Following a review of the furniture acquisition process, the University Secretariat and Legal Counsel, together with key stakeholders, has made a number of changes and improvements to the way staff can make their requests for a new filing cabinet, desk, chair, or a whole new office suite.

“The Queen’s community places thousands of furniture orders per year, so centralizing this contract means substantial time and cost savings for the university,” says Yvonne Holland, Director of Lease and Contract Management. “Under this new process, those seeking to place furniture orders now enjoy greater selection, lower costs, and faster turnaround. I want to thank all those who helped us investigate this challenge and create this new resource for the Queen’s community.”

Ms. Holland’s team inherited responsibility for this contract in the fall of 2017, and formed an interdepartmental team to study the issue. The team created a Request for Supplier Quote and, following the public tender, three vendors were selected in the spring.

As part of this new contract, the vendors are bringing new furniture options and a host of new furniture services to the Queen’s community. These include storage options, and drawing services to help plan out office layouts. In addition, annual report cards will be generated by Queen’s to log the performance of each vendor, and inform future purchases.

“At the library we are continuously updating our spaces based on our user needs and feedback. This new service package gives us greater choice in design, and offers price point comparisons from vendors," says Nancy Petri, Manager, Finance and Administrative Operations with the Library. "Services such as a quick ship also provide us with greater flexibility when time is of the essence. This new furniture acquisitions process helps us do an even better job of meeting the needs of the Queen’s community.”

The online furniture order forms can be found at www.queensu.ca/forms. Next, the team hopes to design a similar process for larger furniture orders, and roll out a furniture acquisition and installation toolkit.

If you have questions about this new process, or if you have a university lease or license agreement which you would like reviewed, please contact Yvonne Holland from the University Secretariat, Leasing and Contract Management at hollandy@queensu.ca or 613 533-6000 x77906.