Portal undercuts average TOCS workstation costs

Birmingham, 23rd March 2010 – Portal, leaders in delivering innovative space and infrastructure solutions has had its price competitiveness confirmed after engaging Actium Consult Limited to undertake a detailed cost analysis. The work benchmarked Portal’s workstation cost against the industry standard, Total Office Cost Survey 2009 (TOCS).

The findings show that in all the cost examples considered by Actium Consult Ltd, Portal’s workstations came out lower than the standard TOCS workstation cost. Andrew Procter of Actium Consult Limited commented, “The TOCS report is the benchmark for cost analysis in the market. Given the key features of Portal’s bundled service offering, which individually are often used by suppliers to increase prices, we would reasonably have expected Portal’s workstation costs to be above that of the TOCS standard workstation, especially since the Portal solutions we scrutinised were agreed before the recent falls in rent levels.”

Proctor continues, “It is therefore particularly noteworthy that the cost of Portal workstations are in all the examples investigated lower than the standard TOCS workstations. Portal appears to perform beyond the stated service level and is very responsive to the occupier’s needs. The lower costs offered by Portal will definitely interest businesses”.

The Total Office Cost Survey (TOCS) by Actium Consult Limited provides an independent and accurate guide to the total cost of occupying a brand new office building in 50 locations across the UK. The survey covers 22 different cost heads including rent and rates, annualised cost to fit out and furniture, hard FM, soft FM and management based on the latest data provided by the foremost advisors & suppliers. It is recognised as the industry standard and is widely used by occupiers and suppliers to benchmark their costs and prices.

Managing Director at Portal, John Gotley commented on the report, “Portal offers a high level of service at a competitive pre-agreed cost, saving the client the time and effort required to procure and then manage the service delivery. The fact that we also carry out the fit-out as part of a fully rentalised solution has an added advantage, giving our clients a one-stop shop”.

More about the report

Actium Consult was engaged to:

• Make a total cost comparison between Portal’s workstation costs per annum and the workstation costs reported in TOCS 2009
• Make a detailed comparison between all TOCS expenditure heads and output definitions with the Portal total service offering in each location
• Assume that the relevant date for the cost comparison is 1 March 2009 which is the data point for TOCS 2009
• Focus on TOCS evidence based on Nottingham, Sheffield and Maidstone locations as benchmark for Portal’s facilities at Nottingham, Rotherham and Chatham respectively, herein referred to as the TOCS standard cost
• Make a locational adjustment for the assessment of rent and rates, herein referred to as the TOCS adjusted cost
• Provide commentary on any major differences between TOCS assumptions and the Portal service offering

Actium findings

The specific findings relating to each location are available upon request but on a more general basis it was found that Portal provides managed office and call-centre buildings with the following characteristics:

• A one-stop-shop for space, fit out and facilities management providing a bespoke, turnkey solution
• Cost certainty of a pre-agreed workstation charge per month
• Flexibility in the number of workstations and (where the building allows) in the space to be taken to accommodate business changes
• A high level of service (no material claims since their inception in 2000)
• Rapid deployment

Editor’s Note:

About Actium Consult Limited:

Actium Consult is a specialist management consultancy with a focus on property, workplace and change. Since 2001 it has carried out the Total Office Cost Survey (TOCS) the first annual published survey to include total office costs including 22 cost heads at 50 office centres throughout the UK. One of the reasons for creating TOCS was to allow comparison between different forms of occupation, with different services and service levels. TOCS is widely used by occupiers of property in both the private and public sectors. Andrew Procter, the founder of Actium, used to be the Head of Property Consulting at KPMG.

About Portal:

Established in 2000 Portal is part of a unique amalgamation of funding, development and service delivery. The core offering of this amalgam is space and infrastructure (environment, IT and telephony) on a managed service basis. Portal terms this ‘Occupier Solutions’ and it allows their clients to retain ownership of their “crown jewels” such as brand custodianship, culture, people, processes, intellectual capital, business applications and, in the case of call centres, the actual interaction with customers.

Portal has delivered their solutions to a number of prestigious clients, including: RBS, HfS
Loans, Barclays Bank, E.ON, BSkyB and Vanquis Bank.

Portal’s head office is in Birmingham and they have operational centres in Glasgow,
Rotherham, Nottingham, Chatham, Coventry and Leeds.