Many decisions come down to preparing and presenting a strong return on investment (ROI) case, but even then, the financial equation is highly subjective.

This article doesn’t attempt to help you make decisions on where you should cut corners versus where you should invest. Rather, it takes a look at the facility engineering design, construction and maintenance life-cycle from a high level and holistic view and focuses on key processes and methodologies of project delivery that can have a significant impact on reducing both short and long term costs.

1) Start Early

It sounds simple enough and maybe that is why it is commonly overlooked. Perhaps the single most fundamental aspect in controlling and minimizing cost is in starting every stage of the project, at the earliest possible moment. Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can modify and make correction with little to no cost. The following graph represents the exponential impact on the cost of project changes over time. The point being that the earlier and more thorough you are able to address project requirements, the less costly your project will be. Therefore, delaying critical decisions will typically result in a significant impact on cost.

2) Engage With Specialty Consultants

“I don’t know how we’ll ever complete this project. After all – we still have a day job!” We’ve heard variations of that statement made on many large engagements we’ve undertaken. It seems that when planning a large project, senior management often overlooks the fact that the persons in the organization charged with “making it happen”, continue to have a demanding daily job that doesn’t let up, just because there’s a major project that requires a great deal of time.

Two things to consider: First, although a company may very well have in house expertise knowledgeable and experienced enough to tackle a major facilities renovation or construction project doesn’t necessarily mean they should do so without external assistance. Often times when we are engaged, it is as an extension of internal resources, rather than because no internal resources exist.

Secondly, when hiring an expert that specializes in a certain area – whether audio/visual, telecom, data center, critical power, etc., the fact that they do this for a living not only means that they possess in-depth experience on contemporary practices, but also that they are most likely in a position to save you money and ultimately “pay for themselves”, giving the end customer a “win-win” situation.

3) Implement Web Based Project Management

The web has become an absolute necessity when it comes to project collaboration. Keeping everyone on the same page – although an admittedly difficult task - has never been easier or more cost effective with the advent of online program and project management tools. There are a plethora of tools available, including no cost open source project management and the very easy to use award winning Basecamp. Collaboration between team members is critical not only to the ultimate success of a project, but also in reducing the costs associated with poor communication.

4) Exploit The Competitive Bid Process

Nothing lowers price like healthy competition. Like any other aspect of a project, there are “best practices” – and…let’s just say, not so desirable practices. Executed correctly, with detailed engineering and design drawings and specifications, a vendor neutral approach, and a level playing field with the right bidders, the competitive bid process can garner very significant savings.

5) Develop Detailed Specifications

It’s important not to skimp in the programming and design stages of a project for the very reason that this essentially serves as the foundation for everything else. If the design is the weakest link, it will have an adverse impact on the entire project. Conversely – take the necessary time and make the necessary investment during this stage of the project and you are sure to reap substantial rewards through better execution and lower cost.

6) Require a Detailed Schedule of Values

One of the greatest concerns of many facilities managers is that the contractor they select today will spend the duration of the project looking for ways to “nickel and dime them to death” on change orders. Unfortunately, this is often a reality. There are three sure fire ways to ensure this doesn’t occur. First – as already stated – prepare detailed drawings and specifications. Secondly – Engage the assistance of a specialty consultant to act as your liaison throughout the project, including the construction administration and commissioning phases. Finally – and perhaps just as importantly – require that the contractors bidding on your project provide a schedule of values for both material and labor, to be used in calculating the inevitable change orders that come on any significant project. This way you can not only ensure that a contractor isn’t “buying the project with the hopes of making profit on the back end”, but you will also be able to quantify the fairness of pricing on any changes that do occur during the project.

7) Plan for Future Growth

Growth is a great thing – unless you haven’t planned for it. Then, it can become a nightmare. When planning for your new facility project, it is wise to ensure that you plan for a certain percentage of growth – not only in square footage, but also in the systems necessary to support the growth. We’re not talking about additional hardware that can be easily installed, but rather the infrastructure that becomes part of the building and that can be installed at a much lower cost during the initial project, and without disruption to daily operations, as opposed to tearing up walls and ceilings after the fact. This can often mean placing cables that support any type of facilities infrastructure, such as voice, data, audio visual, etc, in the ceiling with strategically located areas, and with enough of a “service loop”, that they can easily be moved and dropped to reach a specific location where greater capacity is needed

