Reblogged from finding home:

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The home of Greg Tankersley and Mary Robin Jurkiewicz originally published in Veranda magazine, September/October 2005.

My family and I are in the process of selling and moving out of the 1914 Beaux Arts estate we've called home for the past eleven years. The reasons are twofold: planning for the future and a good dose of architectural ADD (given our history, our attention span is apparently a decade).

Read more… 235 more words

Box-Less Gondola–File Room Conversion

More & more surveys and study results about how human beings waste time or use it ineffectively (it’s not always our fault, though!):

Email statistics and projections indicate that, by 2011, the average number of corporate emails sent and received per person each day will be 228 (up from 142 in 2007). The corresponding percent of work spent managing email for the average corporate email user will rise from 17% in 2003 to a projected 41% this year. (2007 study conducted by technology market research firm Radicati Group)

In 2009, about 81% of all email traffic is expected to be spam. Projections indicate that the typical 1000-user organization can spend as much as $1.8 million per year to manage spam (2009 study by the Radicati Group)

The average office has 19 copies of each document. (From an article in USA Today)

The average retrieval/re-filing time for a paper document: 10 minutes. However, about 3% of documents are lost or misfiled, leading to a recovery rate of $120 per document. (Study by the Gartner Group, Coopers & Lybrand, Ernst & Young)

The average executive wastes 150 hours each year looking for misplaced documents. (2003 study by Office World News)

Misplacing items isn’t confined to the office: Americans as a whole waste more than 9 million hours each day looking for lost/misplaced items. (Study by the American Demographic Society)

The average manager is interrupted every 8 minutes. As for the non-average, 50% are interrupted 8-9 times per hour; 22%,, 10-11 times; 11%, 6-7 times; 5%, 1-3 times; and 2% more than 12 times per hour!  (Study conducted by Priority Management Systems)

The average amount of time executives spend in (mostly needless) meetings each week: 7.8 hours. (Survey by Accountemps)

The desk of the average white-collar worker holds 36 hours of uncompleted work. That desk’s occupant spends 3  hours per week sorting piles to find and organize the project/s being worked upon. (From The Overload Syndrome, by Richard Swenson)

Studies show that a certain percentage of executives pick up a  single piece of paper on their desk from 30 to 40 times before deciding to take action upon it. (From Seize the Day, by Michael Woolery)

About 25% of workers save things in piles instead of files. (Paper presented by Global Market Research firm Taylor Nelson Sofres)

A good Records Management company or RIM Professional can help with workflows and suggest inefficiencies that protect information assets and avoid liability. The new hybrid office mover/RIMpro’s can use a move instance to kill several of the issues in one process.

AlwaysLeading.com is the corporate site of a company that helps other companies and individuals in transition. Whether it is a straight forward office relocation, a hospital with a records center, lab equipment and more or a small apartment move. Removing the frustration, stress and downtime associated with a relocation is the goal, see alwaysleading.com. Offering  pragmatic solutions to common issues is the answer. For a secure chain of custody relocation, boxless moving using office gondolas the folks at Admiral Movers are constantly raising the bar by simplifying the relocation process?  Relocating protected information, quickly and securely is what the folks at Admiral Movers do. Expediting the move process is the hallmark of a boxless move, eliminating traditional packing and unpacking allows customers to remain productive right up to move time is a standard. The secure systems innovations detailed at AlwaysLeading.com ensure you and your company are compliant. Because of the Gondolas, electronics carts, AirGlide computer carts and other systems employed at Admiral Movers relocation are accomplished in a fraction of the time a normal move takes. Money is saved, effort is reduced and organization is fueled. The boxless gondolas allows files, manuals, binders, charts, desk contents and records to be moved in order and accessible throughout the entire process. Your employees and customers will love you and the boss will love the money you save. Since you will avoid the “moving hangover” associated with a box or plastic crate move your company returns to revenue generating activities immediately. Most importantly employing an expert in secure chain of custody relocation your risk management folks, your board, stockholders and managers can rest easy knowing that you are protected. Again the boss will  love you, and because of the reduced stress, and or utilizing off-site storage reduced hassle you will thank yourself.

