Forty stores, one spreadsheet, three versions
A retail chain has asked you to replace the air conditioning across a large number of stores over a year. Each store needs a survey, a design, sometimes landlord consent for external units, an equipment order, an install scheduled outside trading hours and a handover pack. The client's estates manager keeps a spreadsheet. You keep another. They are emailed back and forth every week, and nobody is sure which is current.
A programme is many small projects
Each store is a small project with its own constraints: shopping centre access rules, trading hours, landlord requirements, local management contacts. The programme needs a view across all of them, but the detail sits per store. Spreadsheets handle the overview badly and the detail worse.
Retail and hospitality clients also have constraints that change store by store: some sites allow work only after close, some sit in shopping centres with their own contractor rules, some have landlords who must approve anything on the roof or the rear wall.
- Store surveys and designs are filed in email.
- Landlord consents and centre approvals are tracked loosely.
- Equipment orders are not linked to store install dates.
- Out-of-hours install windows are agreed by email with each store.
- The client receives weekly spreadsheets that do not match yours.
What a messy programme costs
Installs delayed because a consent or approval was not in place. Equipment ordered for stores whose dates moved. Engineers arriving at stores that were not expecting them. The estates manager losing confidence in the programme and in you. And your programme manager spending the week reconciling rather than managing.
Programmes also run into the client's own changes: stores that close, refits that move, managers who change. When the tracker is shared, those changes reach you as they happen instead of in next week's spreadsheet.
The programme tracker we build
- Each store has a record: address, contacts, access rules, trading hours, landlord or centre requirements, and its systems.
- Stages per store are set from a template: survey, design, approvals, order, install, commissioning, handover. Each stage has an owner and a date.
- Survey results, designs, consents and documents are attached to the store's stages.
- Equipment orders are linked to each store's install date, and date changes flag the order.
- Engineers get the store's access notes and contacts in their app, and commissioning and handover documents file back to the store record.
- The client's estates team has a read-only view with progress per store and across the programme, replacing the weekly spreadsheet.
| Programme element | Spreadsheets and email | Programme tracker |
|---|---|---|
| Store details | Scattered | One record per store |
| Stages | Columns updated weekly | Owned stages with dates |
| Approvals | Email chains | Attached and tracked |
| Equipment | Separate order list | Linked to install dates |
| Client reporting | Emailed spreadsheet | Live shared view |
A programme both sides can see
The estates manager checks progress without asking. Your programme manager manages exceptions rather than versions. Engineers arrive where they are expected, with access arranged. Orders follow dates. And at the end, every store has a complete record of its new systems, ready for the maintenance contract that often follows.
The maintenance contract that often follows a programme also starts on firm ground, because each store's systems, commissioning records and handover documents are already structured per site.
Signs your programme needs a tracker
- Programme status is kept in spreadsheets emailed with the client.
- Installs have slipped because a consent was not in place.
- Equipment has arrived for stores whose dates moved.
- Engineers have arrived at stores that were not expecting them.
- Your programme manager spends much of the week reconciling.