Resident

Summary

Resident produces competitive quotes with a high level of confidence now that they are using CMap.

Situation

Resident Architects is a boutique architectural firm based in London, England. Staffed with a team of architects, master planners, interior designers, problem solvers, and innovators, Resident has a proven track record of adding value through high-quality, cost-effective designs.

In the early days of the practice, the firm used to rely on unscientific methods when deciding on quotes for projects. “We’d use industry data, and scribble numbers in our notebooks to try and come up with quotes that we thought were correct, and would allow us to turn a profit,” said Resident Director, Chris Parker. “We had our methods, but what we didn’t have was accurate and usable historical data relating to what we charged for similar projects. This would’ve helped us arrive at reasonable quotes for current opportunities much more quickly.”

In an effort to improve, Chris and his team used time-recording software and put whatever data they had into spreadsheets. However, that method of deciding on quotes was only marginally better.

“We were recording how many hours we spent on projects, but there wasn’t a satisfactory way to analyze that data,” said Chris. “We couldn’t turn that data into meaningful information to help us make an informed pricing decision. That meant that we wouldn’t know whether we were going to make or lose money on a project until the end, when it was too late to do anything about it."

To make it easier to determine the proper fee for a project, Chris needed a software platform that could leverage historical data and measure profits or losses at any point of the project.

“We needed one place to go for all of the data analytics that would help us operate profitably.”

- Chris Parker, Director