Before specifying anything else, the model choice comes first: the Oak Mobile with its solid oak frame and matte SatinTones colours, or the Mobile with its combination of white enamel and optional PET-felt. Still deciding, read which Chameleon mobile whiteboard fits your team first. Once the model is settled, the rest of the order is mostly a matter of matching colour, size and accessories to the room the board is going into.

State clearly how many boards are needed and which rooms they’re for. An office typically orders one or a small number of boards for specific meeting rooms or flexible desks, while a school might order several at once, for example one per classroom in a new wing. Specify per room whether a consistent colour is wanted throughout, or whether different colours would actually help distinguish rooms or departments visually. The more clearly this is set out upfront, the less needs to be worked out after delivery. It’s also worth noting whether any rooms are still under construction or awaiting final sign-off, since this affects when delivery can realistically happen for those specific boards without the entire order being held up waiting on a single unfinished room.

For the Oak Mobile, choose from fifteen SatinTones pastel colours and a width of either 92 cm or 122 cm. For the Mobile, decide the balance between white enamel and PET-felt: fully double-sided enamel, enamel on one side and PET-felt on the other, or a partial split of one-third PET-felt and two-thirds enamel on both sides. Record this choice per board, especially for multi-board orders, so the supplier isn’t left guessing which configuration belongs in which room.

If the board is going into a space where noise is a factor, such as an open-plan office floor or a busy school corridor, specify explicitly whether a PET-felt side is wanted. Chameleon’s PET-felt, made from 60% recycled PET bottles, has an NRC rating of 0.30 and is tested to EN 13501 fire safety standards. For schools placing several boards in the same corridor or open learning space, this is a detail that’s difficult to change after the fact, so it’s worth deciding before placing the order rather than discovering later that an acoustic side would have been useful.

Offices benefit from thinking room by room rather than treating a mobile whiteboard order as a single generic purchase. A client-facing reception area or boardroom often calls for the Oak Mobile’s representative SatinTones finish, while an internal project room used for daily stand-ups might be better served by the Mobile’s simpler, more functional enamel surface. If several teams share a floor and move boards between spaces regularly, it’s worth ordering a slightly higher quantity than the minimum needed, so a board is always available rather than being tracked down from another floor whenever it’s needed. Facilities teams placing a recurring order across several floors also benefit from keeping a simple record of which model and colour went where, making it far easier to reorder an identical board later without re-deriving the original specification from memory.

Specify any accessories needed so everything arrives together. The whiteboard starter kit is a sensible addition for getting started immediately, and for teams working with scrum or a similar visual method, the scrumkit is worth considering. Including accessories in the same quote request avoids a separate order and a separate delivery later.

A mobile whiteboard doesn’t need a contractor to install it. The Oak Mobile arrives fully pre-assembled, with the panel already fitted to its castor base, ready for use within minutes of unpacking. When ordering multiple boards, specify whether delivery should happen all at once or in phases per room, particularly if not every room is ready to receive a board on the same date. That avoids boards sitting in storage waiting for the right room to be finished.

An incomplete specification doesn’t stop an order from being processed, but it does mean extra back and forth before the order can be finalised, which adds time to the overall lead time rather than saving it. Missing details like colour, width or acoustic preference are the most common gaps, and each one requires a follow-up question before the quote can be confirmed. For a straightforward single-board order this costs a day or two; for a multi-room school order, incomplete specifications on even a handful of rooms can meaningfully delay the entire delivery, since suppliers generally wait for a complete, confirmed specification across the full order before scheduling production and delivery.

Before sending the order through, run through the main points: model per room, quantity, colour and width for the Oak Mobile or the enamel-to-PET-felt ratio for the Mobile, whether acoustics matter, which accessories to include, and how delivery should be phased. Checking these upfront takes a few extra minutes but avoids finding a mismatch after the boards have already been in use for a few weeks. It also helps to write this checklist down rather than keeping it in conversation, since a documented specification is far easier to hand to a colleague or a procurement system than a verbal agreement that relies on everyone remembering the same details the same way.

For larger offices and schools, the person writing the specification and the person approving the budget are rarely the same individual, so it helps to be clear about who signs off on what before the order is finalised. A facilities manager might decide on model and colour, while a department head or headteacher approves the quantity and budget. Agreeing this structure before the quote request goes out avoids a situation where the order is specified in full, only to be sent back for changes once a different stakeholder reviews it at a later stage. For procurement processes that require a formal purchase order, it’s also worth confirming in advance which internal reference numbers or cost centres need to appear on the final invoice, so the order isn’t held up on an administrative detail after everything else has already been agreed.

Schools often order around a fixed point in the calendar, for example before the summer break so new classrooms are complete for the start of term. For multi-classroom orders, factor in the lead time from quote to delivery and request a quote well ahead of the desired completion date rather than right before it. For orders covering several classrooms at once, it also helps to have one point of contact within the school who coordinates the specification per room, rather than needing separate contact with each individual classroom.

Ordering a mobile whiteboard to replace an existing fixed or damaged board is a slightly different exercise than adding entirely new capacity. When replacing, it’s worth checking the room’s current layout and confirming the new board’s footprint and width won’t create a pinch point where the old one didn’t, particularly in rooms that have been rearranged since the original board was installed. It also helps to plan the removal of the old board around the delivery of the new one, so the room isn’t left without a writing surface for longer than necessary. For schools replacing boards across multiple classrooms as part of a wider refurbishment, staggering removal and delivery room by room, rather than removing every old board before any replacements arrive, keeps teaching spaces usable throughout the transition.

Both models carry a lifetime guarantee on perfect writing and erasing and a two-year guarantee on construction and defects. For schools and organisations that need to document sustainability as part of a procurement or tender process, note that the Oak Mobile’s solid oak frame is FSC certified and that CO2 emissions across Chameleon’s production are fully offset. These details sit on the product pages, but it’s worth including them in the internal request or procurement file directly, rather than needing to look them up again later. Keeping this documentation attached to the purchase order itself, rather than filed separately, makes it far easier to produce during a later audit or sustainability review without having to track the supplier down again months or years after delivery.

A single mobile whiteboard is usually a straightforward purchasing decision, approved quickly without much process. An order covering ten or more boards across multiple rooms is a different scale of decision, and it’s worth treating the budgeting process accordingly. Confirm whether the purchase needs to be split across multiple cost centres or departments, since a school ordering boards for several year groups may need to allocate the cost differently than a single department purchase would require. Getting this internal budgeting question answered before requesting a formal quote avoids a completed, ready-to-order specification stalling at the final approval stage simply because the paperwork wasn’t prepared for a purchase of that size.

Lead time tends to stretch with order size, not just because more units need to be produced, but because a larger order is more likely to include a mix of colours, finishes and accessory combinations, each of which needs to be confirmed before production can start. For a time-sensitive delivery date, it’s worth building in a buffer beyond the quoted lead time, particularly for orders placed close to a school’s summer break, when demand across the sector tends to peak and suppliers are managing several similar deadlines at once. Requesting a quote a few weeks earlier than strictly necessary rarely costs anything, while requesting one too late can mean a delivery date that slips past the date boards were actually needed.

With model, quantity, colour, surface configuration and any accessories specified, requesting a quote is quick. Submit your specification via our mobile whiteboard quote page, or browse the full range first to compare one more time before ordering.

Ready to place your order? Browse Chameleon’s full range of mobile whiteboards and get in touch with your completed specification.