Asset Verification and Tagging Services
Since 2013, Harsch carries on an annual asset inventory for one of Geneva’s biggest International Organization. This contract, renewed in 2018, initially consisted in labelling and inventorying over 100’000 items to track the organization’s use of various assets such as furniture and IT equipment. It now entails a one-month inventory job every year, handled by a 10 people team supervised by a specialized project manager.
For the specific needs of this contract, Harsch developed a tailor-made process in order to ensure high accuracy and efficiency. This process lies on a specific organization with one team-leader, one deputy supervisor, and 4 two-people teams. This organization is the result of many years of learning by doing and continuous improvement, and allows Harsch to have a solution for any type of asset inventory contract.
The demand for this service is growing, and can now be part of office move projects. Indeed, it can be particularly relevant to seize the opportunity of a move to implement an asset tracking policy. In such cases, it is highly efficient to find a moving company that is able to handle the inventory, rather than having two different companies collaborating on the matter. Such a project can allow to establish a clear view of a company’s current list of assets, and help decide which items will be reused and which will be gotten rid of during the move. As for the cases where there is a complete renewal of assets, implementing an inventory from day one is the most efficient and cost saving approach.
International Olympic Committee
In 2019, Harsch moved 600 people over a 3-day period for the International Olympic Committee.
This project was challenging, as it required gathering workplaces from five different sites into one new single site. It comprised the move of a part of the furniture and IT equipment, including Desktop PC Disconnection & Reconnection services.
Harsch had to use its network to find recommissioning solutions for a large part of existing furniture. The IOC was able to re-sell part of it, and donate the rest to different organization. It allowed to drastically reduce the volume of waste and costs attached to it.
Harsch also made good use of its combined expertise while handling the relocation of works of art. Indeed, the company is able to offer a wide range of services thanks to its 3 dedicated business units: fine art storage and transport, moving services and records management.
Throughout the project, a contingency plan ensured continuity, when unforeseen circumstances led to the client making changes to the timeframe at short notice. On-site teams where adjusted on a day-to-day basis in order to meet deadlines, as the team leader ensured the continuous liaison between the customer, the logistics and commercial teams.
As a result of the successful relocation, Harsch was awarded the clearance of the different old site before their market release. This last phase included waste removal and cleaning services.
Harsch is proud to count the International Olympic Committee among its regular customers.
Maison de la paix
Owned by the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, the Maison de la paix is one of Western Switzerland’s contemporary architectural achievements. It gathers within one single site several organizations in order to enable synergies fostering innovative and efficient solutions to promote peace, human security and sustainable development.
When the project was launched back in 2013, Harsch was awarded the Graduate institute move including the relocation of 12 kilometres of books. Those books were previously stored on different premises. Once again, Harsch’s fine art expertise was put in good use in handling rare and precious publications, some of which were more that hundreds year old. Part of this exceptional collection also transited by Harsch’s specialized storage premises, under the supervision of the Records Management department.
This project had to be handled in a very limited timeframe as all the books and employees had to be relocated in three weeks. This all the more challenging as the newly built facility presented some specificities requiring a dedicated strategy, such as stainless steel floors, which were highly fragile to shocks and scratches.
Given the success of this first phase of the project, the Graduate Institute recommended Harsch to other organizations moving into the building, making Harsch the one and only moving company for the whole facility over a three year period. This allowed cost optimizations while ensuring a smooth project management. In total 900 people were moved to the Maison de la paix.
Finally yet importantly, Harsch helped the Graduate Institute implementing its asset tracking policy, by working closely with the software manager in designing clear and efficient procedures, and performing the initial inventory. This inventory is now managed internally.
Asset verification framework contract with UNO
A one-month long inventory every year
UNOG’S GENEVA HEADQUARTERS
The United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG) serves as the representative office of the Secretary-General at Geneva. It is located at the Palais des Nations and composed of several buildings. More than 1’600 staff work on these premises, which host more than 8’000 meetings every year.
