Five technology tips for landlords, corporate occupiers and property agents developing or refitting a new office space

technology tips

When it comes to developing or refitting new office space there are a number of factors to think about to ensure you get the maximum out of the space. Decisions need to be made on fit out, floor plans and furniture along with a host of other areas. One vital consideration that often doesn’t get as higher billing as it should is technology. As technology partners we regularly work closely with our customers to ensure that they recognise the importance of making tech a priority for their space. With this in mind, we decided to share our top five technology tips for landlords, corporate occupiers and property agents developing new office space.

Fibre connectivity

The first technology tip sounds obvious but ensuring you have fibre connectivity is a must. However, it’s important to remember that you need to plan ahead when installing connectivity. We recommend to our customers that they allow a minimum of three months for installation, preferably more to allow for any changes. This means that connectivity should be ordered as soon as possible to ensure that it’s ready for when your clients move in and start using the space.

Comms room

It’s a room that is often overlooked but it’s importance to the success of space is vital. You should always plan to have at least one comms room in your project, perhaps maybe two or three depending on the size of your space and the cabling required. The positioning of the comms room is important. We would recommend speaking to your tech provider about the positioning of your comms room to ensure that it’s in the best position within your building to deliver the strong, reliable connectivity that your clients demand.

Good WiFi

Good WiFi is now seen as a basic right in office space. No WiFi, or bad WiFi, equals empty space. All well and good you may think, just get a fibre connection and you can offer WiFi to your clients. However, we would always recommend getting a full WiFi site survey to ensure that you avoid any signal blackspots within the building. It’s also worth thinking about how that WiFi is managed. Is it available for everyone and anyone to log on and use as much as they want, or do you want to ensure it’s used in a more efficient way? By structuring your available bandwidth using bandwidth management software you can offer a range of services to suit your clients and drive additional revenue for your space.

Structured cabling and layout plan

In an ideal world every newly developed or refitted office space project would start with a comprehensive, in-depth plan that included the cabling required for the space. However, in real life this isn’t always possible. For newly built space it’s easier to ensure that the cabling is designed to fit the space, however for retrofitting spaces this is a more challenging prospect. We would always advise that some planning goes into getting the cabling for space right at the earliest stage possible. This will save a lot of time and issues further down the line.

Install IoT sensors

The final technology tip is IoT. The Internet of Things (IoT) is not a new concept, having been round for several years, but only recently is it being used in flexible workspace. Operators are now looking at how they can use IoT sensors to better understand their space and make use of the data that is gathered. For instance, could the heating and cooling in your space be better managed, only used in the spaces that are occupied? Could the cleaning of the building be more efficient with cleaners assigned to the occupied areas? With sensors installed you can monitor temperatures, occupancy levels and room use to help make better decisions and drive cost savings.

Interested in finding out more?

As trusted technical advisers to the flexible workspace and commercial real estate sectors we’re always happy to share our experience with new and existing operators, agents and landlords. To get in touch with our friendly team call us: 020 7953 8888 or email us: hello@technologywithin.com today.

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