Developing New Facilities and Services
New facilities and services can range from buildings to programme activities to manufacture of goods to consultancy. They can originate in many different ways, but all are best developed in a common project management framework.
New facilities and services can be exciting and energizing but can also cause organisations to falter or even to fail.
It is crucial therefore that the development of new facilities and services is undertaken in an organised way. Key things you will have to consider include:
Review existing facilities and services.
- Why do you want to develop into new facilities and services?
- What will they add to your existing portfolio?
- Have you the capacity to take them on?
- Will it put a strain on the organisation which can’t be managed?
Review your business plan.
- Does this consolidate it or move you in new directions?
- How will it impact on your governance?
- Do you need to change your central management and admin set up?
- Can you forecast the impact of your new development into the future?
Do your sums.
- Can you afford to take on the new development?
- Do you have to under write any part of it before receiving funding?
- Does it require borrowing and have you sourced the best option?
- How will it affect your cash flow forecast?
- Will it earn more than it costs you to operate?
- Are subsidies identified?
Develop a project plan.
- Who will develop the new facilities or service?
- Will you manage it in house or buy in project management?
- What are the project milestones before and after development?
- Is there a recruitment need?
- Do you need new monitoring systems?
- How will you market the new facility or services?
If you are responding to a tender you will need to consider what experience you can use in persuading the procurer you have the skills to do the job.
Review your policies, especially:
- Health and safety
- Equality of opportunity
- Financial regulations
- Environmental/waste strategy
- Human resources handbook
- Finance and monitoring packages
You must clarify:
- How you will deliver
- Where you will operate from
- What your area of benefit will be
You will then need to calculate the cost of:
- Service delivery
- Central management
- Finance
- Administration
- Human resources support
- Insurance
- Bank charges
- Cleaning
- Maintenance
Some contracts will allow you to make some profit (although not many unless you are a private sector organisation) and may ask you to specify how you might use any profit made. Check out any claw back from funders against new income generated.
If it you are providing a new service you will need to consider:
- Staffing
- Resources
- Premises
- Insurance
- Cost of manufacture
- Legal requirements and licenses
- Health and safety
- Marketing
Check out any claw back from funders against new income generated.
If it is a consultancy service you will need to consider:
- Requirements of the client against what you can provide
- Resources you have and need to buy in
- Capacity
- Identify items the client requires such as reports, plans and training days on
- The trigger for project completion.
Once you have set up a new facility or service you should follow a set procedure to
Project goals and objectives
Your goals and objectives will fall out of your project plan, but they will be put into order of importance, and probably in order of delivery. So scoping and feasibility are likely to be the first goal, and might include a board discussion or commissioning a piece of initial work for example.
Your next goal is likely to be the completion of what is needed to deliver your new facility or service. So that might be a completed or transferred building, or award of contract, or opening of a new service or launch of a new manufacturing enterprise.
Your third goal is likely to be around delivery of the new facility or service. So that might include an official opening, or the 100th customer, or a publicity campaign in the local press, for example.
The final goal might be evaluation of the initial process with lessons learned. There may be other goals along the way, but there doesn’t need to be loads. The goals are a way of capturing movement and success, or of spotlighting problems and rectifying them in order to move on. Goals and objectives should not be woolly. They should be SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, time bound)
How, whom and when
This requires you to identify how your goals and objectives will be achieved (planning permission to be in by Friday 13th, contract to be submitted by November 1st and so on), and to identify who has agreed to take responsibility for achieving this. The timescale for delivery needs to be stated, but some dates may need to be reviewed and the project plan updated regularly, especially where someone outside the process affects delivery (the Council has decided it won’t make a decision in March as agreed because it’s now going to wait until June for example). Don’t take verbal assurances from people. Always ask for it in writing. The Project Manager will be responsible for chasing up outstanding work.
Additional resources
As you progress you will realise that other things impact on your new facility and service. You may need to bring additional people or resources in for particular things. You may need to identify additional funding because you have uncovered something you didn’t know (the building you are acquiring has asbestos and you didn’t know, or you have to have professional indemnity insurance before you can take on a contract advising people which you hadn’t budgeted for as examples).
