Project Management Planning of Office Relocation

INTRODUCTION

Project management is planning, scheduling and managing activities so that project may be completed in time. Present report deals with Nisa Ltd which is planning to move its office from Bellshill to Manchester for increased productivity and efficiency. Project title, background, purpose, objectives, project scope, deliverables, constraints and assumptions will be included in report. Moreover, business case and risk analysis along with roles and responsibilities of staff and Project Manager will be discussed. Project control and quality control along with milestones will be included. Gantt chart and project management plan will be made. Thus, project objectives will be met.

SECTION 1: WHAT IS THE PROJECT ALL ABOUT?

ProjectTitle

 “Office move of Nisa Ltd from Bellshill city to Manchester city in the UK”

Background

The location plays a crucial role in the company in order to sell its goods. There are various costs that are incurred for maintaining office premises in the best way possible. It can be identified that when location of shop or warehouse is nearer to distribution centre, then transportation and logistics expenses reduces up to a high extent. Nisa Ltd which is small and medium sized retailer and wholesaler company in the UK is planning to move from Bellshill to Manchester in order to improve upon its services and reduce costs of transportation and provides timely delivery of goods to final customers quite effectively. It is essentially needed that since Manchester is big industrial city and focusing on office relocation in the city will definitely provide better results to not only customers but also employees will perform their duties quite comfortably.

Purpose

The main purpose of this project in hand is to offer goods to customers in an quick manner by deploying less time and reduction over the expenses (What are the objectives when moving office?. 2018). This will prove to be fruitful for Nisa Ltd as service and timely delivery of products over shops will be accelerated and positive outcome will be attained in the best way possible. It is required to relocate the office so as to enhance overall delivery time and improve upon services and gradually decreasing transportation expenses from production place to final consumption destination.

Objectives

• To enhance services to customers in order to increase satisfaction level
• To end with right office space in terms of cost and brand reputation
• To relocate IT and make ensure right cabling infrastructure in new office location for seamless communication
• To look out for workforce team and concerns throughout the relocation process
• To reduce transportation costs from movement of goods from warehouse to wholesalers

Project Scope

For this project, Manager have to effectively plan and relocate office from Bellshill to Manchester for improvement in services. In order to ensure, seamless moving from one place to another to new office, proper planning is required (Kerzner and Kerzner, 2017). The new office space should be painted, well-furnished, carpeted to be able to shift Nisa Ltd location with ease. It will help to deliver the project in time to stakeholders and timely accomplishment of project objectives will be met.

Exclusions From Scope

The exclusions from scope includes the all those activities which are not covered under project scope. It involves moving of boxers, new office building and refurbishments. On the contrary, any inclusion which Project Board or Project Manager request will be considered in project. Hence, project will get completed.

Deliverables

Project will provide better avenues and benefits to company in the best way possible. Main purpose of this project is to relocate existing office of Nisa Ltd from Bellshill to Manchester which will increase efficiency in effective manner. For accomplishing this, accurate schedules and plans will have to made before actual physical move of office to new location (Harrison and Lock, 2017). Appropriate and required costs also have to be incurred which incurs from moving office, painting and establishing carpets and other related expenditures involved. Moreover, defining of risks and properly communicating them to staff will also be made. Hence, project will be delivered quite effectually.

Constraints

Project will be completed with deliverables to company in an timely manner. However, there are certain constraints which hinders overall project delivery up to a major extent. In shifting or relocating the office, constraints will include scheduling and timing issues of project and executing as per the project plan. Moreover, reliability on the hands of contractors’ is another hindrance which will obstacle project accomplishment. Lastly, expenses associated with moving, involving desired moving supplies and accommodations etc (Fuller and et.al., 2017). Thus, these are few constraints which will be involved in this project.

