The advantages of smart offices – Using technology to enhance the workplace
Smart Offices are incredibly important now more than ever. Most business processes can be automated thanks to enriched computing power and bandwidth speeds. The internet has become one of the most vital parts of businesses because it has allowed people to be more productive and get more of their job done quickly.
There are many benefits that come with Smart Offices, and we are going to cover 5 in this article.
Visitor Management
Having people come to your office for a meeting can mean great things for your business, provided that everything goes swimmingly and without anything that hinders the visitor’s experience in your company. This includes getting a convenient parking space and security checks. If these are a problem for the visitor in question, then it is unlikely to end well.
Luckily, modern smart office technology can connect separate systems and processes to improve a visitor’s experience with your company. The meeting invite can include a car parking space number and security information can be shared in advance in order to breeze through the building and get to work.
Effortless Navigation
Many different companies have large headquarters, just take a look at Apple’s 2.8 million square foot for example. It is massive and, presumably, difficult to find your way around.
In the past, offices generally included a reception and a few meeting rooms which made life straightforward when getting from A to B. However, newer offices require more rooms such as breakout rooms, cafeterias, social areas and locker rooms.
This can prove to be quite the predicament from the perspective of a visitor or new employee, which is why modern wayfinding screens are important. With these, anyone can find the information they need, such as which rooms are currently unavailable, where certain people are and what rooms are book-able.
Environmental Impacts
When asked by a survey in 2017, employees claimed that the most useful features of a smart office were the environmental aspects, unsurprisingly enough. The main features pointed out were:
- Self-adjusting lights and window shades
- Having personalised heat and light settings follow you around the building
- Circadian lighting systems
- Heat and lighting systems that adjust depending on the actual weather
This makes complete sense, considering that staff wish to be comfortable when working. Even if you haven’t experienced it, you can imagine that having the sun beam directly into your face when staring at a computer screen can become a tad inconvenient after a while.
Personal Health and Wellbeing
Smart offices and health. How do they correlate?
Great question. You see, sitting down for hours with no other impactful movement isn’t exactly good for you. Often, employees will get into a rhythm and forget to have a drink, eat some food or give themselves a break.
This is why employers can track staff’s movements and notify them when they need a break, food or a drink. However, 57% of employees see this as a slight invasion of privacy and find it unacceptable.
Desk and Room Availability
As it transpires, finding available desks and meeting rooms is the most infuriating inconvenience of people’s working days. This is where cloud-based booking software comes into play. You see, the inconveniences of searching the entire property for an appropriate and available space to present your meeting can all be avoided by simply doing it online.
But this is where it gets impressive. As well as scheduling meetings and reserving desks, you can attach panels to the wall outside meeting rooms to give unsuspecting passers-by information, so they know what is going on and how long it will last.
Isn’t it amazing? Smart offices are constantly developing and becoming more popular.
For more information about our Smart office technologies, get in touch with our team of experts – key-digital.co.uk/contact/
