A Smart Office is a high-tech fusion workplace with a human touch. Considered to improve the general office space with the best management tools, smart offices make workforces work smarter, better, and faster. Businesses nowadays keep a secure attachment with high-tech advancement in one form or another. It has altered the concept of employee experience with creative workplace options. An investment in smart technologies is an investment in the office as a whole – both the way employees work and in the spaces themselves. The right tools that are intuitive and communicative will streamline workflows and remove non-strategic tasks from To-Do lists. Employees gain more time to focus on what’s important. Smart office technology is also designed to improve the overall environment by making offices more energy-efficient, more secure, and more comfortable.
They also help companies make better decisions about the spaces that are available to employees. Smart technologies produce and store data on usage and occupancy that is valued when determining how to expand the use of existing space or determining when to scale up or down. With the ubiquity of smartphones and computers, professionals today expect a lot more from their workplace than before. Today’s workforce is used to working with the latest tech and tools to get work done, and this doesn’t stop when they walk in through the office doors. A situation where employees feel bogged down in a 20th-century workplace with pre-historic ways of doing things is a sure way to scare away new recruits and current staff. By providing modern smart office solutions, companies can provide an employee experience that helps attract and retain employees. The cornerstone of most smart office technologies is the use of Internet of Things (IoT) sensors. These sensors are indoor motion-detecting devices that use infrared, ultrasonic, microwave, or similar technology to detect occupancy. They collect data and connect with other platforms to analyze and offer insight on office usage, making them a fundamental component of an office’s IoT technology strategy.
According to Market Research Future, the rise in demand for intelligent office solutions, sensor networks for energy efficiency, promising government regulations for the same, development of IoT in smart office offerings, and rising need for safety and security systems at the workplace. Improved economic conditions, globally, is one of the dynamic factors for the growth of the smart offices market. With increasing economic conditions and improving FDI, the businesses are experiencing high growth. Growing awareness about technology in the market is making international companies explore for potential growth opportunities.
With growing investments and globalization, particularly in developing countries, numerous companies are investing in these regions to establish their markets. Local companies operating in emerging economies are quickly growing in their respective markets. This is subsequent in the establishment of new infrastructure and expansion of office spaces. Companies are investing in these regions to create office spaces. Enhanced real estate in these regions is also encouraging the growth of the new building establishment. With numerous corporations investing heavily in this segment, companies are aiming at adopting smart technologies for their offices. This is fueling the growth of the smart offices market in developing nations. Numerous companies entering these regions are creating new infrastructure. Security concerns over the disposition of smart office systems are one of the primary factors limiting the growth of the smart office market. Like any other connected equipment, smart office systems also rely on networks for data transmissions and are thus susceptible to breaching. Growing cybersecurity concerns across the world are resulting in skepticism among consumers regarding the safety of these systems.
With the concept of intelligence or smartness pervading every aspect of our lives from our phones to garbage disposal systems, the chief area where a chunk of our lives is spent, i.e., office spaces, are also making improved strides in improving its functioning. The offices of the present are transforming into dynamic places that induce a high functionality and productivity in its users by enabling ease in operations. The surplus of employees crowded in a limited space is the vision that usually comes to mind when imagining the premises of a startup usually, but the adoption of a smart office concept is expected to blow this perception up with it making its presence known in huge company facilities of industry titans. As the companies of today face the inevitable situation of ensuring enough space not only for work but also play along with eating facilities to stimulate their employees, the concept of smart offices provides much need respite in this regard.
Food vending machines, bean bags, and foosball tables are the often identified as the vestiges of a restroom in offices of progressive office spaces of the 80s or 90s, but these have evolved to spaces in smart offices which allow for concepts such as environment fortification like integrated greenery in offices like zen gardens complete with koi ponds, for example, are shaking up the view of a workspace drastically. Moreover, the adoption of IoT and cloud-based platforms are also imparting a strong stimulus to the managing of business operation on a daily basis. It is also noted that the demand for adaptability is expected to work in favor of the smart office market in the coming period. Moreover, the need to collaborate by way of informal meetings or video calls with team members is expected to be addressed with the smart office concept.
The market players these days also want to reduce their overhead expenses and their carbon footprints to be deemed as responsible players in the market space. This is evident in progress made by firms such as 3XN, the Danish architecture firm, which has recently finished the construction of Cube Berlin, which is a remarkable new office facility that encompasses the newest advances in sustainability, digitization, and design. The building also has solar coatings on its facade, described by the architects of the building as an “osmotic skin,” along with exterior solar shading to lessen surplus solar gain and guarantee high energy savings. The interiors of smart offices are also reflecting the same level of cutting edge technology that enables the employees to work better with the use of apps and platforms that are aiding in the creation of streamlined workflows. Companies such as Siemens have already launched apps such as Comfy and Enlighted that have been created, keeping in mind flexible and human-centric working spaces. The concept and technologies such as smart lighting, intelligent temperature control, smart conference rooms, indoor wayfinding, and smart furniture are expected to raise the bar for the development of smart offices, especially in the North American and European markets. The concept of smart offices is yet to take some time for making way to the APAC and MEA regions as the office setups in these areas are significantly conventional.
The hot trends that are expected to make their presence known are the development of office layouts that reflect hotel zones that include high-concentration areas, and have collaboration hubs and also have areas that allow employees to kick-back in rejuvenation zones. Moreover, the trend of sustainability is also estimated to make its presence known verily with sustainable materials being used and energy consumption being done smartly to ensure the meeting of carbon reduction goals set down by the companies. Thus, ensuring the smart offices of the future growth in line with the progressive office culture.
smart business technology – DepositPhotos