Many businesses in this day and age need to reduce real estate footprints to reduce costs. Shredding unneeded office paper, and or relocating files off-site can help and Admiral Records Management. The more paper and furniture volume that can be shed reduces the overall cost of the relocation, improving business processes and enables a business to find more austere quarters. Recycling used furnishing, metal or paper is good for the environment and earn you green credits.

Asset management, inventory control, logistics, storage and aid in redeploying lessor moving recycling, storing, redeploying or retiring office furnishings maybe what is needed. To see the innovative approaches and ever evolving relocation processes go to AlwaysLeading.com.

Commercial Relocation Network CRN Admiral Movers Al

Commercial Relocation Network CRN  affiliate Admiral Movers in Montgomery Alabama

Industrial Movers In Alabama Admiral Movers

Montgomery’s Best Office Mover

Feel free to call us at 334-262-6666, we are here to help

Chairman Steve Komorous of the King Companies added, “Being invited to join CRN is recognition of the new member’s abilities and performance. Scott and Admiral Movers have demonstrated they are of the caliber needed to be a part of CRN and we are glad to welcome them into the group.”

About Scott McNelley and Admiral Movers

Scott McNelley started Admiral Movers 23 years ago in Montgomery, AL, as an office moving company and has led it through several phases of growth. Today Admiral is an agent for Mayflower Transit and performs local, long distance, and international residential moves, but still finds its specialty in office and industrial relocation. Admiral Movers is an award-winning industry leader and is home to several service-marked, revolutionary techniques that have changed the way offices are relocated. In Alabama Admiral Movers is synonymous with “Top Notch Office Mover”. AirGlide Computer Moving and the Office Gondola System work in concert to transform office relocation with a box-less moving solution. Moving hospitals, plants and offices easily and painlessly with this method is one of the many accomplishments that have won Admiral Movers its outstanding reputation. As an outgrowth of file transfers, Scott diversified his business in 2007 when he launched Admiral Records Management.

About CRN

Founded in 2004, the Commercial Relocation Network is a membership organization made up of over 50 of the largest office and industrial relocation companies in the country. The main objective of CRN is for providing “Best-in-class” resources for its members and customers looking for a reliable, professional commercial mover in their region.

CRN members meet regularly and are encouraged to exchange ideas, education, training, and develop business partners, in other geographical locations, that provide a consistent level of professional service. By selecting a member of the network to assist with a move, customers
are guaranteed that only experienced professional commercial movers will be handling their project.

Learn more about or contact CRN by visiting: http://www.officemovingcrn.com
For more on Admiral Movers see http://www.admiralmovers.com or http://www.AlwaysLeading.com

CRN Media Contact Elizabeth Domin, news@clancymoving.com (800) 836-0331 or Scott McNelley at 877-816-3454 or info@admiralmovers.com
or call 334-262-6666

I normally say what on earth made you hire this company, generally the answer is well they were really inexpensive. There are a couple of “movers” in our town that are always the low bid, I mean like 30% to half  the normal pricing. Trust me when I say that the owners of these “outfits” are the best judge of “exactly” what their service is worth. You do not want these folks near your homes, or your furnishings. A quality mover will rarely be the cheapest mover.

Some red flags

• Refuses a visual survey
• Does not provide a written estimate
• Rental trucks, works out of a mini storage, or apartment
• Main number is a cell phone
• No listing or a poor rating on www.bbb.org

So I did a short video in hopes this will protect someone from becoming a victim of the moving nightmare.

