Office spaces have come a long way in the way they are planned (read-designed), built, and operated.
The word office finds its origin in the Latin words ‘opus’ meaning ‘work’ and ‘facere’ meaning ‘do’ which inspired the Old French word ‘officium’ meaning ‘performance of a task.’
In medieval times monks worked in quiet spaces designed specifically for sedentary activities such as copying and studying manuscripts, but the origin of the modern office can be traced to large-scale organizations such as governments, trading companies, and religious orders that required written records or documentation. It wasn’t until the 18th century that modern offices would take shape with trading companies like the Dutch East India Company, or the British East India Company setting up a central administrative office where people would come and deal with the large amount of paperwork related to records, accounting, documentation, planning, amongst others.
One of the most common ideas of a traditional office is one with endless rows of cubicles, also known as the cubicle farm, which gained popularity in the 1980s. What followed were two decades of the most depressive office setup making their way to sitcoms of the 90s and early 2000s.
With the advent of technology in the early 2000s things changed for the better with employers realizing that a holistically designed workspace with open spaces, collab zones, meeting rooms, and recreational spaces, along with a brand identity adds more to productivity than rows and columns of cubicles ever could.
“When the world of work changes, the workplace needs to adapt”
- Darel Luiz, Sr. GM - Marketing @ Bagmane
The new age that the internet ushered in with startups everywhere also brought in a new demand in commercial real estate - a small office that helps the startups to grow while being financially friendly. This demand was answered by the rise of Co-working spaces which offered shared resources like internet connection, meeting rooms, and other perks and benefits like games, events, wellness, and recreational areas, as well as the pantry and the food court, in a single shared workspace. Startups could now easily focus on building on their idea and scaling their business while the co-working space took care of the overhead burden like employee engagement and facilities management.
“Today workplaces not only have to support Client strategic business initiatives, but also allow employees to perform efficiently and productively; all the while reflecting and embodying the values and organizational culture of the company.”
- Darel Luiz, Sr. GM - Marketing @ Bagmane
Fast forward a couple of years and these startups have all scaled up to a size that requires them to have a dedicated office aligning with their brand ethos; a scaled-up version of the co-working space ecosystem they are so accustomed to!
“As companies focus on developing the next BIG idea & as Entrepreneurs aspire to build the next UNICORN, the co-working eco-system has been a strategic partner in providing grounds for ideation and collaboration. With centres across geographies that offer flexible office leasing solutions the co-working operators have brought in agility in client’s occupancy plan. The focus on speed to market, Customer Experience, Innovation and Tech adoption is definitely playing a huge role in disrupting the Commercial Real-Estate landscape.”
- Sr. Director @ IPC
Herein comes in Managed Office or Serviced Office solution! Managed Offices or Serviced Offices are a Workspace-as-a-service solution that holistically takes care of all the requirements of the client company in a packaged deal.
Think of a co-working space where the entire space is customized to suit the requirements (brand image, color palette, amenities, design language, wallpapers, furniture, etc), along with all the other benefits of a co-working space, and serves as the exclusive workspace for a single company - that’s what a Managed Office or Serviced Office is!
Simply put, Managed Office is a Co-working space on steroids. It's a customized workspace solution that is leased, built and managed by a third-party provider. Managed Office is an option that combines the cost-effectiveness and flexibility of a Co-working space with the control, security, and personalization of a traditional office.
So, what are the benefits a Managed Office offers over a Co-working space? Here are a few of them:
- Customized: A Managed Office is your own office, customized and built to your requirements and personalizations to suit your brand image and employee requirements.
- Housekeeping and Security: A Managed Office comes with an in-house housekeeping and security team that is on the third party's payroll. The salary, training, and requirements for housekeeping and security are all managed by the third-party service provider.
- Cost-Effective: A Managed Office combines all the individual costs of design, construction, internet, consumables, maintenance, housekeeping, and much more into a single amount of rent that's payable every month. A Managed Office takes away the headache of putting down a large amount of money for getting the lease, and the space built out.
- Private: A Managed Office is dedicated and maintained for a single company with its own access control, internet, and teams for facilities and housekeeping which makes them private, secure, and safe.
Why Managed Offices are the future of office spaces?
Managed Office offers all the benefits of a traditional office or co-working space without any of the shortcomings. They are flexible, scalable, and cost-effective. Most brands are trying to focus on new ideas, R&D, scaling, and retaining talents - and Managed Offices are helping them win this race by letting them prioritize their focus on crucial tasks while taking care of everything else.
Managed Offices are also leveraging new groundbreaking studies about workflow and user experience into the designs they pitch, and the materials they source which have a significant impact on increasing productivity.
“Managed Offices are productive workplaces which are fast paced, flexible and ready for the new generation of work.”
- Darel Luiz, Sr. GM - Marketing @ Bagmane
At 2gethr, we are a workspace experience company for people-first companies. For any Managed Office requirement that comes in, we take our expertise in building the World’s First WELL Health Safety Rated as well as WELL Precertified co-working space, along with projects for clients that include Diligent, Tekion, and Samsung, amongst others, and use the expertise in designing and building a space that is not restricted by layouts or workstation counts and is defined by the end-user experience that makes the employees productive, happy, and motivated; helps the employers scale up while maintaining the brand ethos and requirements; and helping us exceed the high expectations of our clients, their employees, and the most crucial - our own!
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