Assumptions

The purpose and planning of resources are effectively made. In relation to this, as per the timing and scheduling of project, human and finance resources will be made available for preventing from interruption for project completion in the best way possible. The majority of work will be handled and managed in-house only and for gaining benefits of knowledge, external consultancy might be entertained. On the other hand, office supplies, accommodations, all interior built will be handled by suppliers and it is assumed that all such requirements and materials from suppliers will be made available without delays on unnecessary basis. Moreover, office chairs are also required which is also assumed that resource will be provided. Lastly, insurance coverage on existing basis will also be provided. Thus, it is effectively assumed that requirements will be accomplished in an timely manner and no delays will prevail which could hinder project completion within stipulated time.

SECTION 2: WHY SHOULD THIS PROJECT GO AHEAD?

1. Business Case:

Project Benefits

There are various benefits which will be effectively achieved from relocating office at the new place (Martens and Carvalho, 2017). Cost-saving is major benefit for Nisa Ltd as it will reduce transportation expenses for it as manufacturing set-up will be closer to office location and from there, products will be delivered to retailers and wholesalers and as a result, final customers will be get satisfaction with ease. Talent management is another advantage for relocation as moving to new location could increase labour pool and efficiency could be maximized. Brand reputation can be enhanced from new office area in Manchester as marketing campaign can be organised and support useful event for staff, potential customers, stakeholders. Network could be widen in effective way with customers as firm gets close with them which would enhance revenues and profits with ease (Webb, 2017). Hence, it can be said that office move of Nisa Ltd will be beneficial and project will be completed in time and benefits will be gained.

Options

There are various options which are available for the project and benefits and risks can be derived from it in effective manner. First option is to do minimum. It will have benefit and opportunities for saving expenses on carpeting, painting and refurbishing up to a high extent. Future growth can be achieved and no capital expenditure will have to be incurred at least in short-run. The cost of this option is that office will be not get well-furnished which will lead to decline in staff morale (Papke-Shields and Boyer-Wright, 2017). Second option is to refresh entire new office which will be beneficial as overall architecture will be changed and hidden benefits might be accomplished. The cost will be higher as entire cost will then exceed the stipulated budget. The recommended option is to do minimum in new office as balanced benefits will get attained.

Cost and Timescale

The project cost is an important part of completion of project as without having financial resources, it cannot be completed within time. There are various costs that are required to be incurred in order to attain project without any difficulty. Moreover, project will get completed in 60 days. The total costs which will be incurred are as follows-

Office Move budgeted cost sheet
Item	Cost (in £)
Office Design
Legal Fees – Contract review	260.00
Architect	300.00
Interior Designer	310.00
Planning Permits	150.00
Regulatory Fees	300.00
Build-out Materials
Interior Materials	1,110.00
External Materials	1,000.00
Landscaping Materials	500.00
Construction & Build-out
Existing Office
Space Restoration	400.00
New Office
Interior Construction	1,150.00
Exterior Construction	1,120.00
Landscaping team	400.00
Office Furniture & Related Accessories
Employee Work Areas
Partitions	40.00
Desks	20.00
Chairs	30.00
Storage	25.00
Employee Areas (Lounge)
Furniture	250.00
Lunch room Appliances	40.00
Storage	20.00
Decorations & Accessories	60.00
Reception Area	50.00
Furniture	250.00
Decorations & Accessories	60.00
Boardroom area
Furniture	260.00
Speciality Communications	35.00
Decorations & Accessories	65.00
Other Areas
Furniture	220.00
Speciality Communications	35.00
Decorations & Accessories	65.00
Communications
Designing network & Cabling	150.00
Voice equipment	190.00
Additional Equipments	100.00
Physical Relocation
Temporary Storage	90.00
Moving Company office	200.00
Insurance charges	180.00
Cleaning for locations
New Location	100.00
Old Location	100.00
Marketing
Update Print Materials
Letterhead, Envelopes	120.00
Business Cards	55.00
Website Updates	100.00
Office Relocation Notifications	90.00
Total	10,100.00

Cost/Benefit Analysis

The cost/benefit analysis has to be taken into consideration so that project can be analysed from various viewpoints that what will be benefits out of it and also what are the costs to be incurred from it. The benefits which will be accomplished by Nisa Ltd would be reduction in transportation costs and increase in satisfaction level of customers as fast delivery will be made to them. Costs would be maximise as new office location will be in Manchester and thus, expenditures will increase.