Plastic Crates for Office Moves

Plastic Crates = bad, slow office move.Another problem with the crate offering is that they are of a size that no office mover, industrial engineer, risk manager should ever let an employee handle. The maximum weight movers and employees should handle is 60 lbs (filled with books, files and charts) which means the container should be no bigger than 1.2 cubic feet. the problem, a plastic crate is 2.7 cubic feet and weighs eight to nine pounds empty and when loaded will be close to 100 lbs. How on earth are your assistants, clerks, employees going to load and stack these behemoths? Then when comes to unpacking them at the new building your going to need the help of the mover, more expense. We may want to rename these plastic (boxes) crates “workman’s comp boxes”. Ask any mover who even occasionally does office moves if he or she would allow a customer to pack a 2.7 or 3.0 cubic foot box? Our friends at CityMove.ca have got it right in their blog entitled Plastic Moving Boxes In Vancouver? Just Say No!

Gondolas appear just before a move, or the same day as move. Why, because transferring items to gondolas takes just a few minutes per office, allows access right up until the time they are shrink-wrapped for transfer. Best of all you can access all items the moment they are unloaded at the new office. Unloading by the way is accomplished in a fraction of the time as a traditional move, requires fewer folks which means lower costs. We have even had a hospital to need access to files during a move which we accomplished because all files stayed completely in order during the entire process. Gondolas are super mobile, because of the easy roller caster system, plus the wheels are 100% non skid and non marking.

Plastic crates cause the very same issues boxes do, as soon as you load them you are shut down.  Boxes or plastic crates move much more slowly than gondolas. When you arrive at your destination and all the plastic boxes or plastic crates are piled everywhere. The complaint I hear from clients of box or crate moves is that normally the crate boxes are not in order. They fall over in the truck, or they are delivered to the wrong rooms. Either way you get hassle, frustration, lots of downtime which I refer to as the “moving hangover”. Downtime cost money, and prevents the generation of revenue. So this plastic crate or plastic box method you were sold as a solution just made this move super expensive not to mention stressful.

The more I look around I realize that the folks that are pushing the plastic crate notion for and office move is not so much real office movers but the crates makers, sellers and rental companies. They want or need more customers for their plastic crates, which were initially created for retail stores to carry much lighter items than books, files and manuals. This is would be like if you were making cars and the off-road SUV craze came along so you began telling folks your cars were off-road ready because you added different tires.

If a mover wants to get into office moving they should make the full commitment to have the proper equipment, not fake it. Office moving is not something you can just decide to do and do well. It takes years of training, improving it will also take full commitment to buy or build the correct equipment. I realize most household movers have had the their market dry up on them, but they do their customers no favor by introducing a poorly conceived notion. Heck we find that most of these movers are trying to use a household cube sheets to take and inventory and figure up an estimate. This will lead to underestimating badly the time the move will take, the manpower required and the cost of the relocation. Who pays for this, the customer when on Monday instead of returning to work you are trying to finish a move. When the move runs long and the movers get tired damage occurs and whatever plan you had to get things to their destination is sacrificed for just getting the truck unloaded. True office moving professionals such as Admiral Movers in Montgomery AL can help simplify the move process by avoiding packing & unpacking.

Call 334-262-6666 and we will help you with a hassle free move.

Box-Less moving saves time, money and prevents downtime

Plastic Crates For Office Moves– Just say no! A box-less and plastic crate-less move is not a dream, it is in fact a reality. Here is the scenario, your office is relocating, so the first thing you better consider is cost, not just checks to the moving company but total cost. Lost “hidden” payroll dollars due to downtime, lost revenue from being “packed up” or relocating. What about lost good will for the important client who needs your services the week of your move, what if you are all packed up in boxes or plastic crates, and can not respond timely to their needs. Ultimately they are the boss, the reason you are in business and able to pay your self and the others folks in your organization.Good news, there is a better way, a box-less move! A box-less move totally eliminates the need for packing up and paralyzing your office for long periods prior to move and avoids the productivity killing move hangover associated with using boxes or plastic moving crates. Are plastic crates better than cardboard boxes? Maybe, if I am the plastic crate sales man then yes. If I am the business owner the answer is not much, plastic crates are still boxes albeit “plastic” boxes. They still require making your files, charts, manuals inaccessible before during and after the move.

