Challenge
The client is a wireless vendor with a national chain of over five hundred retail outlets in all US states. Within the stores is an extensive data and wireless network including audio visual and digital signage components. This client was an existing and long-standing customer with a great working relationship with the project staff. Over the years, the client saw the cost of building a new store rise and decided to initiate a cost saving program with all vendors across the board. The customer sent a formal request asking all vendors to make a mandatory 20% reduction in pricing. NextConnect Technologies Program Management personnel offered an alternate solution.
Solution
Program Management personnel met with the customer and proposed a solution based on process and methodology in the building of the retail outlet. The solution required the bringing together all of the entities that were involved in the building of the retail store for a Construction Summit. NextConnect Program personnel organized and hosted the summit that included structural engineers, store architects, furniture and fixture vendors, electrical engineers, cabling designers, and general contractors. The goal of this summit was to work together to create a new template for overall store process delivery. Working together in the week long meetings, the various vendors refined their individual tasks to work more in conjunction. Every aspect and item involved in the construction of a store, however small, was examined to create a more cost-effective model. Research was done on alternate building materials, fixture design, and electrical requirements. A detailed Project Plan was generated as part of this solution for the customer based on this research. The Project Plan was presented to the customer at the end of the Construction Summit.
Result
The customer approved the Project Plan in their new store outlet locations. Changes were made in the some architectural aspects, building materials, fixture design, engineering, and the IT cabling components that went into the construction process. A new and overall store construction schedule was implemented based on the most efficient use of vendor time and staging the work processes. Overall these changes brought down the cost of building a retail store by 30% overall, a 10% additional savings per store for the customer than the original 20% that was requested. Vendors, though the refined deliver process, were able to make changes without much impact to their own profit margins. This solution was praised by the customer in the “above-and-beyond” approach and has led to delivery of over one thousand retail sites.