8) Select the Lowest “Qualified” BidderThe term “lowest bidder” is a misnomer. While it may be tempting to select “the lowest bidder”, after receiving competitive bids, the fact is – this approach can and usually does, result in a great deal of heartburn down the road. Why? Often times, contractors will overlook a certain requirement of a project, or perhaps they may have misunderstood a requirement that results in a significantly under estimated project. You might say – “Well, that’s their problem, not ours”. In theory, you’re right; however as a matter of principle and practicality, if it becomes their problem, it also becomes yours. The fact is, when a contractor is under the gun and essentially losing money out of the gate, they go into panic mode. This includes placing lower paid and lower quality people on the project, looking for ways to cut corners to save cost and finding every way possible to increase change orders. One way or another – you’ll end up paying more in the long run.

Therefore, it is critical that all submitted bids are properly vetted, normalized and “qualified”. Only then will you be in a position to make an objective and smart decision, comparing apples to apples and selecting the “lowest qualified bidder”.

9) Minimize Vendors Whenever Possible

There’s an old saying “There is strength in numbers”. This is not always true, and it’s especially not true when it comes to how many companies are involved in a facilities renovation or construction project. On some occasions we have seen instances where four or five technology consultants and contractors, could have been quite easily been replaced with one or two. The result would have been better communication, lower construction and administration costs, etc. So, when planning your project, look for ways you can gain economies of scale. After all – you’re building a facility – not an army. In this case a better old saying might be “Too many cooks in the kitchen can spoil the broth”.

10) Require Detailed Documentation

The devil is in the details, and when it comes to managing and maintaining your facility “post implementation”, detailed documentation can be a life saver. At the very least, it can be a significant money saver as it provides a means for identifying and locating what has been installed and troubleshooting problem areas. We have all seen a multitude of variations on project documentation from simple spreadsheets and drawings to feature rich and costly “facilities management software systems”. Our recommendation? If it’s a smaller facility or if you don’t have a process for updating documentation as part of your maintenance process – choose the simplest and least costly route. Because either way – if the documentation isn’t maintained – it’s only a matter of time before it becomes useless.

Summary

We hope you’ve found these helpful hints useful as you consider your next facilities project. We’d love to hear your feedback and thoughts on what we’ve expressed here, as well as sharing your own insights. Drop us a comment and let us know.

About the Author

Sean Maguire is Director, Business Development for JanCom Technologies. JanCom is a leading provider of Technology Infrastructure Design & Engineering services with specialities in Telecom, Audio/Visual and Critical Power for data centers.

]]> http://www.oneinfrastructure.com/2008/06/25/10-ways-to-reduce-facility-construction-renovation-costs/feed/ http://www.oneinfrastructure.com/2008/06/15/critical-issues-in-cabling-design/ http://www.oneinfrastructure.com/2008/06/15/critical-issues-in-cabling-design/#comments Sun, 15 Jun 2008 12:31:09 +0000 sean http://www.oneinfrastructure.com/2007/11/21/critical-issues-in-cabling-design/ The planning phase is the time to ensure that a structured cabling system will provide flexibility and reliability

Whether it’s voice, data, video, security or the building management system, information is increasingly critical to the productivity of building occupants and to the performance of the building itself. But the quality of that information flow can be no better than the conduit carrying it — the cabling system.

A structured cabling system is designed to ensure that information flows smoothly over the cabling network. It includes a set of transmission products applied with engineering design rules that allow the user to apply voice, data and signals in a manner that maximizes data rates. The structured cabling system is the foundation of a successful intelligent building network and the basic investment on which all other network equipment depends.

A structured cabling system installation is neither vendor-specific nor topology dependent. It offers uniformity, flexibility, scalability, easy and low cost changes, and investment protection of an asset with a very long life — 10 years or more. The system has become a common platform for many information technology system types and applications, including telecom (voice and data), building automation, security (CCTV, access control, etc), teleconferencing and in some instances fire alarm. This convergence makes the structured cabling system the most important component of the network and the associated systems, one that merits a serious investment in a highly reliable, flexible and scalable system.

Benefits of a high-performance network

A structured cabling system divides the entire infrastructure into manageable blocks and then integrates these blocks to produce a high-performance network that serves as the lifeline for most businesses and all data centers. A structured cabling system will support near-future applications with little or no upgrade pain. Unforeseen problems are less likely to bring down an entire network because problems are easier to isolate and correct. And it is easy to test and isolate the specific points of failure and rectify the situation with minimal disturbance to the entire network.

