Over the past few months we have presented a Furniture Forum about the challenges that arise in selecting and purchasing the right furniture tools for the educational environment . We have explored the divergent issues various entities encounter relative to furniture. We have looked at research that indicates the financial impact of these decisions--from the user’s perspective and the institution’s perspective. We have explored the difficulty in making both broad and specific selections that will address as many of these concerns effectively and efficiently as possible, and touched upon how these difficulties will affect us in the coming economic times.

A number of compelling factors have led the us to focus resources on these furniture-related issues in order to help provide a better total value solution . Three of those factors follow . 

1) The amount of revenue spent on furniture, either during an initial new building project, or over the life of the facility, can end up being a large percentage of a college’s budget.

2) Colleges often find themselves having to replace furniture in a rather short period of time (5 to 10 years), draining precious dollars from already limited budgets.

3) Groups who are asked to make these selections have limited experience in the development of effective selection criteria, and are required to make “best guess” judgments that often become subjective in nature.

Our goal has been to provide resources that help to lower the Total Cost of Ownership in a variety of applications, and we believe that we have an excellent tool towards that end.

Since January we have been working with a consultant, Stephanie O’Brien of Dovetail Decision Consultants , to deliver to our clients via electronic format, a methodology for making effective and long-lasting furniture decisions from the perspective of the client.

Ms. O’Brien has 22 years of facilities, furniture and design experience, and brings to us the understanding of the multitude of complex concerns and challenges that an educational environment faces. We have partnered Dovetail DCI with Advantiv, the software firm that created DecisionDirector, the outstanding web-based program for engaging many disciplines and individuals within an organization to gather, define, and prioritize the critical business issues throughout the organization . The net result is a program that reflects the real needs and objectives of a furniture project, while leveraging technology to engage more stakeholders creating decisions that are far reaching and effective. 

With great success, we have tested the application at the San Mateo Community College District. Contra Costa CCD is in process for their new San Ramon Valley Center standards project, and several other districts are developing their project plans with this process as well.

In addition, we have been working closely with some of our members to facilitate further purchasing vehicles for furniture within academic, administrative, and residence hall applications. We will be offering these agreements to our members with an added bonus--the Decision Criteria process will be provided to assist in making the best choices. This feature alone will provide our members with definitive value and unbiased expertise .

Specific details of how to engage Dovetail in your project will soon be available via  www.facilitybuys.org, www.collegebuys.org and www.schoolbuys.org.  

Dovetail Decision Consultants, Inc.

P  O   BOX 241      WOODACRE,  CA   94973

T:    415. 488. 1196            F:   415. 488. 1311

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