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Dr.Herbert Falk established Dr. Falk Pharma GmbH in the
family-owned Herdern-Pharmacy in Freiburg in 1960. The company started out with
Hepatofalk®, a herbal medicine for supportive liver therapy and then went
on to specialize in the development and launch of medicines for gastroenterology
and hepatology. The company has grown substantially, and by 2005 Dr. Falk preparations
are distributed in more than 60 countries worldwide. The company still
continue to place great importance on maintaining their reputation
as a reliable partner, and they hope to continue their success
story as gut and liver specialists, particularly in the fields of inflammatory
bowel diseases and cholestatic liver diseases, well into the new millennium.
The Relocation Bureau was chosen as consultants to Dr Falk
Pharma GmbH, with the task of assisting their new UK Managing Director (and
at the time their only UK employee) in locating suitable office premises, and
in then being project managers for the setting up of the new office.
Bourne End Location Map
Our initial task was to locate and acquire a suitable
office building of some 1500 to 2000 sq ft, generally to the West or North-West
of Central London and outside the M25, within a 30 minute drive of Heathrow
airport, and offering easy access to the UK motorway network.
We defined the target
area using postcodes, and then registered the requirement with every commercial
agent both in the local area, and also in Central London. We then built
a shortlist of available properties, graded each for potential suitability,
and then individually inspected each of those properties on our "A"
list, emailing an
inspection report to our client at his then base in the North of England.
Selection of the final
choice was completed in a single day's "office hunt", with accompanied
viewing of the top six shortlisted properties. The chosen site was the
Bourne Park office development in Bourne End, a new development of some
15 small office units, close to the town centre, with the rail station
opposite and access to the M40 being only a five minute drive.
We negotiated acceptable
terms with the developer's sales agent, and our client's solicitor completed
the acquisition some six weeks later.
Our project management work started in earnest as soon
as Heads Of Terms were agreed on the acquisition. Our first task was space
planning, producing a design that would incorporate a conference room, storage,
a server room, small kitchen and management offices into the two storey
building. Once the basic design was agreed with the client, we started to
plan the electrical and IT infrastructure, including floor boxes and full
CAT5e cabling, together with alterations to the existing comfort cooling
that would provide cooling in the server room, conference room, and the
management offices. We then produced draft budgets, and agreed these with
the client, before seeking competitive quotations from our service partners
for the works.
Work started at the property on the day after completion of the acquisition,
and the basic works were completed just two weeks later. Full IT hook-up
to the parent company servers in Heidelberg were achieved two weeks later
once BT were able to provide a bonded DSL service.
Handover - On Time & Under Budget
Our service partners and their contribution to the project are detailed
below.
Service Partner: Interior Transformation Solutions
Contact: Bruce Taylor Phone: 0118-950-0225 Email: BruceTaylor.its@bromarpeak.com
Supply, installation and setup of dual HP DL360 servers, office workstations
and sales force laptops.
Router, firewall and bonded DSL setup to provide a VPN connection to
the corporate headquarters in Germany and for remote users.
Veritas backup to HP Storageworks Ultrium 230, with UPS for business continuity.
Ongoing user support and maintenance.
