In March 30th, Ms Van has contacted us to create her first mini market ever “BLUE OLIVE MART” a grocery store supply healthy and high end quality products in downtown Ho Chi Minh city.

It is also a Connecty's first super market project that we achieved to plan with a very challenging timeline of one month! See below what were the difficulties, solutions and opportunities we shared with Van and her partner Mr Tri.

STEP 1: Understanding of the project brief, budget and timeline

As first step for any projects, we start to fully understand the purpose of the project, budget and timeline. Van’s requirements were:

1. Modern interior design (concept, 2D layout and 3D render) with great quality equipment and materials to display her high end groceries mostly imported from Europe,

2. Total budget of 22,000 USD

3. Timeline: To finish a.s.a.p. within a month!

STEP 2: Design Phase

Van and Tri had a high expectation about the design and expected a lot about this project, their ideas were having Feng Shui elements, light-full to prioritize a well-being effect and having a clear view of the articles on display. We took time to exchange and advice them about different conceivable directions.

After gathering the information and clearly understood the design brief, our team went to measure the existing building. The difficult challenge on this project was the timeline, only a month which is extremely short. So we took the risk to accept the project while working in the design direction including layout, color palette and material board matching the budget in the same time as starting the construction that we were also managing.

STEP 3: Construction phase and managing the difficulties

Due to the tight project timeline and the house rent, Connecty pushed to manage in both design and construction at the same time. Doing construction while detailed design and drawings were not finalized was a big challenge and requires flexibility and adaptability to manage the project.

Tri was based in Germany and couldn’t come to Vietnam due to the Covid 19 situation which brought more difficulties in term of communication, coordination and making decision.

Van and Tri also expressed their anxiety which is a part of a such investment, especially without knowing the final design and build in the same time. It was the risk we took to follow the deadline.

Another example is the confirmation of the store equipment. During the project Van had to fly to Hanoi. Exactly during her stay in Hanoi, a new Covid wave hit the capital city and Van got delayed her flight back to Saigon several times. Connecty was waiting for Van to go double check fridges for the store and provide the specifications for Connecty to complete the MEP and floor plan work. We had to adjust the work schedule and prioritize other construction tasks to adapt to this unexpected issue.

STEP 4: The Project Management company value

With the experience of more than 100 projects, Connecty can help the client with 4 aspects :
- Scope of work: Understanding the brief from the client and the project’s goal, PM can advise the clients what is possible to do and what’s not in terms of design and budget. Managing changes and controlling the risk/barrier to secure the progress so the project can move forward.
- Time: meeting the deadline at all costs despite all unforeseen barriers. Inform if any problems affected the timeline and give the solutions to the clients to meet the common goal.
- Budget: There were so many hidden costs that the client could not see. With experience working with the contractors, the PM can help to make it clear and transparent right at the beginning and even if there are any problems, the PM can take responsibility to meet what is agreed upon.
In overall, doing works that mentioned above will ensure the project’s quality,
- Communication: managing one decision maker here in HCMC is not and easy task but managing and coordinating the communication between two decision makers in Vietnam and in Germany while keeping the project timeline is even more challenging and definitely a PM team to make things go at smooth as possible, move forward on the project to make it happens.