Finances
Obviously financing your new facility or service is crucial to success, whether that is a loan, grant, contract, or you are using your reserves. Make sure your project management team includes your finance manager/director, or a very capable finance person. Ask them to produce budget forecasts with income and spend against your project timeline, and review that regularly. Identify the need to change your financial plan at the earliest possible stage, and do something about it. Wherever possible, set aside a contingency.
Time frame and critical dates
Ensure your project plan has critical dates for delivering parts of the overall new facility or service. This is especially useful in big projects, where movement can be tracked in bite-sized chunks. Always deal with missed dates quickly, and restate your plan with new dates.
Project management team
Set up a project management team. The size depends on the size of your new facility or service. So a big new building needs a large project management team with professional advisors, finance officers, and so on. Smaller projects such as a tender might be the project manager and the finance manager only, with other people brought in to deliver key tasks (checking the policies are available for example and photocopying them for submission with the tender).
Completion
The development phase will be completed at a point agreed at the beginning of the process. At this point the process is handed over to the day to delivery manager and associated staff and resources. In practice of course this might be one and the same person, but one process can be finished and the second started just the same. Evaluation of the process can be useful, whether as a formally commissioned piece of work, or as a management review session, and key lessons written up for the next project to develop a new facility or service.
Lots of things can and will go wrong in developing a new facility or service. It’s important to note that even the best sometimes get it wrong (think of the unforeseen problems with the Millennium Dome, or the spiraling costs of the London Olympics).
Nevertheless, you should approach development with as professional a head as possible. Here are some of the things to be aware of.
We don’t need to do all of this
Maybe not, but lots of organisations have folded or nearly folded because they took on a new venture naively, and without doing their homework. Small projects still need a project management process to be successful, and you will actually feel better and less stressed if you are in control of events and your money.
All we have to do is set up a new facility or service and all our problems will be over
Hopefully. But life is never that simple. New projects bring new problems. New staff can be great or a pain. New state of the art buildings often have leaky roofs the first time you get heavy rain (it was never designed to withstand that sort of deluge). Extra income is great, but can you identify where it goes? Is it actually costing you more to deliver your new project than you thought? Use an ongoing project management approach to control delivery and spend against forecasts.
We don’t need to take advice; we know what we are doing.
Maybe you have the skills in house which is great. But often we don’t. Everyone has an opinion on the law, but a solicitor is trained to provide advice, and can be held to account if his/her advice is wrong. Anyone can look at a building and see what needs doing, but a surveyor is trained to provide a full survey and can be held to account if he/she is wrong. Equally, there are advisors who have set up umpteen new facilities and services all over the country who can help you to avoid the same traps they fell into. Or who can show you the finished product else where. Use advice and good practice where it’s needed and learn as you go. Your second project will be easier than your first, but it can still go wrong.
We saw something on a visit and we can replicate it ourselves
Sometimes. It’s brilliant when an idea is so good or so simple it travels from place to place without any problems. But sometimes it works somewhere else because of the skills of the people running it, or the type of building it’s based in, or the quality of the partnership, or the type of area it’s in, or the level of support it gets from the public sector. Sadly some projects don’t travel. But a good idea is a good idea, so spend some time on your project planning. Do your research. Devise a project that is bespoke to your area.
I know someone who can do the job
Possibly. But always go through proper procurement routes, whether it’s tendering for construction work or advertising for new employees. Make sure you are using the right form of contract for building work, and that employment contracts are up to date with current legislation. Take references and don’t be afraid to check track record, especially with smaller contractors.
Last time we did this we had no end of trouble with our contractors
A lot of contracting is based on adversarial relationships. Partnering is a better option, where you, your professional advisors and your contractors all agree on common goals and how to achieve them. Surprisingly everyone wants the job done on time and within budget yet that’s where the biggest conflicts normally arise. Partnering allows you to agree dispute ladders, and to bring in top management at an early stage to rectify small problems before they become court room battles somewhere down the line. Only the lawyers win then.
We can’t deliver contracts or consultancy without a track record
True. So start small. Do a piece of work for another organisation who knows you well and ask for a reference. Partner or sub contract with a bigger organisation to gain experience and recognition. Use positive evaluation in your marketing and always ask for testimonials from satisfied customers.
There are many organisations that have undertaken some or all of these options.
Have a look at:
Development Trust Association
Royds Community Association
Goodwin Development Trust
Paddington Development Trust
Westway Development Trust
Manor and Castle Development Trust
Heeley Development Trust
Action for Business Ltd