Space management – one more on the list of “must haves”
All throughout the pandemic and even now, we’ve heard about tools such as video conferencing and how they were now more than ever before critical for the remote based work environment and how their usage increased as well as new players on the scene. We’re even seeing the shifts in general being made by businesses and industries to support this trend that – to some degree – is here to stay. As already written by us numerous times however, the office & any place of work / gathering is far from dead and in fact space / real estate is undergoing somewhat of a renaissance as well pointed out by this venturebeat article and illustrated with this hierarchy of real estate needs:
Going to work is making a comeback, what’s the point?
There is no question – and not even a need to reference a source in this case – that the way people are returning to a physical place of engagement whether for work, school, events or any other purpose has changed. Now safety standards within these places are paramount, protecting the users within them; however, unlike the “loud shouting” made by tech companies during the quarantine period, the degree to which industries that should be yelling now about how they are “must haves” for this new stage varies. We are reading a lot now about new tech or at least new uses for tech such as fever detection (i.e. thermal cameras). All of this tech is great for a specific stage, but even that can’t ensure full safety especially as carriers of covid-19 don’t necessarily display symptoms.
As a species, we seem to love our new tech and talking about AI this and bio that, but let’s look at the fundamentals of what is actually critical right now and that is the ability to effectively manage a space and the people within it as well as the resources (such as access to hygiene & disinfectant products) so that with minimal interaction and effort, people have access to the space they need and the amenities that make their experience safe and comfortable.
By now you probably already figured out where I am going with these points, but what may surprise you is what I am about to say next: I am disappointed with the space & hotdesking management industry (of which we are part of) not pushing harder right now in terms of PR, promotion, education (of need), voice etc. as a mandatory tool in this new era, when in fact we should be. Not just for the sake of us increasing our revenue as an industry (let’s be honest, this is always nice), but more importantly that now more than ever before a platform like ours had gone from a “nice to have, let’s see if we have the budget” to a “we need to have this in order to compliantly utilize our space”.
With increasing amounts of inquiries now coming in for “trending out of necessity” solutions, such as hot desks (whose management we support with ease), it is becoming increasingly evident that our industry is what video conferencing was for remote working, we are now the equivalent for the physical space. Sorry, we don’t have any machine learning this or cool device that (and in fact we have enabled a reduced usage of devices to comply with contact-less needs now), but what we do have as an industry is a platform that will let you easily open that office, school, laboratory or just insert a space here of your liking. Personally, that ability with an easy & intuitive platform is a big deal, and who knows, maybe in the future we’ll add in a holograph guide for selecting rooms as developments in technology are starting to support this as a reality.
Until then, you can expect to hear more from us here at Roomzilla as we push part of our mission – in this case enabling the safe usage of space – forward as one of our main goals.
