PlanSCAPE® is a service provided by Virco Mfg. Corporation to assist facility professionals in schools with their large scale furniture and equipment acquisitions. Through this free service, PlanSCAPE experts work with facility professionals through the stages of choosing and purchasing furnishings for their new and existing facilities. This process includes: Needs Assessment, Budget Planning, Contract Procurement, and Project Management.
When conducting the Needs Assessment, experienced PlanSCAPE® professionals work with the school to assess specific needs and requirements. And Virco’s vast product inventory provides an added advantage of desirable lead times for thousands of furniture and equipment items.
In the Budget Planning stage, the PlanSCAPE budget analysis compares the features, benefits, and prices of competing products, helping facility professionals target the specific combination of furniture and equipment that makes sense for their school. This serves to maximize financial resources.
Along with the budget analysis, a PlanSCAPE project evaluation generates a summary of all the products the facility professional has targeted for purchase. At the customer’s request, the PlanSCAPE team can also provide a reference list of competing products from other manufacturers.
For Contract Procurement, PlanSCAPE enables facilities to use the state or national contract that best suits their situation. This enables schools to purchase furniture and equipment at advantageous prices. Virco notes that compared to all the aspects involved in the bidding process, contract procurement is an effective way to save time and money.
PlanSCAPE also allows schools to purchase furniture and equipment featured on the U.S. Communities contract. As the most comprehensive, detailed contract—and the only national contract —for use by schools, U.S. Communities has more products than any other contract to address FF&E needs.
During the Project Management phase, Virco professionals work with and communicate with facilities managers to ensure a successful project.
For greater efficiency, the PlanScape professionals can consolidate products from various manufacturers at the Virco warehouse closest to the customer’s school. (These manufacturers include Community, Fleetwood Group Inc., Ghent Manufacturing Inc., High Point Furniture, Invincible, Leonard Peterson & Co., Inc., Library Bureau, Waddell, Media Technologies, Republic Storage Systems Company, Russwood Library, Sandusky-Lee, Shain Shop-Bilt, Smith Systems, Waddell, and Wood Designs.) In addition to minimizing the risk of freight damage, consolidation provides the benefit of fewer deliveries, shortening the time to completion.