Another advantage of a structured cabling system is that it minimizes the effort required for moves, adds and changes. Such a system also allows for a consistent infrastructure across the network in cases of converged building systems. Consistency yields cost savings by simplifying maintenance procedures, reducing staff needs and increasing reliability.

Moreover, a structured cabling system based on the current standards also provides the flexibility to support a variety of applications and hardware from different vendors. This improves installation, testing and management efficiencies.

Finally, the “structured” nature of such a system facilitates administration and management by providing designated points of distribution, standard labeling and coloring mechanisms and methods, and cabling management and distribution methodologies.

More often than not, data center managers resort to a dynamic approach in populating a data center with IT equipment. This approach has to be employed to accommodate the changing requirements of business operations, which in turn often drive the need for the latest IT equipment. And because businesses depend on IT equipment and infrastructure, top management expects any need for additional IT capacity or capability to be met almost instantaneously.

However, data center managers can react only as fast as the availability of IT equipment and the facility infrastructure allow. In today’s market, vendors can generally supply products very quickly. However, if a data center manager is faced with a poorly designed IT infrastructure, the process can grind to a halt.

Critical issues

To avoid such a situation, it is essential to address critical structured cabling system issues during the planning phase. Among the most important points to address are these:

• Service providers. Key steps include identifying the service providers available for the job site; establishing diverse and redundant routes for bringing the service into the facility; coordinating the point of entrance for each respective service provider; accounting for the respective equipment requirements; and allocating space for each service provider. This process will prove essential for improving the fault tolerance of the overall structured cabling system design, as will employing a self-healing optical carrier service such as Synchronous Optical Network (SONET).

• Telecommunications rooms. Entrance facilities (EF), main distribution frames (MDF) and intermediate distribution frames (IDFs) should allow for 20 percent expansion of equipment.

• Centralized IDFs. Placing telecommunications IDFs in central locations in the data center enables easy cable management, as well as the efficient addition of future equipment.

• Adjacencies. Planning for future equipment population and adjacencies facilitates pathway design for expansion space, which in turn provides near-new construction efficiency for future cable installation.

• High-performance design. A high-performance cabling infrastructure — one that is capable of supporting converged telecommunications needs, including voice, data, video, electronic security and building control — provides optimum return on investment because it can meet current and future infrastructure requirements.

• Switches. Placing switches in the center of server rows enables easy and cost-effective cable management. It also shortens cable runs, resulting in immediate cost savings.

• Zone cabling concept. This approach utilizes a “scattered IDFs” design strategy — in other words, specific platforms remain in their designated spaces, rather than being connected to one central IDF. This avoids disrupting the entire data center space when upgrades or changes have to be made to a certain platform.

• Heat maps. The heat generated by systems such as densely-packed routers and switches, server farms with compact and blade servers, mainframes, storage area networks and automatic tape libraries poses challenges like airflow management. That’s why it’s advisable to develop data center heat maps using equipment power consumption and ventilation requirements. The layout can also be used by electrical and mechanical designers. This coordination leads to an optimal layout to efficiently use space, airflow and electrical distribution.

The planning stage is the time to maximize the flexibility to respond to ongoing changes in equipment planning today and adapt to future technologies. That’s why facility executives should get an IT design engineer (preferably an RCDD — Registered Communications Distribution Designer) involved from the planning stages of a data center project.

An effective design can significantly reduce downtime; minimize moves, adds and changes; and reduce life-cycle costs of the cabling system. In the planning stages of new construction, it is crucial to spend time to address system performance, redundancy, diversity and modularity for the structured cabling system, as well as to anticipate future requirements. A comprehensive design approach will ensure that prudent planning and intelligent design are combined with industry standards. The result will be a cabling infrastructure that has a good chance of staying useful for several years, saving money while providing access to cutting-edge telecommunications solutions.

Presentation media (such as video, multimedia, VR, and audio) are playing an increasingly important role in exhibit, themed, and architectural environments.

From kiosks and interactive displays to mixed-media theaters and exhibit galleries, sophisticated audio-visual systems are more and more prevalent. These technologies are changing so rapidly that one year often represents one or two generations of products! Further, these are no longer separate systems. There is often need to integrate the various media technologies into a seamless unit, and interactivity is becoming a common requirement.

