Modular offices have been a boon to companies across the USA, allowing them the energy savings and logistical flexibility necessary to stay competitive in an increasingly cut throat business environment. Office partitions like those from I-M-T provide workers with the kind of flexible, forward-leaning environment where they can shine both on their own and as a group and provide business owners with an attractive, environmentally responsible and surprisingly affordable alternative to traditional drywall construction.
Still there are those who would believe that an office partition is an office partition and go for rock bottom products that look the part but little else. In this post we’re going to take a quick look at why seeking out the lowest possible price on partition walls is not in the best interest of your business.
The Case Against Discount Office Partitions
Office partitions from I-M-T are about as close as any business related purchase can come to “having your cake and eating it too”. Not only do they provide significant aesthetic benefits, they typically create a happier, more loyal workforce and wind up paying for themselves many times over via energy savings and increased productivity. Yet there are some for whom that is not enough. And while we understand the need to keep costs down on capital acquisitions purchasing cheap partitions can actually backfire and wind up costing you in the long run.
Here are 6 mistakes business owners are prone to making when it comes to discount partitions.
1) Purchasing Without a Plan
Perhaps a business owner has seen modular partitions installed in a competitor’s office and thought the same would look good in their office. But, because they’re busy sorts, they didn’t take the time to research the product. Instead they simply sought out some low-cost partitions and stuck them up arbitrarily. By doing so the owner is not likely to enjoy any of the benefits associated with high-quality partitions. An efficient, effective modular office environment isn’t an accident. It’s the result of careful planning and the installation of high-quality, versatile and durable components.
2) Choosing Trendy over Timeless
Believe it or not the best modular office components, like those from I-M-T, are not just slapped together haphazardly but are instead the product of hundreds and thousands of man-hours of design effort and testing. As a result our office partition walls embody timeless design elements that won’t go out of fashion next season when another color suddenly becomes the ‘hot’ choice for the trendy office. We make our products to last and we understand that, because they last, they need to embrace style over fashion, timeless over trendy. And they do.
3) Ignoring the Needs of the Workforce
This harks back to “purchasing without a plan”. Someone is going to have to live with those new partitions and that would be the workforce. Office partitions then should never be purchased without asking some basic questions such as:
- How will the new partitions impact employee comfort?
- Will the partitions enable increased productivity?
- Will the new partitions bring people together who should be together?
- Will the new partitions provide natural light and room for workers to stretch out?
- How will the new partitions affect traffic patterns in the office?
All of these questions should be asked up front when a business owner is first contemplating the purchase of modular office components. If they’re not it’s a fairly safe bet that instead of happy productive workers you’ll have disgruntled workers who feel like they were frozen out of the process.
4) Ignoring the Future
The future is coming whether we want it to or not. The only question for the business owner is: “Am I positioned to handle whatever comes down the pike?” If said business owner purchased discount office partitions without considering future growth prospects for their company or the potential for change within their industry chances are the answer to that question is “No.” The best modular office products always provide copious amounts of future-proofing in the form of timeless style, interoperability and technological adaptability. Discount partitions by contrast are usually inert wall sections with trendy design cues, fit together clumsily and possess no ability to accommodate the changing technological landscape.
5) Not Evaluating Long-Term Costs
The true cost of owning partition walls is measured over the long haul. High-quality modular partitions are built to last decades and as such they’ll provide a number of different long term savings including:
- Reduced maintenance costs.
- Reduced setup costs when relocating to a new office.
- Substantial savings on remodeling and reconfiguring the office.
- Significant energy savings.
- Increased productivity.
Discount partitions are cheap for a reason: because they’re made of inferior materials using inferior fabrication methods and sporting inferior design. As such they’ll need to be replaced after only a couple of years, will require more frequent maintenance, won’t provide design flexibility when it comes time to reconfigure the office and likely won’t last long enough to make it to your new office.
6) Buying Strictly Based on Price
We love bargains as much as anyone. But a true bargain is also a great value. That is; it’s a bargain because the price is attractive and the quality is high. This is almost never the case with discount office partitions. With them the price is low because the quality is low. Like cheap cars they’re built to look good in the showroom and fall apart on the way home. And once they do there’s nothing you can do about it. They also won’t age well as the trendy touches intended to aid in their salability look dated almost as soon as they’re set up.
At I-M-T we do our level best to keep costs down and to pass those savings on to customers across the USA. But we do not and will not compromise quality for the sake of price. All our modular office components are manufactured to exacting standards in order to provide our customers with partitions that will serve them as well 10 years from now as they will the day they’re first installed.