Its internal policy requires to list and track its internal assets through an in-house inventory management software, which allows to precisely locate items within the different office sites
MISSION (SINCE 2013)
Since 2013, UNOG has decided to mandate an external company to perform an annual update of its asset inventory. On the first year, we had to create this inventory by labelling and indexing more than 100’000 items spread over all UNOG’s premises in Geneva. This inventory has since then been kept up-to-date by UNOG’s staff all year long, and consolidated once a year thanks to Harsch inventory. Throughout the years, the scope of the mission has changed. The inventory now focuses mainly on IT equipment.
Every year, the challenge lies in forming an efficient team of inventory agents, able to find their ways in the multiple buildings and rooms which compose UNOG’s premises, while ensuring an accurate and complete inventory of all items.
Harsch performance and accuracy is checked everyday by UNO’s inventory team who performs spot checks and then compare its results with Harsch’s.
RESULT
- Up to 100’000 items inventoried within one session
- 1 month mission, with a 10 people team, every year
- Framework contract renewed in 2018 after an RFP process
HARSCH’S APPROACH
Harsch was able to define an inventory strategy for UNOG and adapt to the site specificity. Our approach relied on experienced inventory agents who know the premises and the method, allowing finishing the mission on time. Indeed, this job requires a close coordination with UNOG’s team in order to get access to all the rooms, and it follows a strict schedule which cannot be modified. As a consequence, we need to be right on time, not in advance nor late, and adapt resources accordingly.
Since the inventory is performed during business hours, it supposes to be able to explain our presence to UNOG staff, while inventorying their items fast enough to not disturb them in their daily activity. It also supposes to cover all premises in a short timeframe so as to avoid large moves of items during the time of the mission (which would result in finding the same items in multiple locations).
Finally, it required the development of solid consolidation abilities in order to provide UNOG with a reliable inventory at the end of the mission. To this extent we beneficiated from the help of our internal IT team, who worked with our project manager in order to develop the most efficient tools to analyze and correct data on a daily basis.
The Global Fund
The race against time
THE GLOBAL FUND
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is a non-profit foundation.Founded in 2001 as a partnership of governments, civil society, technical agencies, the private sector and people affected by the diseases, it is based in Switzerland in Grand-Saconnex. By the end of 2018, it was estimated that programs supported by the Fund had saved 32 million lives, and allowed a 40% drop in deaths from AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in the countries where it invests. All of the Fund’s employees are based in the Geneva offices.
MISSION (2018)
The challenge of this move consisted in the planning: the existing premises had to be vacated by a specific date in order to avoid paying penalties. The client was therefore looking for a company capable of moving 950 employees over 3 weekends in a row, with no possibility of additional delay.
Given these constraints, we have defined 3 phases of relocation, each involving a little over 300 employees, depending on their respective departments. Each phase started on Friday from 1 p.m. to 10 p.m., and had to be completed on Saturday from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday work being prohibited, it was imperative that all working stations moved during a phase be operational when releasing the teams of movers on Saturday.
In addition, services that had little impact on business continuity, such as managing evacuations to the recycling center or moving the archives, were planned on weekdays in order to distribute the workload and meet deadlines.
RESULT
- 950 employees moved, with their personal effects and their IT equipment (disconnections and reconnections).
- 2,800 m3 of furniture moved.
- A solution for reselling furniture to a broker, and organizing the logistics of this operation.
- Close links established during the project, leading to a longer term commercial relationship on ad hoc operations.
HARSCH’S APPROACH
- Comprehensive solutions with a project management approach, including for the recovery of furniture and management of IT equipment.
- Change management support with the creation of ad hoc documents and the organization of several meetings to clarify procedures and confirm the details of customer needs.
- Supply of innovative automatic boxes, making it easier for employees to prepare for the removal of personal effects.
- Reactive and available structure allowing to adapt in real time to the vagaries and meet deadlines.