Flexible office spaces tend to emphasise the aesthetics. Whether it’s a rooftop garden or a sleek interior designed to excite the hippest of hipsters – it’s easy to get carried away and choose a space on its looks, and not its facilities.
Yes, your working environment is important, but you need to make sure you have the technical tools to get your work done as effectively and efficiently as possible. Whether you want an eye-wateringly fast internet connection, easy 24/7 access to your space or an intuitive way to book and use it – we have found five of the world’s very best spaces where technology is taking flexible working to a new level.
A Haven For Wireless Tech
Metro Offices offers private and shared office spaces in nine locations across DC, Maryland and Virginia. Technology is a priority across each space, as Elizabeth Langley, VP, Technology and Federal Operations at Metro Offices, explained:
“To operate our workspaces, a few of the most important tools we utilize are a Tier 1 fiber internet service, an internally managed VoIP telephony platform, one-click presentation technology, multiple software platforms and state of the art ingress/egress access system to allow for 24/7 meetings. Plus redundancy at every turn.”
Apart from fast, secure and reliable internet, its members are increasingly interested in meeting presentation technology, according to Langley, who added:
“At Metro Offices gone are the days of jumbled cables and crawling on your hands and knees under a conference room table, or stringing a HDMI or power cord booby trap across the room for someone to trip over. Our investment in wireless and reliable user friendly devices has allowed our workers to focus on the content of the meeting, not the technology supporting it.”
There’s An App For That
The Executive Centre (TEC) has more than 100 centres across 27 major cities around the Asia-Pacific region and it recently launched the TEC app. Chelsea Perino, Global Marketing Director at The Executive Centre, said:
“Members are able to book meeting rooms and hot desks through the app, which then automatically populates monitors in the physical centres to indicate when specific rooms are occupied and by whom.”
TEC also helps its members to customise the IT infrastructure for their offices, in order to ensure they have exactly what they need to run efficiently, whether that’s custom server racks, telephone systems, and/or wifi. Many of its centres have also migrated to a keyless entry system, allowing members to access the centre and their offices through the app.
“Internally, we use several different systems to manage our internal communications and operations. From connecting with members, to managing tenancies, these systems are key in ensuring our operations are efficient and effective. We recently developed the TEC app because our members were looking for more efficient ways to book meeting rooms. We have big plans for this app and look to add many more features that will further improve the TEC experience and facilitate communication by the end of 2017,” Perino added.
Sealed With a KISI
Link Coworking has three locations in the Austin area and uses a range of technology to meet its members’ needs. Its Link Too space is open 24/7 and uses biometric readers for members to gain access
Liz Elam, Entrepreneur and Owner of Link Coworking and Founder of GCUC, said:
“We are currently have a love affair with KISI – I went from antiquated biometric readers to smartphone entry access system and it’s been wonderful. We use a hodge podge of a bunch of different technology to manage our space.”
Linked Coworking has been open almost seven years and has “a very stable and manageable process for everything”, according to Elam, who added: “Finding a reasonably priced, reliable local IT resource is the main challenge I have with technology. It’s not a tech problem, it’s a human problem.”
