Saving Money the Green Way.
Rise office furniture draws on decades of experience to give pre-owned Teknion workstations a new lease on life.
Call genie is a technology company that has partnered with Yellow Pages publishers and phone service providers to offer voice based interactive directory assistance to people on the go. Information is very much the company’s stock in trade, and when Call Genie office administrator and executive assistant Yonette Alphonso was setting up a new Toronto Office for the Calgary founded enterprise, she learned something interesting: some workstation remanufactures have more to offer than others. She started out pricing new workstations and was “quite flabbergasted” by what that would cost. Then she talked to one remanufacturer who could not repaint pedestals and overheads on pre-owned furniture to match call Genie’s colour scheme. Eventually however, she connected with Rise Office furniture and got exactly what she had in mind, at a reasonable price. “They were able to accommodate every setup we wanted and everything was repainted, resurfaced and covered with new fabric.” Says Ms. Alphonso. She needed 15 workstations, and she estimates that by working with Rise instead of purchasing new furniture, Call Genie saved at least $14,000.
Based in Vaughan, ON, Rise Office Furniture specializes in remanufacturing and refurbishing Teknion’s T/O/S panel systems. It is no exaggeration to say that the Joe Melo and Paul Amaral, who founded Rise in 2002, know Teknion’s product inside and out: between the two of them they racked up 35 years experience at Teknion, where they worked in departments including welding, service, sales and management. They have a lot of respect for Teknion quality in general, and for the company’s enduring T/O/S line in particular. “T/O/S is a product that will last forever, and one of its selling points is that you can reupholster it and give it a whole new look,” says Mr. Melo. “It also handles technology well because it was designed for computers – it’s not a monolithic product made for typewriters.”
Although some of Rise’s business is for “as is” workstations – furniture that is fully cleaned before resale but on which nothing has been replaced – more customers opt for refurbished or remanufactured product. On Rise’s refurbished workstations, only the panel fabric is replaced, often for an upcharge of $200 per station. In addition to new panel fabric, remanufacturing can include new work surface laminate and the repainting of frames, overhead cabinetry and pedestals. “When you buy a remanufactured workstation from us, approximately 90% of it is reused product,” says Mr. Melo, “but it looks like new – you can’t tell the difference.” The price of pre- owned Teknion workstations from Rise is typically somewhere between 30 and 90 percent less than the cost of comparable new furniture, but Rise’s warranties are comparable to those who offered on new product.
Remanufacturing is an environmentally friendly concept to begin with; Rise makes the process even greener, and superior from a technical standpoint, by using hot melt glues and a powder-coated painting procedure in place of solvent-based glues and paint. Rise also offers recycled-content and recyclable panel fabrics from green-minded textile manufacturers Interface and Victor Innovatex.
To enhance the utility and comfort of pre-owned workstations, Rise offers new keyboards, monitor arms and other ergonomic products. The company already manufactures laminate case goods on a custom basis and plans to introduce a modular case goods line in the near future.
In addition to praising Rise’s high quality standards, furniture dealers tend to mention that the company provides outstanding service. “They have been able to cut workstations down in height for us for clients who want an open plan.” Says Britacan Facilities management Group Inc. sales representative Kevin Rochwerg. “In other instances, such as when employees are made managers and the client wants closed offices for them, Rise has been able to take [cubicle] walls right up to the ceiling by adding stack-ons that are exactly the right height.
Shawn Reid, business development manager at Summerlee Office Solutions, called Rise in on the Call Genie installation and was pleased with the range of choices Joe Melo presented. “He came over and met with the clients with us, and he walked them through some options in terms of keeping the price down. He offered everything from completely remanufactured product to replacing only the most visible elements.”
Once a client has decided how to proceed, Rise prepares complete specifications. “Whether we’re given and AutoCAD floor plan or something sketched on a piece of paper, we’ll turn it into the Teknion coding,” says Mr. Melo. “We can do a whole floor plan, and typically we’ll a 3D rendering so the client can really see what they’re getting.” As for the installation itself, Call Genie client Yonette Alphonso reports that the Rise-certified installers who handled her company’s fit-out were pleasant and efficient. To SCI interiors sales consultant Jennifer Garvin, Quick turnaround is one advantage of working with Rise. “We received an 11th-hour call on a project recently,” she says. “It was the middle of the month and the client needed workstations by the end of the month. Three weeks is the standard lead time for new product from the factory, but Joe was able to turn things around within nine business days.”
In many cases, one of the big headaches of a furniture installation is figuring out what to do with a company’s existing furniture. For Teknion T/O/S users, Rise offers a green, convenient and cost-effective solution. “We’ll take a look at what the client has and give them a credit based on it,” says Mr. Melo. “Once we’ve built their new furniture to their new spec, we’ll swap out their old furniture. The product continually gets recycled.” As the motto prominently displayed just inside the front entrance to Rise office Furniture indicates, this is a company that takes pride in “saving the environment one workstation at a time.”
