Bromley Old Town Hall – twiindata

Overview

With foundations laid in 1906, Bromley Old Town Hall was historically a cornerstone of the local community. Over the years it has hosted local politics, doubled as a nuclear fall-out shelter and been the venue for David Bowie’s 1970 wedding celebrations. In the present-day the Grade II listed building has been transformed to feature flexible workspace, a boutique hotel and an all-day restaurant, completely revitalising the space and ensuring the building has had its purpose renewed.

Mixture of flexspace and hospitality

It’s often been said that the lines between hospitality and flexible workspace have blurred with many operators in both sectors looking at expanding their brands to encompass a workspace or a hospitality offering. The leading flexible workspace operators have always taken inspiration from the hospitality sector when it comes to the high standards of customer service that they offer. Both sectors also share similarities when it comes to their customers selecting them. Customers look at factors like location and the amenities offered but they also expect certain levels of service.

Clockwise Bromley is one of their largest workspaces to date and their second London location. It’s the first to be part of a mixed used site and shares the building with hotel brand, Brama – both positioned within Bromley Old Town Hall. The project represented a fantastic opportunity to deliver their excellent customer experience in both their flexspace and hospitality offerings.

Alexandra Livesey, Chief Operating Officer at Clockwise and Managing Director of Brama said “We really saw the potential in the space and how we could transform it into a multi-use environment where users could work, eat and stay. Both Clockwise and Brama have high standards of customer service and the chance to deliver this all under the one roof was a great opportunity for our team.”

For technologywithin, perhaps best known for their flexible workspace technology experience, Bromley Old Town Hall represented a great opportunity to showcase the longstanding experience they also have in the hospitality industry.

A connectivity solution that fits all users

For Brama the rooms offered the amenities expected for a boutique hotel, including large comfortable beds, beautiful furnishings and large flat screen televisions. Each TV in the rooms features a Chromecast allowing users to watch and stream IPTV services in their rooms. The connectivity for these services is delivered by a fast fibre connection to the building and technologywithin’s leading bandwidth management product twiindata.

twiindata is an advanced network infrastructure controller including firewall, IP router, switch management, WiFi management and bandwidth control tool designed and supported in-house by technologywithin to give controllable levels of internet access (handling speeds of up to 10Gbps) to multiple clients in a building whilst securely segregating their data from one another. twiindata has a centralised cloud-based user interface, designed to allow non-technical site managers to perform complex network configuration with ease and confidence.

At Bromley Old Town Hall technologywithin supplied two twiindata’s, one for the flexible workspace side and the other for the hospitality side. There’s also two fibre internet connections to the building which are linked to ensure a consistent service if one ever fails.

Edward Crabtree, Director Business Development at technologywithin and account manager for Clockwise said “twiindata allows both the Clockwise and Brama onsite teams to easily control the connectivity for their spaces without requiring in depth technical knowledge. Its simple and intuitive interface saves time and makes life easier for the customer facing teams.”

Respecting the building

Part of Bromley Old Town Hall’s charm is its design and Grade II status. Working in older buildings can pose challenges when it comes to delivering efficient connectivity. The team at technologywithin have had previous experience of working in older buildings with their work at Buxton Crescent Hotel and Spa and so knew that a detailed installation plan and schedule were required.

Kevin Jones, Director Projects and Presales at technologywithin said “When it came to this project we knew that WiFi performance was going to be crucial so we needed to ensure that we took into account the unique features that the space has. We planned carefully and our installations team worked closely with the team at Clockwise to deliver a smooth and efficient installation of the connectivity services that fits both the Clockwise and Brama areas of the building.”

Adam Skolik, Head of IT at Clockwise said “The development for the Clockwise side of the building involved converting a range of spaces, including two underground cells from the Magistrates Court days. We knew that there would be challenges when it came to making sure that WiFi was delivered around the building. Happily the technologywithin team managed this process excellently and it meant that users in all parts of the building can get connected quickly and easily.”

Adam continued “twiindata was the ideal solution for both the Clockwise flexspace and the Brama hospitality offering as it makes life simple for us. You don’t need a degree in IT to be able to use it and it manages the connection seamlessly. This customer focused approach also extended to clients where technologywithin provided branded WiFi landing pages so that our members and visitors can connect easily.”

Alongside its bandwidth management abilities, twiindata is also able to integrate with Clockwise’s chosen CRM solution to allow the easy set-up of new clients. This open integration approach from technologywithin means clients aren’t locked into a single software eco-system and instead can choose solutions that suit their chosen business model. By sitting twiindata beneath their chosen software, Clockwise’s front-of-house teams are able to manage internet connectivity and workspace management activities quickly and easily through a single interface and offer an improved member experience.

To discover more about Clockwise & Brama visit – www.bromleyoldtownhall.com