2. Risk Analysis:

Risk Identification	Risk Prevention	Risk Management	Risk Monitoring
Moving office takes longer time to move equipments than anticipated	Face-to-face meeting with movers for eliminating delays	Making definite plan and go as per schedule	Monitoring within two days for extracting variances if any
Painting and carpeting contractors takes more time than expected	Making aware to contractors regarding schedule	Execute plan as per scheduled activities	Checking within alternate days for variances

SECTION 3: WHO WILL WORK ON THE PROJECT?

Roles and Responsibilities

The roles and responsibilities of Project Manager is to effectively allocate the work to his team members so that they may be able to achieve tasks in the best way possible. The role of Project Manager is to develop project plan, recruit staff for the project, assign tasks to members, provide updates at regular interval to top management (Carvalho and Rabechini, 2017). On the other hand, roles and responsibilities of members are to contribute to overall project for meeting its objectives, incorporate skills and individual expertise, work with set standards, documenting the whole procedure.

Organisation chart

Illustration 1: Project organisation chart Source: lucidchart.com

Names of:

Project Sponsor- Jen Harry

Project Manager- Helen Welch

Project Team- Jennifer Tse, Julia White, Emma Wenzel

SECTION 4: HOW AND WHEN WILL THE PROJECT BE DELIVERED?

 

