WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS FOR ARCHITECTURAL, INTERIOR DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION COMPANIES IN HIRING US?
One of the principal benefits of working with us is the cost savings. We’re about 50-60% less than in-house production. But for some clients, using us enables them to hire more intelligently as well. In a boom period, you can direct some of the work to us, rather than staffing up for a single large project or for what might be a twelve month boom period. Thus, the client avoids incurring the additional costs of permanent employees, including assuming liability for more real estate, healthcare, training, etc. When things slow down, as they always do, the downsizing is a much easier and natural transition. Another important benefit of the cost savings is that it allows firms to spend more on things. A number of firms use us just for this reason: they can invest more hours in design. Businesses expect their design firms, as well as their other suppliers, to aggressively pursue efficiencies to keep prices low, or to make sure that they are paying for value-added services. Also, we have 24x7 production that enables our client to get large work done under small deadlines.
HOW DO YOU ADDRESS COMMUNICATION, QUALITY, AND DELIVERY?
COMMUNICATION: Communication lies at the heart of the process, and its success is a direct function of the quality of the communication regimen adhered to by our clients and our teams.. Whether a combination of email, ftp links, phone calls, we will adapt to your communication preferences.
QUALITY ASSURANCE: Each project team complies with strict quality assurance measures which address three principal areas of concern:
GRAPHIC ACCURACY: Our designated Architect makes sure that our CAD drawings maintain the same presentation standards as your own drawings generated in-house. Our drawings look as though they were produced in your own studio.
CAD ACCURACY: Our designated Architect will ensure that the all CAD layering systems, line style and lines weights, layer management standards, etc. have been followed.
TECHNICAL ACCURACY: We are responsible for ensuring that details work within the larger context of the entire drawing set, and that all drawings are duly coordinated.
HOW DO YOU ENSURE CONFIDENTIALITY OF BOTH THE WORK PRODUCT AND THE RELATIONSHIP ITSELF?
Confidentiality and discretion are important concerns for both the firm and its client around the world. We are very particular about how we protect your information, maintaining strict confidentiality deeds with clients and employees, as well as a state-of-the-art secure network with access granted only to current Team Leaders. Your data is safe in our hands, and is always available to you on request. Moreover, in the interest of respecting your right to privacy, we do not publish the names of our client or their projects, without obtaining your prior approval in writing.
HAS ACCEPTANCE OF YOUR BUSINESS CHANGED OVER THE PAST FEW YEARS?
One year ago there was some natural caution about working with us. We had a couple of pioneering clients who felt it might be interesting, took a step forward and gave us work, but they were few. One year ago we might have gotten a 10% response; today we get an 80% response. Even in the few months, we have seen a huge change in the attitude of the industry. Almost all of our presentations today involve the total senior management of a firm. Invariably this conversation happens only at the top, the client. Most individuals and firms are establishing connections with us in some way, and some of them have actually created programs with us to give us regular work.
HAVE CLIENTS BEEN SATISFIED WITH THE WORKING?
As a company, we have been 100% paid for all work we have done, with almost no write-offs. Part of the reason is the fact that we deliver what our clients ask us for. The second reason is that we have effective regular communication with our clients. This is not a process where we simply toss data over a stone wall and let the folks on the other side worry about picking it up from there. Our wall is more like a chain link fence that allows us to pass information readily between us.
WHAT KIND OF COMMENTS HAVE YOU RECEIVED FROM CLIENTS REGARDING YOUR SERVICES?
The most impressive comment is that every client we've ever started with has become a regular client. This may not be something they broadcast, but they're very happy and we can see that by the volume of work they give us and how they treat us. Our challenge, of course, will be managing quality as we grow, and that's what we are now looking at as a major challenge in this business.
HOW DO YOU ASSESS COSTS PER PROJECT?
We have experienced architects who examine the scope and assess the deliverables in each project and then develop an estimate of the hours the team would require to complete the drawing package.
WHAT DISTINGUISHES YOUR OPERATION FROM OTHERS IN THE FIELD?
