When it comes to commercial real estate projects, quality lighting can make all the difference in elevating your client’s experience. In addition to enhancing the aesthetic appeal, a well-designed lighting system can improve your building’s net operating income by increasing lease rates while simultaneously lowering energy costs. The right lighting can provide your building with a competitive advantage and increase its value.
Yet, often times, project stakeholders end up cutting corners on the lighting specs and settling with a set of products that fall short of meeting their objectives or overpaying to achieve their objectives. Our research shows that over 80% of the time, the lighting products that end up installed in the space are not the ones that the designers and owners originally intended to use. Why? Because the traditional process of specifying and procuring lighting solutions is broken.
The Traditional Process
In the traditional process of specifying and acquiring lighting for a commercial building, ownership starts by assembling their design team. Although the design team is usually highly qualified to specify the proper types of lighting, they tend to be disconnected from the product price points and lead times available from multiple manufacturers. It is only after the design is complete and the job has been bid by contractors that the actual cost of the specified lighting is understood. 80% of the time, that cost ends up being substantially more than what has been budgeted. And often times, many of the specified products are not available within the lead time required by the project. Compounding the problem is the fact that line item pricing is not provided by the contractors, so ownership has no means to determine why the costs are out of line. High prices and product availabilities result in multiple plan reworks, which could have been avoided with better information and assistance early on. The net results are the design’s intent being sacrificed, cost overruns remaining, and project schedules being negatively impacted.
Based on this typical lighting process, Monterey Lighting Solutions has identified three main pain points that project stakeholders face.
Pain Points and The Monterey Way
1. Lack of transparency on pricing and availability
Line item pricing is rarely provided. Pricing is provided for the full bill of material, referred to as “lot pricing”. Product lead times are often not understood until it is too late, and the project timeline is negatively impacted.
How Monterey Solved This
Our clients have insight into product price points and lead times from multiple manufacturers early on. We work alongside the design team throughout the entire design phase and offer various product and pricing options for each design component based on the design intent. Lighting products are then vetted based on lead times to ensure that product lead time will not cause delays in the project schedule. Our transparency on pricing and availability in the beginning stages of a project eliminate the need for project reworks during the construction phase.
2. Inability of ownership to make informed decisions
The majority of lighting products specified for commercial buildings are available from multiple high-quality manufacturers. Yet, ownership rarely has the ability to compare price points or to determine how they want to allocate their budget across various design aspects of the project.
How Monterey Solved This
As an extension of our client’s team, we provide expert advice and an inside look into product costs. Combined with early insight into price points and lead times, owners are able to make informed decisions on how to best allocate their budget to ensure that important design elements are met. With better information and early assistance, we bridge the information gap so that projects can be completed on time and within budget without sacrificing quality or design.
3. Fragmented supply chain
There is no single point of contact on lighting from design to completion. A growing disconnect within the supply chain results in friction between key partners and zero accountability for the project.
How Monterey Solved This
From design to completion, the Monterey team serves as a single point of contact to handle all requests and concerns related to lighting. By establishing open lines of communication throughout the supply chain, our clients are able to directly engage with us to get things done without finger-pointing or having to go through multiple layers. We take responsibility for all aspects of the lighting process in order to streamline the traditional process and eliminate unnecessary friction for our clients.
Conclusion
At Monterey Lighting Solutions, our goal is to be a trusted lighting advisor to our clients. Our years of experience have helped us optimize the process for specifying and procuring lighting for large commercial real estate projects. Based on a foundation of proactive project management and consistent, timely delivery, our optimized process has brought savings of 40% or more on lighting for our clients.
With the Monterey Way, the traditional bidding and buying process is simplified, giving way to a more efficient and proactive project management. Ready to take the frustration out of sourcing lighting for your project? Take the first step with Monterey Lighting Solutions today.