Project Plan

Task Name	Duration	Start	Finish
Project Management	16 days	Thu 10/25/18	Thu 11/15/18
Planning	2 days	Thu 10/25/18	Fri 10/26/18
Budgeting	1 day	Mon 10/29/18	Mon 10/29/18
Scheduling	1 day	Tue 10/30/18	Tue 10/30/18
Procurement management	1 day	Wed 10/31/18	Wed 10/31/18
Quality management	1 day	Thu 11/1/18	Thu 11/1/18
Defining requirements	10 days	Fri 11/2/18	Thu 11/15/18
Location of office	2 days	Fri 11/2/18	Mon 11/5/18
Customer base analysis	2 days	Tue 11/6/18	Wed 11/7/18
Physical structure	2 days	Thu 11/8/18	Fri 11/9/18
Identifying Constraints	2 days	Mon 11/12/18	Tue 11/13/18
Staffing Plan	2 days	Wed 11/14/18	Thu 11/15/18
Site Selection	5 days	Fri 11/16/18	Thu 11/22/18
Contract	2 days	Fri 11/16/18	Mon 11/19/18
Facilities access agreement new facility	2 days	Tue 11/20/18	Wed 11/21/18
Notifying existing Realtor	1 day	Thu 11/22/18	Thu 11/22/18
Office Design structure	26 days	Thu 10/25/18	Thu 11/29/18
Architectural drawings	5 days	Fri 11/23/18	Thu 11/29/18
Interior design	4 days	Thu 10/25/18	Tue 10/30/18
Communications Requirements	2 days	Thu 10/25/18	Fri 10/26/18
Computer network	1 day	Mon 10/29/18	Mon 10/29/18
Cabling and related work	2 days	Tue 10/30/18	Wed 10/31/18
Electrical	3 days	Thu 11/1/18	Mon 11/5/18
Voice network	1 day	Tue 11/6/18	Tue 11/6/18
Cabling	1 day	Wed 11/7/18	Wed 11/7/18
Construction Build out	22 days	Thu 10/25/18	Fri 11/23/18
Planning permission	2 days	Thu 10/25/18	Fri 10/26/18
Bid process	2 days	Mon 10/29/18	Tue 10/30/18
Vendor selection	2 days	Wed 10/31/18	Thu 11/1/18
Vendor contracts	3 days	Fri 11/2/18	Tue 11/6/18
Utilities	2 days	Wed 11/7/18	Thu 11/8/18
Open accounts	2 days	Fri 11/9/18	Mon 11/12/18
Activation of utilities	1 day	Tue 11/13/18	Tue 11/13/18
Interior construction	4 days	Wed 11/14/18	Mon 11/19/18
Exterior construction	4 days	Tue 11/20/18	Fri 11/23/18
Communications Network Build out	4 days	Mon 11/26/18	Thu 11/29/18
Bid process	2 days	Mon 11/26/18	Tue 11/27/18
Vendor selection	1 day	Wed 11/28/18	Wed 11/28/18
Vendor contracts	1 day	Thu 11/29/18	Thu 11/29/18
Equipment purchase	2 days	Fri 11/30/18	Mon 12/3/18
Vendor selection	1 day	Fri 11/30/18	Fri 11/30/18
Vendor contracts	1 day	Mon 12/3/18	Mon 12/3/18
Cabling	12 days	Tue 12/4/18	Wed 12/19/18
Internet connection throughout premises	1 day	Tue 12/4/18	Tue 12/4/18
Phone system	4 days	Wed 12/5/18	Mon 12/10/18
Implementing new equipment	2 days	Tue 12/11/18	Wed 12/12/18
Interior Design	1 day	Thu 12/13/18	Thu 12/13/18
Painting	2 days	Fri 12/14/18	Mon 12/17/18
Flooring	2 days	Tue 12/18/18	Wed 12/19/18
Furnishings and fittings	4 days	Thu 12/20/18	Tue 12/25/18
Vendor selection	2 days	Thu 12/20/18	Fri 12/21/18
Vendor contracts	2 days	Mon 12/24/18	Tue 12/25/18
Reviewing quality	9 days	Thu 10/25/18	Tue 11/6/18
Code compliance	2 days	Thu 10/25/18	Fri 10/26/18
Construction	4 days	Mon 10/29/18	Thu 11/1/18
Electrical	2 days	Fri 11/2/18	Mon 11/5/18
Occupancy certificate	1 day	Tue 11/6/18	Tue 11/6/18
Existing location	12 days	Wed 11/7/18	Thu 11/22/18
Buying packing materials	2 days	Wed 11/7/18	Thu 11/8/18
Moving company office	3 days	Fri 11/9/18	Tue 11/13/18
Predictions	2 days	Wed 11/14/18	Thu 11/15/18
Vendor selection	4 days	Fri 11/16/18	Wed 11/21/18
Insurance charges	1 day	Thu 11/22/18	Thu 11/22/18
New location	4 days	Thu 10/25/18	Tue 10/30/18
Cleaning company	1 day	Thu 10/25/18	Thu 10/25/18
Staff unpacking	1 day	Fri 10/26/18	Fri 10/26/18
PC setup	1 day	Mon 10/29/18	Mon 10/29/18
Packing materials disposal off	1 day	Tue 10/30/18	Tue 10/30/18
New Office Maintenance	5 days	Wed 10/31/18	Tue 11/6/18
Housekeeping services	2 days	Wed 10/31/18	Thu 11/1/18
Insurance charges	1 day	Fri 11/2/18	Fri 11/2/18
Sanitation services	2 days	Mon 11/5/18	Tue 11/6/18
Marketing	6 days	Wed 11/7/18	Wed 11/14/18
Change of address notification	2 days	Wed 11/7/18	Thu 11/8/18
Customers	1 day	Fri 11/9/18	Fri 11/9/18
print media	2 days	Mon 11/12/18	Tue 11/13/18
Staff business cards	1 day	Wed 11/14/18	Wed 11/14/18

Milestones

First milestone is painting and carpeting contractors are appointed beginning process of workers’ notification. Second one is IT wiring and cabling completion in new office. It allows employee to achieve technology insight when moving to office (Tonchia, Tonchia and Mahagaonkar, 2018). Third milestone is completion of painting and carpeting, relocation begins quite effectively. Fourth one is all items are moved to new office and last milestone, entire office move is complete.

Gantt chart

 The below Gantt chart shows that 60 days will be required for completing project.

