Services offered
- Creates the right working environment for your business
- Arrangement of departments within the building
- Internal arrangement and types of offices
- Layout of individual workstations
- Desk, chair and storage selection
- Internal finishes, colour schemes and materials
Types of company offering these services
- Architects
- Fitting-out contractors
- Design and fitting-out specialists
- Furniture companies
- Interior designers
- Management consultants
- Space planners
- Building Surveyors
Selection criteria
Track record
Look for experience of your type of project. Ask for references from current clients and visit completed recent projects. Find out about their reputation. Be assured that they can deliver on time and to budget.
Qualifications Can include CSD (Chartered Society of Designers) or membership of the DBA (Design Business Association); the RIBA (Royal Institute of British Architects) or ARCUK (The Architects Registration Council of the United Kingdom. It is better to choose a company on the basis of their past work than on their qualifications alone.
The people
What is their technical skill and knowledge?
Are you going to be able to get on with them through the life of the project?
Resources
Can the firm handle your project, is it too big, is it too small? High levels of IT skills. These should include the ability to show schemes as 3D models, which will help you to understand and assess the proposals. Plans sections and elevations are difficult for the non-professional (and many professionals) to understand. They are entirely artificial sections through the building that you would never be able to see. Perspective views enable you to see the project in a way that more closely resembles what you will actually see. Look for a company that has enough capacity to handle the project within the timescale required.
Location
Is it important for a firm to be close to you or close to your site? (It might be more convenient for you to have easy access to your team than for them to have easy access to your site)
Communication
Do they use your language, or do they speak in jargon you don’t understand?
Understanding Do they appear interested in, and understand your needs and your brief. If not, it is doubtful you will ever get what you want from them.
Overall abilities Do they have the ability to implement the brief and achieve your objectives?
Fees
Levels will vary and some companies will carry out design or an initial analysis free of charge, others will seek payment. Clearly, if a design is being provided for no fee, the provider will expect to recoup the costs later on. This is known as speculative (or spec) work. If you choose to take up an offer of a free design make sure that the company you accept it from is qualified to carry out the work for you. Remember that you get what you pay for. It is normally preferable to obtain space audits and interior design from the same source, because carrying out the space audit and preparation of the accommodation strategy will have given that company a good in-depth knowledge of your business.
Is what you see what you will get?
Check that the people that you meet during the selection process are the people that you will work with, and not<