Another problem with the crate offering is that they are of a size that no office mover, industrial engineer, risk manager should ever let an employee handle. The maximum weight movers and employees should handle is 60 lbs (filled with books, files and charts) which means the container should be no bigger than 1.2 cubic feet. the problem, a plastic crate is 2.7 cubic feet and weighs eight to nine pounds empty and when loaded will be close to 100 lbs. How on earth are your assistants, clerks, employees going to load and stack these behemoths? Then when comes to unpacking them at the new building your going to need the help of the mover, more expense. We may want to rename these plastic (boxes) crates “workman’s comp boxes”. Ask any mover who even occasionally does office moves if he or she would allow a customer to pack a 2.7 or 3.0 cubic foot box? Our friends at CityMove.ca have got it right in their blog entitled Plastic Moving Boxes In Vancouver? Just Say No!

Gondolas appear just before a move, or the same day as move. Why, because transferring items to gondolas takes just a few minutes per office, allows access right up until the time they are shrink-wrapped for transfer. Best of all you can access all items the moment they are unloaded at the new office. Unloading by the way is accomplished in a fraction of the time as a traditional move, requires fewer folks which means lower costs. We have even had a hospital to need access to files during a move which we accomplished because all files stayed completely in order during the entire process. Gondolas are super mobile, because of the easy roller caster system, plus the wheels are 100% non skid and non marking.

Gondolas Are

• Easy to use
• Displace 16 cardboard boxes, or about 10 crates
• Are less expensive than plastic crates or boxes
• Move in a fraction of the time as crates or boxes
• Eliminates packing up an office in advance
• Gets rid of the move hangover
• Decreases downtime and associated expense
• Almost eliminates the hidden internal payroll costs associated
• Allows your organization to focus on its core purpose instead of packing unpacking
• Guards privacy (see secure transfer) because of dramatically reduced transfer time
• Ultimate in GREEN moving because no boxes or crates are needed

If you in a town where plastic crates are the best you can do, then likely you need to go that route. But, if you can go box-less, use gondolas, boost productivity and morale then this is the very best procedure . Look for a box-less mover within reach, remember trucks can roll to any location. Do your homework and don’t get stuck with all the headaches and downtime of a traditional household move procedure. Remember your job is on the line if your mover screws up. The biggest complaint we hear is that inexperienced household mover badly underestimate the time and cost of an office move. According to industry experts two-thirds of employs tasked with coordinating their company’s move either are demoted or fired after a relocation.

Crateless & box-less moving is not a dream, call us at 334-262-6666 and we can help.

Office Moving Plastic Crates

Beware of house-movers using plastic crates to disguise themselves as office movers. Say no to plastic crates for an office move.       More and more we are seeing traditional long distance household movers camouflaging themselves as office movers. It is no mystery why, the housing is off so it is survival. For very little money they buy or rent plastic crates, but, they miss the point. That point is using a plastic crate means you still have all the downtime associated with packing and stacking. Once everything is placed and stacked guess what your business is SHUT DOWN, no revenue, no productivity, no customer care. A plastic crate is a box, albeit a plastic box, but it is still a box. So you arrive at your new office, more downtime as you go through and unpack your crates/boxes.Also they are the wrong size for office material (books, files, manuals) which always goes in a 1.2 cube box because of the weight. No mover would allow you to load a box bigger than a 1.2 cube box, because at 1.2 cubes you are already at 50 lbs. Plastic crates are twice that the size of a 1.2 at 2.5-3 cubes that weigh 80 to 90 lbs. And who is going to be packing, loading those mammoth boxes/crates your office staff. I hope you have very forgiving workman’s compensation insurance because you are about to hurt someone.These wiseguys will say things like “plastic crates are green”, “they are renewable” but, what they are not is efficient for an office move unless you do not mind the hassle. And you have more money than good sense. The household mover does not really care he just wants your money until house moves pick back up and he can return to what he really does.Real office moving professionals will use office gondolas, double-sided book shelves (shelves tilt in) on ultra smooth caster using non skid, non marking wheels. They load in a tenth of the time as packing and you items are accessible the whole time. (unless you want secure transfer, where we use a different material to seal gondolas, numbered security seals). Gondolas allow one mover to move what would normally take 3-4 movers which not only cuts down on your downtime it save moving charges as well. Everything is in order throughout the move. Getting you back up and running immediately is the icing on the cake. And since no boxes, petroleum, plastic were used anywhere in the process I guess we know who the GREEN mover is.Be sure to look for a true box-less mover with office gondolas, they will also have E-carts for smooth ride in anti-static bubble wrap bags for electronics and computers. If one of these crate mover are not serious enough about office making to make the full investment of gondolas tell him to take a hike with his plastic crate/boxy things!