Task Name	Starting Date	Finishing Date
Project Management	10/25/2018	11/15/2018
Site Selection	11/16/2018	11/22/2018
Office Design structure	10/25/2018	11/29/2018
Construction Build out	10/25/2018	11/23/2018
Communications Network Build out	11/26/2018	11/29/2018
Equipment purchase	11/30/2018	12/03/2018
Cabling	12/04/2018	12/19/2018
Furnishings and fittings	12/20/2018	12/25/2018
Reviewing quality	10/25/2018	11/06/2018
Existing location	11/07/2018	11/22/2018
New location	10/25/2018	10/30/2018
New Office Maintenance	10/31/2018	11/06/2018
Marketing	11/07/2018	11/14/2018

OCT

NOV

DEC

THU 25

TUE 30

WED 31

TUE 06

WED 07

WED 14

THU 15

FRI 16

THU 22

FRI 23

MON 26

THU 29

FRI 30

MON 03

TUE 04

WED 19

THU 20

TUE 25

Human Resource Requirements

 Project team, additional staff and support staff are required so that they may accomplish allocated tasks in effective manner. Additional staff will consist of database engineer, technical clerk, requirement analyst, technical support. On the other hand, support staff will have hardware engineer, system administrator, web designer, documentation, QA (Quality Analyst) manager. Moreover, project team will be software engineer, system analyst. Thus, project will get complete within stipulated time with ease.

Project Control

 Project control will be initiated with tools, equipments, processes, people and experience which will then be integrated to provide right information at the right time for effectively making correct decisions (Westney, 2017). This means that project will be controlled in a better way and project team along with process will provide desired outcomes. Hence, office move of Nisa Ltd will be shifted to Manchester city and faster services will get enabled by it for offering to services in effective manner. Communication plan is listed below-

Stakeholders	Communication channel	Frequency	Media
Council	Through presentations in meeting	Once in a week	Project monitoring reports and status
Project Team	Progress of meetings and face-to-face conversations	Weekly	Meetings minutes and Action Log
Project Manager	Email conversations	Alternate days	Status reports

Quality Control

 Quality standards are to be followed so that services meets requirements which are specified for completing the project. It will be ensured that everything is done as per the project planning in the best manner possible (Burtonshaw-Gunn, 2017). Quality planning in present project is highly important as it is not kept as per standards, then it influences costs, scheduling, timescale of project. Thus, quality control will be followed so that project deliverables may be achieved.

CONCLUSION

 Hereby it can be concluded that project should be completed in a timely manner so that it may not get delayed. It is essentially needed to get it complete within stipulated time by which project deliverables are attained. It can be analysed from report that Nisa Ltd will shift its office from Bellshill to Manchester city which will take 60 days for project for its completion. Hence, company may be able to achieve benefits in effective manner and transportation expenditures will get reduced with ease and faster delivery of products will be provided to final customers. Thus, office move will be successful as per scheduled Gantt chart.

REFERENCES

Books and Journals

• Burtonshaw-Gunn, S. A., 2017. Risk and financial management in construction. Routledge.
• Carvalho, M. M. and Rabechini, R., 2017. Can project sustainability management impact project
• success? An empirical study applying a contingent approach. International Journal of Project Management. 35(6). pp.1120-1132.
• Fuller, M. A., Valacich, J. S., George, J. F. and Schneider, C., 2017. Information Systems Project Management: A Process and Team Approach, Edition 1.1. Prospect Press.
• Harrison, F. and Lock, D., 2017. Advanced project management: a structured approach. Routledge.
• Kerzner, H. and Kerzner, H. R., 2017. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
• Martens, M. L. and Carvalho, M. M., 2017. Key factors of sustainability in project management context: A survey exploring the project managers’ perspective. International Journal of Project Management. 35(6). pp.1084-1102.
• Papke-Shields, K. E. and Boyer-Wright, K. M., 2017. Strategic planning characteristics applied to project management.International Journal of Project Management. 35(2). pp.169-179.
• Tonchia, S., Tonchia and Mahagaonkar, 2018. Industrial project management. Springer.
• Webb, A., 2017. Using earned value: a project manager’s guide. Routledge.
• Westney, R., 2017. Computerized Management of Multiple Small Projects: Planning, Task and Resource Scheduling, Estimating, Design Optimization, and Project Control. Routledge.

ONLINE

• What are the objectives when moving office?. 2018 [Online] Available Through:
• Project organisation chart. 2018 [Online] Available Through: