Directors of any successful business are constantly attentive to the monitoring, reviewing and, where possible, reduction of overheads.
Property and staff costs contribute the major element in most businesses so tools that allow all the costs that relate to occupying space, and how effectively that space could be used with some re-planning, have a major strategic role to perform in helping businesses survive a downturn and exploit any upturn.

Whilst improvements in marketing and sales can have a medium to long-term effect on a firm’s profitability, the reduction of fixed costs tends to have an immediate effect so the simple question “could we perform effectively in less space” is one that every board would like to see answered.

Conventional financial modelling tools have no means to relate costs to real physical space so, if a series of models are created to see the financial impact of reducing office space, without seeing it in the context of the way that space is actually occupied and how it is being used by teams of people who may need to work together, it is not possible to make an informed decision.
Conversely, space-planning tools tend to be CAD based and have limited ability to link to financial modelling tools.

ActivePlan is a breakthrough technology that overcomes this issue and allows all datasets to be glued together and work in unison. Its’ object-based design means that assets can have both physical and logical attributes i.e. a desk exists within a room (physical), but is used by Jack Jones (logical) who is a member of the ABC consulting team working on the XYZ project for three months. This allows the activities of the organisation to be mapped against the functional areas and equipment they require, providing the missing link in Activity Based Costing.

Because it has never been possible to date, there is no established market and there is no valid way of determining the value it can bring – or the price we should charge.
This presents an opportunity to establish a new paradigm i.e. rather than selling a software application, or even a service that delivers an application online, we can to help clients achieve improvements in their business and receive a share of the value we create.

ActivePlan will initially be used by consultants to undertake a fixed-price exercise to audit what exists in a far more cost effective way than previously possible, provide a number of alternatives for consideration and leave the firm with an improved set of well-structured information about their property portfolio and how it is being used. (Initial research suggests that peripheral spin offs such as reduced insurance and health and safety risks, or better-validated information for a year-end audit, might actually cover the cost of this initial study)

Once that initial study and report is complete, the client has the option of acting on the advice and retaining ActivePlan as the means of managing the change process, maintaining it in the future and measuring the effectiveness of each change. The value of the use of ActivePlan is then more easily understood at board level allowing an appropriate price, either as an ongoing service, or even a licence sale, to be charged.

By initiating a change process of some type, other services (and fees) are generated - finding alternative properties, relocation management, project management and space management/equipment supply to name a few.
Consultants looking for new, added value, opportunities will see opportunities to build a market that allows them to promote a wide range of services based on their core competencies.

The ActivePlan marketing strategy is therefore to form alliances with consultants and approach businesses with this simple proposition – “would you like to know how your space is currently being used and if you can make do with less?”