In recent years, facilities teams have faced unprecedented challenges. First there was the COVID-19 pandemic, forcing facilities managers to adapt to work-from-home and hybrid work setups. Challenges continue with today’s economic uncertainties, forcing some companies to consider workforce reductions. Due to these and other factors, facilities teams face a number of obstacles as they seek right-sizing facilities, or as they wrestle with the complexities of reconfiguring or decommissioning office spaces.

Managing Decommissions, Liquidations, and Other Complex Projects

These projects often involve liquidating furnishings and equipment, redeploying IT assets, and providing sustainable solutions for disposal, recycling, and donation. These are significant challenges in and of themselves, and the obstacles are compounded when they involve managing multiple suppliers, identifying resources, and developing complex project plans. Working on a national or global scale can add even more time and complexity, because it involves many local resources that are unfamiliar to the facilities teams who are planning the project.

Working with knowledgeable and competent partners can ease the burden of planning projects, while also being cost effective. An experienced mover, with a proven track record in commercial relocation, can assist with many of these tasks, relieving the burden on the facility manager.

Finding a Partner to Navigate the Chaos

But if finding the right partner can be the best way to navigate large-scale projects, the search for a relocation vendor can be challenging in itself. For facilities teams that have never outsourced to a relocation vendor, what’s the best way to find qualified help?

First and foremost, facilities teams can benefit from hiring a single supplier to oversee these projects, including national and global projects. This reduces the team’s management burden, while also expediting projects.

It’s also important to take the time to conduct proper due diligence for moving suppliers, because commercial relocation expertise is not common among most movers. Some guidelines:

  • Always ask them to cite references and use cases for similar projects.
  • Review experience managing liquidation processes, recycling projects, and projects involving charitable reuse.
  • Beware of household movers who promote their van line affiliations as a national resource. This can be a misleading representation of their national capability.

One more thing: We suggest that facilities teams negotiate rates and fees up front, instead of project-by-project. This will expedite services and help complete projects more rapidly.

The Benefits of Choosing the Right Partner

Selecting the right relocation partner can be advantageous in more ways than one. Consider:

  • Projects can be completed more expediently.
  • It improves sustainability, recycling, and reuse of decommissioned assets.
  • It reduces the facility team’s project management burden.

The right partner can also reduce costs associated with travel, contract administration, and supplier management. Facilities teams can create accurate budgets using existing rates. Meanwhile, pre-negotiated rates and an MSA can eliminate the need to “bid-out” every project.

Something else to keep in mind is that many task list items on a decommission or a move may be “on the fringe,” meaning there is crossover on who services the task. By hiring one vendor that can do it all, the project manager can let the vendor figure out how to get it done, bring in less people to coordinate, and alleviate a critical stress point.

Why Work with a Large Company Like Corovan?

Enter Corovan. We offer experience not only in moving, but in IT, furniture services, and in other specialties that may be relevant to a complex project. We have considerable experience in handling complicated moves for large corporations. Consider a few additional reasons to entrust your large-scale move, liquidation, or decommissioning to Corovan:

We can provide individualized solutions for downsizing, decommissioning, or other unique projects (employee packing and staging, curbside pickup, furniture removal, IT recycling).

  • We can analyze the requirements and offer creative solutions to complement the facility team’s goals.
  • We reduce downtime and minimize disruption by serving as a single, all-in-one vendor.
  • We have the ability to identify potential problems and provide solutions, drawing on lessons learned from big clients like Google.
  • We use best-in-class technology to make relocation processes better (including our proprietary Corotrak software).

Alleviate the Panic

The bottom line? Facilities teams face major hurdles, and in some cases that causes panic. Alleviate the stress associated with large-scale moves with many moving pieces. Trust the team at Corovan for your next commercial relocation.