We are here to help call 334-262-6666 or email info@admiralmovers.com.

The unfortunate truth is that plastic crates, much like packing boxes, will greatly decrease productivity both on the front end of an office move during the packing (when the office shuts down) and at the tail end when the stacked boxes cause a moving hangover.

Time costs money

Unproductive time costs money, and the moving hangover that accompanies boxing or plastic crating will cause aggravation, frustration and will prevent your company from getting back on its feet. Unless money is no object, stay away from boxes or plastic crates.  Either way, you run into stacking issues and you don’t have access to your items once packed. Lost productivity causes lost dollars at a time when you need revenue to pay for the new facility.

Why endure all the extra time and work of packing when you don’t have to?  You need and deserve a box-less move, and here is the crazy thing – it costs less, not just in your hidden payroll and lost revenue, but even in your out-of-pocket expenses.

Office gondolas – a real solution

A real solution to boxing during a move (either traditionally or with plastic crates) is “office gondolas.”  Loading a gondola – a rolling bookshelf – takes a tenth of the time, and best of all you have access to all your goods during the entire process. Almost anything can be loaded onto a gondola, including files, books, supplies, personal effects, and even some inventory.  Benefits? They move quickly with a minimum of effort and can be used immediately upon delivery. The great thing is the gondolas alone are less expensive than boxes or plastic crates.

It also is very GREEN. Gondolas are useful and reusable for decades, saving the environment from the costly effects of petrol based plastic manufacturing and from deforestation.  Save trees, save money, save the hassle.

Secure chain of custody

One of the nicest things about using gondolas is the way in which you can relocate highly confidential material securely using the chain of custody protocol. Moving with boxes or plastic crates will forever more leave your company open to the possibility that there was in fact a breach during the move. Using the secure protocol with gondolas becomes your defensible proof that no protected material could have been breached because of the procedures employed. See protected information relocation requires strict chain of custody procedures.

Find a true office mover

Movers who offer plastic moving crates expose that they are not truly invested in office moving. Household movers will purchase these for very little money (or rent them) to give the appearance that they have experience in office moving, but the pitfalls are felt by the movers themselves and the customers.   Plastic crates make a really unstable load in the trucks and take a long time to load and unload.  Customers suffer from the same packing/unpacking problems as with cardboard boxing. Files and items cannot be immediately accessed after the move, nor before.  Files and goods get out-of-order easily, so you spend valuable time trying to find the next box to locate what you are looking for. Time, hassle, disorganization – who needs it?

Traditional box or plastic crate moves cost you greatly:

• Takes a lot of extra effort packing
• All your books, files, etc., become inaccessible as soon as they are packed
• Takes much longer to move
• Eats up trees, bad for the environment, bad for everyone
• Produces the moving hangover
• Removal hassle
• Breach of protected material possible

Box-less move saves money, effort, and trees:

• Normally loaded the day of move (costs less, boosts morale)
• All books, files, desk contents can be accessed even during move
• “Office Gondolas” move in less time than boxes
• Environmentally “friendly”
• Gets your office back up and running immediately
• Gondolas leave with movers
• Prevents data breach

Find a mover that is fully invested, trained and experienced in how to reduce downtime, save you money and eliminate hassle.  Avoid the moving hangover and find an office mover that employs a box-less system.