Supporting a storage solution for a leading UK consumer law firm
In early 2020, one of the UK’s leading consumer law firms identified a forthcoming lease break in the London office as an opportunity to reduce permanent office space and occupy a smaller footprint. A storage solution was required for 1000 linear metres of filing, and the reduced office area needed to be reconfigured to accommodate 40 fewer workstations from the team of 160 staff.
The project was due for completion by the end of the lease contract in April 2020 and Crown was engaged to support the moves and changes required, including the creation of secure filing storage, furniture relocation and exterior storage.
Whilst the project was underway, the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic suddenly required the extended team based in regional offices throughout the UK to work from home. Crown acted quickly to put together a flexible project plan to enable those normally working in offices in Birmingham, Blackpool, Bolton, Cambridge, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Liverpool, London and Manchester to move to home working. The total number of staff working from home across the regions numbered 1,000. Crown was engaged to deliver essential IT and office equipment to those working from home.
Reconfiguring workspace to suit changing needs
A two-pronged approach was required to reconfigure the workspace’s reduced footprint. Crown collaborated closely with the client’s Head of Workplace and Facilities to create detailed project plans.
Approximately 40 workstations were to be dismantled and stored by Crown as an asset for future use by the client. Remaining workstations and furniture were relocated and reconfigured on-site by the Crown Moves team to facilitate the implementation of the new floorplans.
Part of the remit was also to provide a solution for file storage. Crown Interiors designed and created a new secure room into which the high-security files and deeds would be moved. The roller racking system was relocated and reduced from 1000 linear metres to accommodate 750 linear metres in total, with specialists from Crown Records Management securely removing excess files from site for scanning.
The roll-out of this project had to be hastened due to the growing concern and eventual lockdown conditions due to Covid-19. Through close communication with the client and a flexible approach, Crown was able to implement contingency plans to accommodate changing requirements whilst ensuring staff safety and adherence to government regulations.
Ultimately the impact of the pandemic also meant that the client identified the need for the team across all the regional offices to move to home working, and requested that Crown create a plan to support the lawyers by delivering IT and office essentials to individual homes.
Facilitating ‘business as usual’ to home workers
The Crown team worked directly with the client’s local facilities teams to identify the differing needs for each regional office and plan project requirements for each site, putting together a schedule for delivering IT and furniture equipment to individual houses to support home workers.
Crown’s relocation specialists visited the regional offices to disconnect IT equipment and pack into cartons, labelling with the relevant details and putting together a ‘working from home’ package for each member of staff which also included an operator chair.
The initial parameters of the project were extended as a need was identified by the company to provide suitable desking for home workers. These desks were to be remanufactured in our Renew Centre to ensure they meet the client’s homeworker needs sustainably – we then delivered these to clients as part of scheduled delivery.
Each package was delivered to individual team members’ homes, with Crown managing the route planning to ensure an optimum number of deliveries per day to maximise logistical efficiency and minimise carbon emissions.
The services provided included:
- Tailored project proposals using Crown’s specialist teams
- Creation of a bespoke secure filing room
- Dismantling, relocation and re-instalment of workspaces in London office
- IT decom and recom
- Packing and delivery of IT equipment, operator chairs and desking to home workers across regions
- Storage of redundant workstation equipment
Crown’s flexibility and proactive response to a rapidly changing situation during early 2020 meant we were that not only able to deliver the London office reconfiguration on a reduced timescale, but also to accommodate the regional need to deliver home working IT and office equipment to over 1000 team members’ homes in a cost-efficient and timely manner.
Find out more about our Moves and Changes services here
“During the London project, it became apparent that a lockdown was going to come into place. We therefore started planning for this by working with our Records Management division in order to get all files off-site, so that relevant files could be sent or scanned to the requestor.
This project enabled our client to successfully reduce their space, whilst maintaining all of their existing facilities.”
Rob Poyner, Regions Commercial Manager, Crown Workspace