterrupted, throughout this project, please get in touch.