Squire & Partners
It takes a special kind of architecture firm to solve a dilemma by building its own restaurant and bar. That’s exactly what Squire and Partners did when the firm moved to London’s King’s Cross district. The Squire vision is as practical as it is glamorous: cost recovery from Sepialine gives Squire clarity and insight into expenses and improves the bottom line.
A firm with a vision inherently does things differently. When award-winning London architecture firm Squire and Partners converted a King’s Cross warehouse for its new offices, the edgy neighborhood lacked a place for the firm’s 130-person staff to gather, meet and eat. The firm’s answer: build and operate its 6 St Chad’s Place restaurant and bar. Since the firm’s 1976 inception, being visionary has meant not just great design, but creative ways of delivering solid financials. Capturing and billing back project costs is instrumental to the firm’s success, and Squire relies on Sepialine software for its critical cost recovery functions. As the firm’s expert on the subject, Squire IT Manager Stephen Lloyd sees tremendous benefit in Sepialine’s user-centric approach to expense capture.
Customer Overview
- Customer: Squire & Partners
- Headquarters: London
- Founded: 1976
- Employees: 130
- On the Web: www.squireandpartners.com
“It's simple: it just saves money.” —Stephen Lloyd, System Administrator, Squire & Partners
Identifying a need.
The firm long ago recognized the need to capture expenses. Early efforts focused on the built-in capabilities of the firm’s RIP servers and copiers. Lloyd and his team retrieved on-board log files, attempting to determine project numbers from logged filenames. Ultimately the log file method lacked the complete and accurate reporting Squire required; a different approach was needed.
Based on experience at a previous firm, Lloyd’s predecessor had introduced Technesis print tracking software to the Squire environment. “It created more work for us,” says Lloyd of the firm’s first foray into cost recovery software. “We had to cut our losses,” explains Lloyd, describing the firm’s decision to switch software.
The solution to the firm’s problem came from HOBS Reprographics, a full service bureau providing document services to Squire. “We had been looking for a cost recovery partner ourselves,” notes Joseph Hazel, Chief Executive of the HOBS London offices. “Having a reliable cost recovery recommendation for our customers had become hugely important. We had tried others in the past, but Sepialine seemed to be ideal.”
The results were clear: “It’s painless — it just does the job,” remarks Lloyd. Comparing Argos to his previous solution’s lengthy reporting process, Lloyd describes Argos as “fast and easy.” To ensure a smooth transition to the new software, the Squire I.T. department took advantage of Sepialine’s remote installation services via WebEx technology. The result was a quick, easy implementation. Since then, on occasions when he’s needed technical help, Lloyd has been able to resolve issues easily. “We’ve been pleased with Sepialine support,” Lloyd reports.
The client comes first.
Like most firms, Squire’s agreements vary from client to client. “We negotiate reimbursable costs at the beginning of a project,” explains Lloyd. “For some clients we simply roll reimbursables into professional fees, other times we charge expenses in addition to professional fees.” In total, Squire charges expenses back to 50% of its clients. The firm tracks all printing for all projects, whether or not expenses are reimbursed.
Squire has established a reimbursable fee structure ranging from 18 pence for a black-and-white A4 print to £1.70 for color A3 prints. Although charging back clients isn’t the norm for U.K. design firms, Squire views the practice as a way to not only recoup costs, but also as a means of maintaining honest and clear communication with its clientele. “Our clients should know how much their projects cost,” says Lloyd.
A part of the office.
For any design firm implementing cost recovery, a key concern is the impact on the studio floor. Sometimes viewed as intrusive and annoying, cost recovery is contentious in many firms. Through a combination of planning, research and leadership, Squire has avoided many of the employee objections that some firms must address. “They don’t mind at all,” Lloyd notes. Squire ensures that every employee is made aware not only of how to operate the tracking software, but why it’s important. It’s that extra education that makes the difference. “No one has ever had a complaint,” says Lloyd.
Tracking expenses with Argos has become part of daily life in the Squire office. Lloyd attributes his colleagues’ degree of acceptance to Sepialine’s emphasis on usability. Lloyd cites unique Argos features such as quota and snooze that keep employees happy, resulting in better, more reliable results than other tracking schemes.
While usability is important, Lloyd considers Argos workflow to be an even more important benefit. “It’s fundamental that the print job doesn’t get stuck,” says Lloyd, referring to the enforcement technique used by most print tracking software that halts print jobs. By comparison, Argos allows printing to pass through unhindered, prompting users for billing after printing is complete. “You don’t want to charge for mistakes,” says Lloyd.
For Lloyd, the choice to track printing is an easy one: “It’s simple: it just saves money,” says Lloyd. Asked what he would tell other firms contemplating cost recovery, Lloyd’s advice is clear: “If the software is set up correctly and users are educated, it shouldn’t be a problem.” For a firm with a sophisticated view of the world, it doesn’t get much simpler than that.
This customer story is based on information provided by the Squire and Partners and illustrates how one organization uses Sepialine products. Many factors may have contributed to the results and benefits described. Sepialine does not guarantee comparable results elsewhere.