MovingOffice: With the take-up of office space in Dublin at its highest level in three years, many firms are outsourcing their office move, writes Claire Shoesmith

No one ever said moving house was easy. But imagine trying to move a whole company.

Instead of packing the belongings of your family, you have the desks, computers and telecoms equipment of 500 staff, and let's not forget the communal filing cabinets and storage areas that come with them.

Considering all of that and the fact that almost 13,712sq m (147,600sq ft) of Dublin office space was let in the first quarter of this year - the highest level of first-quarter take-up in three years - it's no surprise that companies are seeking help to relocate their businesses.

"We are finding more and more that people want to hand over the entire thing and be taken from cradle to grave," says Michael Fitzpatrick, project manager at Gardiner & Theobald in Dublin, which offers a project management service aimed at helping companies with all aspects of their move from property assessment right through to tax advice.

While the company currently has only a few Dublin moves on its books, demand for its services has been increasing, says Fitzpatrick.

Niall Shanahan, managing director of 4Front Project Management, agrees. In fact, he says there's so much work out there that his company is having to turn some away.

The main benefits of employing a project manager, aside from the fact that any internal member of staff has to carry on with their normal job while arranging an office move, is to keep control of costs, say both men.

According to Fitzpatrick, what many people don't realise is that the capital cost of a new office development only accounts for about 20 per cent of the lifecycle cost. This can lead to disappointment in the long term, as companies end up with a cheaper initial capital cost, but a much greater lifecycle cost due to inefficiencies in building design and management, he says.

Bringing in a project manager to oversee the whole operation can help make you aware of the full costs entailed in the move, enabling you to tailor parts of it to suit your budget.

"We offer strategic planning from the beginning to allow the project to be much more cost-effective over the life of the building," he says.

For Shanahan, the overall budget is equally important and something that he likes to tie down as soon as possible. "There is no going over the budget once it has been set," he says, adding that in the company's nine-year history he has never gone over budget.

Not a bad record when you consider the millions of overspend on many Government projects these days.

While involving a project manager in the relocation of a large office is nothing new, the idea of one company carrying out all the individual parts of the move itself is.

In the past, the estate agent may have been hired to co-ordinate such a move, but it would have contracted out various stages of the moving process to different companies.

What today's project manager actually does falls under the remits of all the one-time contractors: the estate agent, the surveyor, the decorator, the furniture provider, the technical team and, most importantly, acts as the link between the company and the new accommodation.

Many large property and estate agents still offer a similar service, though much of it, in particular the fit-out of the new building, will be contracted out to other providers.

In many cases the main reason for bringing in someone, like Gardiner & Theobald or 4Front, is as a form of security - to ensure that everything goes to plan and stays within budget.

"The property industry is becoming much more complicated," says Fitzpatrick.

"There are so many different industries involved within it and we have the experience dealing with them all. It's not as straightforward as it used to be and clients can get caught out if they're not careful."