Ready To Occupy
Creating a sense of identity is important for companies who lease space in many different markets. One company is out to assist retailers opening multiple locations in many markets.
Randall Shearin

Crème de la Crème is a W.M. Putnam client. Consistency in appearance for its locations is critical to the company's success.

The basic premise behind the company is to simplify and enhance the process of opening multiple locations by lowering the costs and hassle of managing those activities. If you need to open branches in Omaha, Tampa and numerous other cities in 1 year, Putnam has your number. Ideal clients for the company are those who require retail-office space: banks, financial institutions and insurance companies that are national and regional in scope.

Putnam, through its own resources or through collaboration with trusted partners, has assembled an array of capabilities that include site selection, construction management, outfitting, lease administration and property management. Under the OfficeRedi division, the Bloomington, Illinois-based company works directly with corporations that are managing branch networks. Through a new division just introduced this year — Leasing Support Specialists — it is also partnering with commercial real estate brokers who are interested in broadening their services for their corporate clients.

Substantial cost savings are realized by the integration of procurement and logistics management. Specialized expertise, knowledge of local conditions and refined management are also value benefits.

Ron Dietz, CEO, W.M. Putnam.

Putnam eliminates all that -- demonstrating that a branch premises management specialist can produce significant cost savings and performance advantages over other approaches.

The 50-year-old company began to understand the power of outsourcing in 1997 when it started helping two large insurance companies outfit new agent offices with all of the furniture, equipment, accessories and décor components required of a new facility. During the last 7 years, Putnam has helped its clients open over 4,800 offices in all 50 states. Once Putnam is notified by the client of an opening date and location, it provides all of the planning, procurement and logistical management necessary to have the office ready for opening. The day before opening, a moving van pulls up with everything organized on one pallet. All items are installed that day, including paneling, cabling, and security alarms. Even the coffee pot is turned on.

Putnam's clients have found that it is actually easier to achieve high levels of performance and accountability from an outsourcer than from in-house staffs. Those staffs often have fragmented reporting relationships and limited information about activities and expenses that outsourcers routinely provide.

“With outsourcing you only pay for what you use,” says Dietz. “No excess staff capacity or heavy overhead burdens accompany the use of third-party support.”

W.M. Putnam works with businesses that require a retail-like office setting, such as insurance companies.

It is not essential that a branch network be limited to an office-style configuration for Putnam to be helpful. One client, Crème de la Crème, is a nationwide pre-school chain — and consistency in look is critical for the enterprise. To ensure standards are met, Putnam is purchasing over 3,000 different items — from cribs and children's books to kitchen equipment — and arranging to deliver and install these items at one time.

“Crème does not have the in-house staff to manage the procurement and logistical management of an aggressive national expansion program,” says Dietz. “We are assisting them with the opening of new offices and the need to support existing facilities with the re-supply of many of their consumable items.”

These experiences led Putnam naturally to conversations with corporations as well as other premises management intermediaries. It became increasingly clear that the challenges of managing branch premises extend beyond outfitting. Companies were looking for solutions in site selection, construction management, lease administration and ongoing property management services as well as outfitting.

“If a client opens 15 locations with 10-year leases in Nashville this year, and those are 15 of 4,000 leases it has nationwide, it needs to make sure in 2008 or 2012 that it has successfully renewed or relocated its offices so as to not have 15 expiring leases on its hands,” Dietz notes.

All items are installed in the same day. In some cases, even the coffee pot is turned on.

A client's use of multiple services, however, requires that all activity be brought together in one cohesive way. Putnam places responsibility for the coordination all of a client's activities under one customer manager. This arrangement allows one point of accountability to the client, comprehensive information on all activity undertaken for the client and one set of invoices that simplifies paperwork administration. Putnam also employs Web-based status reporting, project tracking and document archiving to allow all parties to keep abreast of the progress of each project underway.

It soon became clear that there was a natural fit between this array of outsourcing activities and the role played by commercial real estate brokers. Brokers are often approached by companies that are looking for a comprehensive solution to their branch management challenges. They want to respond to that interest without having to support all of the in-house staff and other necessary resources. That's where the Leasing Support Specialists division comes in as a private label service offering comprehensive premises management capability and allowing brokers to offer more to their clients while being more competitive in the market.

How does a company decide if an outsourcing with someone like W.M. Putnam is an attractive alternative?

“There is the specific list of benefits to consider,” says Dietz. “But a great deal has to do with a ‘partnership instinct.' Premises management is a world of small details, frequent changes and special issues to resolve. Routine is never the norm. Developing a trustful, collaborative partnership led by good people and based on explicit performance objectives is the key to a successful relationship.”