Our work process has evolved out of well-developed working relationships with many firms worldwide. To boot, we have invested in our own state-of-the-art facility, and believe that our quality assurance, operational and human resource systems, and delivery systems, thanks to our collective experience and the help of our experienced board, is the best in this industry. Lastly, we excel at design interpretation . . . 100% of our people are architects or engineers; we're very competent at understanding and interpreting design intent. We get involved much earlier in a simple construction and into the design development and schematic design phases.
HOW SMALL A PROJECT WILL YOU TAKE AND HOW LARGE?
Most of the time it’s not the size of the work but it's the regularity of the work that is important, simply because it takes time for our teams to move up the learning curve and develop the necessary working relationships there's an educational process involved. Generally speaking, then, the clients we have give us regular work. Does that mean that we turn away one-off projects? No, we do them where the size of the project justifies the up-front man-power investment. We do work for many of the largest firms around the globe. If one client is a 150-person firm, we also have some two or three-person firms among our clients. Ideally, we prefer not to turn anything away. It's really more about the working relationship that we establish with individual companies than the size of the company.
HOW DO YOU ESTABLISH A RAPPORT, A COMMON UNDERSTANDING; HOW DO YOU CONVEY TO YOUR CLIENT EXACTLY WHAT YOU CAN DO AND WHAT YOU NEED FROM THEM?
We meet clients personally. Often, we'll have a couple of meetings where we present our capabilities and our work process. These presentations can be done, in part, through documents as well, but it's not as effective, and the relationship aspect is too important to be handled only through long distance exchanges. Clients want to know who's going to do their work. There are all kinds of service providers in this business, some of whom only act as brokers. For example, a broker might take a smaller project, say a house, and farm it out to a service provider in the Philippines or in Thailand or in India; when they get the work, they send it back to the client. That's not how we work. That model does not work for the more sophisticated client. We insist that our teams be in direct touch with the client and know each other. That's how this process works. All need to feel they have direct control; they need to feel like they know the people who are doing their work and that they are comfortable with them.
ARE THE FILES YOU SEND TO THE CLIENTS EDITABLE FILES, CAD FILES, OR PDFS?
Usually we exchange PDF files; sending CAD files is actually quite tedious, especially when we have a multiple x-ref attachments, and generally it is only done either on demand of client. Hard copy is available on request.
One of the principal benefits of working with us is the cost savings. We’re about 50-60% less than in-house production. But for some clients, using us enables them to hire more intelligently as well. In a boom period, you can direct some of the work to us, rather than staffing up for a single large project or for what might be a twelve month boom period. Thus, the client avoids incurring the additional costs of permanent employees, including assuming liability for more real estate, healthcare, training, etc. When things slow down, as they always do, the downsizing is a much easier and natural transition. Another important benefit of the cost savings is that it allows firms to spend more on things. A number of firms use us just for this reason: they can invest more hours in design. Businesses expect their design firms, as well as their other suppliers, to aggressively pursue efficiencies to keep prices low, or to make sure that they are paying for value-added services. Also, we have 24x7 production that enables our client to get large work done under small deadlines.
HOW DO YOU ADDRESS COMMUNICATION, QUALITY, AND DELIVERY?
COMMUNICATION: Communication lies at the heart of the process, and its success is a direct function of the quality of the communication regimen adhered to by our clients and our teams.. Whether a combination of email, ftp links, phone calls, we will adapt to your communication preferences.
QUALITY ASSURANCE: Each project team complies with strict quality assurance measures which address three principal areas of concern:
GRAPHIC ACCURACY: Our designated Architect makes sure that our CAD drawings maintain the same presentation standards as your own drawings generated in-house. Our drawings look as though they were produced in your own studio.
CAD ACCURACY: Our designated Architect will ensure that the all CAD layering systems, line style and lines weights, layer management standards, etc. have been followed.
TECHNICAL ACCURACY: We are responsible for ensuring that details work within the larger context of the entire drawing set, and that all drawings are duly coordinated.
HOW DO YOU ENSURE CONFIDENTIALITY OF BOTH THE WORK PRODUCT AND THE RELATIONSHIP ITSELF?
Confidentiality and discretion are important concerns for both the firm and its client around the world. We are very particular about how we protect your information, maintaining strict confidentiality deeds with clients and employees, as well as a state-of-the-art secure network with access granted only to current Team Leaders. Your data is safe in our hands, and is always available to you on request. Moreover, in the interest of respecting your right to privacy, we do not publish the names of our client or their projects, without obtaining your prior approval in writing.
