Roomzilla – Mid-year update

Hell of a six months

First half of 2020 just passed and we have decided to prepare a short summary on what’s been going on here at Roomzilla. Needless to say, the last few months have been full of surprises and no one had a clue about challenges the world was about to face waking up on January 1st after the New Year’s Eve celebrations. We’ve been through (and in many cases still are in) a global pandemic caused by the COVID-19 outbreak. Add to that: riots and society clashes around the entire USA, world-wide economic recession and lockdowns, and the picture is not as pleasant as one would hope. These are all unprecedented events in the world’s most recent history. So, what conclusions can we already draw from the first half of 2020? What has changed and what is going to stick around for the long term? Obviously, we stay away from being know-it-all “prophets” and predicting the future, but want to share a few insights, news and interesting changes from our perspective as well.

Permanent change in the way we work

It’s now safe to say that the way we do our business has changed significantly. Employees around the world moved away from their physical offices to their homes and apartments. Usage of tools enhancing collaboration and communication have seen a surge in demand as never before (we’ve been already covering that in our previous article). The ‘home office’ has become a new normal and standard for many companies that haven’t considered this way of working just a few months prior. It seems inevitable that changes applied to fight the spread of the virus are going to stick around for good (or at the very least, the foreseeable future).

New features requests

With the global work approach shifting, we started to experience the new wave of demand for scheduling software such as ours. More and more inquiries incoming to Roomzilla tend to focus and highlight the necessity of maintaining social distancing regulations and ensuring employees safety. Unlike ever before, minimizing distance and limiting social interactions between coworkers have become a new ‘must’ for the majority of enterprises. Here’s the list of features in highest demand right now according to our internal data:

1. Hot desks
   Hot desking started to gain interest a few years ago, especially with the coworking spaces boom around the world; however, in the post-pandemic world, this feature has become a highly desired one. It comes as no surprise once we realize that companies have already started to re-invite their staff back to work, but need to adjust offices and spaces to comply with social distancing and safety regulations. Hot desks management comes with great help to ensure the number of people simultaneously staying in the office. It ensures that workspaces are not over-crowded and social distancing is enforced.
2. Contactless scheduling
   Limiting one’s interaction with the workplace has become a necessity nowadays. Companies started to pay more attention to the way their employees use office resources such as conference rooms, privacy booths, amenities, and equipment. With no-crowding rules still imposed it’s become vital for everyone to be able to book a particular workspace resource without having to do it physically. Web-based bookings, backed up with personal mobile devices usage ensures one’s safety and limits the physical interaction between one another.
3. Safety checkbox lists
   Sending safety check lists prior to a meeting asking attendees to wear masks or sanitize their hands before entering the meeting spot is now on the rise. Sometimes we simply cannot avoid a face-to-face meeting, and videoconferencing doesn’t do the trick anymore. In the light of actually having to meet with colleagues or business partners in a physical location sending all attendees a digitalized checkbox of safety precautions and asking them to submit compliance reports before the meeting is now a growing interest among our clients.

What’s new for Roomzilla

Here at Roomzilla we’ve been in the very center of changes happening throughout the world. Operating within the workspace management environment has given us an insider look at the challenges companies have been facing in the last few months. However, the last few months have been very busy for us as well, and we are happy to say that – despite the whole pandemic and global lockdown – we’ve managed to accomplish key milestones within product development, changed our overseas location, and focused on the market trends & opportunities emerging from the virus outbreak. Here are the top 3 for us:

1. Deploying the new platform
   It’s been just over 15 months of hard work (and still counting) put into coding, wireframing, and preparing our new platform (i.e. Roomzilla 3.0). After many months dedicated to software development we can now say that despite the pandemic we’ve managed to deploy our brand new application. By completely redesigning its look, adding new functionalities such as maps, hot desking along with Google & Microsoft integrations, we are now ready to introduce our state-of-the-art software to the market. Take a sneak-peak on how it looks now!
2. Changing the office
   Home sweet home! We’ve finally changed our European location and moved to a brand new office just opened by our long-time partner and a client: Cambridge Innovation Center in Warsaw, Poland. We can proudly say that working with the guys from CIC has been a great experience and the new location is amazing. A side note from our side, we just equipped the office with our new Roomzilla software and support CIC’ers on a daily basis familiarizing themselves with our brand new platform.

    

3. Adjusting product roadmap
   In the light of the recent events we sat down together with our clients and started a discussion around new needs emerging from the pandemic. We tweaked our product’s roadmap so that development reflects adjusted client needs around areas such as collaboration and workflow has become a must. Further development in the areas of hot desking, contactless scheduling, and mobile have been decided upon to make it to the very top of our priority list for coming months.

All in all, it’s been an interesting, but also a challenging 6 months for us here at Roomzilla. We started the year with a very different vision and plan for next 12 months to come, but had to adjust our priorities on the way in the light of global lockdowns and shift in the way people interact with their workspaces. Once again we’ve managed to put our agile and fast-adapting approach to good use. I’m happy to say, despite the turmoil the world has been through in the last few months, we look into the future with hope and keep our eyes wide open for the new ways we can help our clients facilitate safety and well-being of their employees in their workspaces.