March 7, 2022

If you are planning to purchase and install new office furniture in your space, you may have noticed that Project Management is offered by many dealers in this industry. You are probably trying to keep your budget down and may wonder whether you need this extra layer of management to get your project completed. The truth is that investment in good project management will almost always pay for itself in efficiency and the ability of your project to meet its goals and objectives.

Project work overall has a dismal success rate. It has close to a 70% failure rate for meeting goals and project requirements across the economy. In addition, according to the Project Management Institute, around $1M is wasted worldwide every 20 seconds by organizations due to poor project management. Professional project management techniques are meant to address these issues. 

Although the need for project management is becoming better understood, there is still a general misunderstanding of what it actually is. I think we’ve all experienced this: while your company is great at completing the work it does on a day-to-day basis, when a unique project comes along it is talked about in meetings, gets started, then sometimes fizzles and is forgotten as soon as obstacles to completion show up. Or it is just handed over to the regular operations staff who struggle to understand what is expected of them. This disconnect exists because project work is, by definition, different from the everyday work of an organization and demands a different, individualized approach to management if it is to be successful.

In a nutshell, a project manager is responsible for monitoring a specific project. They gather specifications from everyone involved at the beginning, facilitate communication about any issues and changes that come up along the way, and confirm that all requirements are met upon completion of the work. This is a person who makes sure that everyone is aware of issues and risks during the project so they can allocate the right resources allocated to keep things on track as needed.

When you are contemplating an investment as large as a full office of furniture, you want to be sure the project arrives at completion meeting all your requirements, on budget and on time with minimal disruption to your normal business activities. This requires project management on the side of your dealer and one designated representative from your organization they can regularly collaborate with. NexGen believes in the value of Project Management. It is an investment that will pay off many times over-not only in keeping the office project on track but in minimizing the potential snowball effect a failed project can have on your business.