Outsourced Workspace Technology Part III: Choosing your Technology Partner

By Steve Eveleigh, Chief Marketing Officer, essensys

Part I and II of this series prove a valid business case around partnering with technology experts to deliver workspace software and infrastructure. However, how do you decide who is the best partner? Vetting and selecting a technology partner is a taxing responsibility for any flexible or shared workspace CEO, IT Manager or center director. Like any business partnership, decision-makers must evaluate the specific needs of the business, long-term goals within their marketplace, and the value of services against their budget.

Be ready to assess the contenders based on their experience and knowledgeability within the industry sector, their capabilities today and their vision for the future. Service, stability and customer testimonials are also key factors to consider when determining which vendor will best suit your needs.

Service should be an operator's main concern when shopping for the best shared workspace technology solution and here's why.

BY DAVID KINNAIRD, PRESIDENT, N. AMERICA, ESSENSYS

Part 2 of How to Drive Revenue and Delight Members by Outsourcing Your Workspace Technology

Technology can be complicated, and even more so when it involves multi-tenanted infrastructure delivery and support. Operators have historically approached workspace IT – network configuration, VLANs, Wi-Fi, wired connectivity, and telephony – in a variety of ways: from third-parties to multiple vendors and hiring dedicated IT staff to manage their infrastructure. Most experienced operators' approach consists of multiple, disparate systems that don’t speak to each other and require comprehensive contract management and multiple (and expensive!) invoices from a wide variety of vendors.

David Kinnaird, President, essensys N. America, has joined the Board of the Global Workspace Association (GWA). This time last year it was announced David would lead essensys' United States operation. With a successful 2016 and now, his appointment to the GWA board, David has been well received among our friends and peers in the US Shared Workspace industry. 

We sat down with David to find out about his new role with the GWA. Here's what he had to say... 

BY STEVE EVELEIGH, CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER, ESSENSYS

BY BEN CROUCH, CHIEF PRODUCT OFFICER, ESSENSYS

Part 1 of How to Drive Revenue and Delight Members by Outsourcing Your Workspace Technology

The growth of shared workspaces has accelerated rapidly over the last decade. This period of rapid growth meant that service, technology and software providers to the workspace industry struggled to keep up with the requirements of both experienced multi-site operators and new single site startups. This in turn, resulted in operators who are confronted with manual processes and generic software which damages both their operational efficiency and overall customer experience.

BY AMANDA FANOUN, MARKETING LEAD, US

essensys co-hosted the first “reverse Coworking” event in New York in collaboration with the U.K. Department for International Trade (DIT), bringing together NYC Coworking operators and U.K. startups for a networking happy hour over British pub fare and beverages. With a mission to promote British trade throughout the world, the U.K. DIT serves as a valuable resource to UK-based startups settling in New York, the largest market of its 90 global locations. There is a host of opportunity for businesses on both sides of the Atlantic but very often the process isn’t as easy as meets the eye.

We’re well into the New Year and, as typically does, with it comes the New Year, New Me thought process. We resolve to self-betterment and to change our old habits and get healthy. Many approach their health resolutions with a detox. But, what exactly is a detox?

We asked Allan Darvill, our very own Chief Health & Wellbeing Officer, for pointers to stay on track with our New Years Resolutions...

The definition of detox is when you stop consuming unhealthy or harmful food, drink or other substances into your body for a period of time in order to improve your health. The main organs that help us detox are our skin, intestines, liver and kidneys. There is no magic pill, shake or supplement that will help us detox, it’s a simple formula to follow:

Managing a Shared Workspace of any sort - business center, incubator, accelerator, or coworking site - is no easy task considering the multiple aspects of the business that operators must juggle. Often, resources are tight and budgets are small, forcing you to focus solely on the minimal required operational tasks. When it comes to dos-and-don’ts to managing and growing your business, we’ve identified nine key steps in a condensed version of our recent 9-Part Lead to Cash series. Master these pillars for a well-oiled money making serviced office operation and, most importantly, happy members.