HAS ACCEPTANCE OF YOUR BUSINESS CHANGED OVER THE PAST FEW YEARS?
One year ago there was some natural caution about working with us. We had a couple of pioneering clients who felt it might be interesting, took a step forward and gave us work, but they were few. One year ago we might have gotten a 10% response; today we get an 80% response. Even in the few months, we have seen a huge change in the attitude of the industry. Almost all of our presentations today involve the total senior management of a firm. Invariably this conversation happens only at the top, the client. Most individuals and firms are establishing connections with us in some way, and some of them have actually created programs with us to give us regular work.
HAVE CLIENTS BEEN SATISFIED WITH THE WORKING?
As a company, we have been 100% paid for all work we have done, with almost no write-offs. Part of the reason is the fact that we deliver what our clients ask us for. The second reason is that we have effective regular communication with our clients. This is not a process where we simply toss data over a stone wall and let the folks on the other side worry about picking it up from there. Our wall is more like a chain link fence that allows us to pass information readily between us.
WHAT KIND OF COMMENTS HAVE YOU RECEIVED FROM CLIENTS REGARDING YOUR SERVICES?
The most impressive comment is that every client we've ever started with has become a regular client. This may not be something they broadcast, but they're very happy and we can see that by the volume of work they give us and how they treat us. Our challenge, of course, will be managing quality as we grow, and that's what we are now looking at as a major challenge in this business.
HOW DO YOU ASSESS COSTS PER PROJECT?
We have experienced architects who examine the scope and assess the deliverables in each project and then develop an estimate of the hours the team would require to complete the drawing package.
WHAT DISTINGUISHES YOUR OPERATION FROM OTHERS IN THE FIELD?
Our work process has evolved out of well-developed working relationships with many firms worldwide. To boot, we have invested in our own state-of-the-art facility, and believe that our quality assurance, operational and human resource systems, and delivery systems, thanks to our collective experience and the help of our experienced board, is the best in this industry. Lastly, we excel at design interpretation . . . 100% of our people are architects or engineers; we're very competent at understanding and interpreting design intent. We get involved much earlier in a simple construction and into the design development and schematic design phases.
HOW SMALL A PROJECT WILL YOU TAKE AND HOW LARGE?
Most of the time it’s not the size of the work but it's the regularity of the work that is important, simply because it takes time for our teams to move up the learning curve and develop the necessary working relationships there's an educational process involved. Generally speaking, then, the clients we have give us regular work. Does that mean that we turn away one-off projects? No, we do them where the size of the project justifies the up-front man-power investment. We do work for many of the largest firms around the globe. If one client is a 150-person firm, we also have some two or three-person firms among our clients. Ideally, we prefer not to turn anything away. It's really more about the working relationship that we establish with individual companies than the size of the company.
HOW DO YOU ESTABLISH A RAPPORT, A COMMON UNDERSTANDING; HOW DO YOU CONVEY TO YOUR CLIENT EXACTLY WHAT YOU CAN DO AND WHAT YOU NEED FROM THEM?
We meet clients personally. Often, we'll have a couple of meetings where we present our capabilities and our work process. These presentations can be done, in part, through documents as well, but it's not as effective, and the relationship aspect is too important to be handled only through long distance exchanges. Clients want to know who's going to do their work. There are all kinds of service providers in this business, some of whom only act as brokers. For example, a broker might take a smaller project, say a house, and farm it out to a service provider in the Philippines or in Thailand or in India; when they get the work, they send it back to the client. That's not how we work. That model does not work for the more sophisticated client. We insist that our teams be in direct touch with the client and know each other. That's how this process works. All need to feel they have direct control; they need to feel like they know the people who are doing their work and that they are comfortable with them.
ARE THE FILES YOU SEND TO THE CLIENTS EDITABLE FILES, CAD FILES, OR PDFS?
Usually we exchange PDF files; sending CAD files is actually quite tedious, especially when we have a multiple x-ref attachments, and generally it is only done either on demand of client. Hard copy is available on request.
|
Copyright © 2021 RHA PRAXIS INITIATIVE® . All rights reserved.
|