It is not reasonable for an architect or exhibit designer to keep up with the trends and changes of the technology spiral.You need to offload the design and specification of these systems to a specialist – just as is routinely done with mechanical and electrical systems. The Design Process is a creative and dynamic process that should parallel the other design aspects of your project. Your A/V design consultant should become involved early in the project – preferably at the conceptual stage. As part of your design team, this consultant will provide guidance on the practicality of various technical solutions and media technologies, present you with options and working budgets, and suggest alternative approaches.

If your concept depends on “cutting-edge hardware,” advice on the risks inherent in early adoption of these particular technologies will be provided. Your consultant will continue to work with your team to refine the agreed-upon design towards a clear definition of the scope and quality of the finished audio-visual systems – ensuring that they integrate with the other aspects of your project. The consultant will research the best technologies and products to apply to your specific situation. At this point, the A/V budgets will generally be refined and finalized.

The design consultant will also provide electrical power and conduit needs to your electrical engineer, and specify heating loads and special ventilation requirements to your mechanical engineer. Your consultant will then prepare the working drawings and technical specifications needed to obtain competitive bids and to instruct the contractor. The A/V consultant will provide any input and co-ordination required to your Division 1 documents and will write the technical specifications for the audio-visual systems such that they can be inserted into Division 11 or Division 16 of your construction package.

Alternatively, your consultant will prepare a stand-alone bid package for your audio-visual and media systems as a separate contract. In addition, they can help you pre-qualify bidders and evaluate bids.

Relying on a contractor or manufacturer to design your systems is not a good idea. Vendors and contractors make their profit by selling and installing equipment. Unfortunately, the equipment they are authorized to sell may not be the best choice for your particular application. Even amongst the brands that a vendor sells, there will be those that are more profitable than others. It is only natural for a salesperson to try to talk you into the most profitable option, rather than the best option.

The bottom line is that contractors, vendors, and manufacturers have a clear conflict of interest. In fact, no one should design or specify systems that they will supply or install. Who will monitor and accept their work? Who will hold up payment until deficiencies are corrected? The next time you need to design a complex audio visual solution, consider an expert - and remember – the earlier in the process the better.

Structured Cabling is defined as building or campus telecommunications cabling infrastructure that consists of a number of standardized smaller elements (hence structured) called subsystems.

Structured cabling falls into the following six sub-systems:

• Entrance Facilities is where the building interfaces with the outside world.
• Equipment Rooms host equipment which serves the users inside the building.
• Telecommunications Rooms are where various telecommunications and data equipment resides, connecting the backbone and horizontal cabling sub-systems.
• Backbone Cabling as the name suggests carries the signals between the entrance facilities, equipment rooms and telecommunications rooms.
• Horizontal Cabling is the wiring from telecommunications rooms to the individual outlets on the floor.
• Work-Area Components connect end-user equipment to the outlets of the horizontal cabling system.

Structured cabling design and installation is governed by a set of standards that determine how to wire a data center, office or apartment building for data or voice communications, using Category 5 or Category 6 cable and modular sockets. These standards define how to lay the cabling in a star formation, such that all outlets terminate at a central patch panel (which is normally 19 inch rack-mounted), from where it can be determined exactly how these connections will be used. Each outlet can be ‘patched’ into a data network switch (normally also rack mounted alongside), or patched into a ‘telecoms patch panel’ which forms a bridge into a private branch exchange (PBX) telephone system, thus making the connection a voice port.

Lines patched as data ports into a network switch require simple straight-through patch cables at the other end to connect a computer. Voice patches to PBXs in most countries require an adapter at the remote end to translate the configuration on 8P8C modular connectors into the local standard telephone wall socket. In the U.S., no adapter is needed, as the 6P6C plug used with RJ11 telephone connections is physically compatible with the larger 8P8C socket and the wiring of the 8P8C is compatible with RJ11. In the UK, an adapter must be present at the remote end as the 6-pin BT socket is physically incompatible with 8P8C.

It is normal to see different colour patch cables used in the patch panel to help identify which type of connection is being carried, though the structured cabling standards do not require this, except in the demarcation wall field

Cabling standards demand that all eight connectors in Cat5/5e/6 cable are connected, resisting the temptation to ‘double-up’ or use one cable for both voice and data. This is generally a good thing as it means that they fully support features such as Power over Ethernet which require the so-far unused brown cables.