Is your office ready to become ‘smart’

What is a Smart Office?

A cutting-edge, technology-enabled workplace that not only promotes flexibility and productivity, but cuts costs and attracts (and retains) talented employees. A workplace design that puts smart technology at the forefront and embraces revolutionary connectivity. That’s what.

After 20 years of flourishing technology, alongside the rapid growth of the internet, 2018 sees a new era. This era is smarter and faster; we now have everything at the swipe of a fingertip and at the tip of our tongues with smart speaker technology dominating 2018. We’ve all heard of the ‘smart home’ so shouldn’t the workplace be the same? According to a study by British Land, 90% of decision-makers already see a business reason to consider upgrading to a smart office.

The smart office brings together two main elements: advanced facilities management systems and the Internet of Things (IoT). Digital centralisation is the future. These two components create a round and functional workspace, where the benefits stack up against the traditional office.

These work spaces are undoubtedly the future, but, how will they function efficiently without the right connectivity to support them? This is where dbfb come in. We’re thinking of the future! Gigabit connectivity will be essential to smart office spaces, to allow them to run smoothly. Revolutionising the connectivity infrastructure will not only allow your smart office space to function, but will also underpin all other positive factors of making your office ‘smart’.

The biggest driver in making work spaces ‘smart’, is the Internet of Things (IOT), which is being described as the next big wave in smart technology. As we increase the number of gadgets around us, there is more need to connect them to each other. We talk about a future of cars that talk to each other, smart homes with communicating appliances and now – the ever interconnected smart office space. Though it is described as a machine-to-machine system, IoT is aimed at empowering office workers to save time, become more efficient and increase productivity.

Let’s take a look into the future – Your calendar is connected to your Amazon Alexa, which wakes you and when asked “what do I have in my calendar today” – lets you know your first meeting is at 10am in the conference room. When you get there, all the audio-visual equipment has set itself up in readiness. Even the smart coffee machine has brewed coffee without anyone pressing a button. During the meeting, you are tasked with meeting a prospective client at noon. Your smartphone automatically adds this to your calendar when you use voice controls. On route to your second meeting, you enter your car but you do not have to enter your destination into your navigation system – it already knows it from your calendar.

Scary or just SMART?

All of our gadgets are now able to communicate and anticipate our needs. In the process you save time and focus on what really matters. Right? A scary prospect- but undoubtedly the future. Smart offices will get even better as technology advances and we add even more gadgets, such as wearables and smart speaker technology.

Smart office technologies available today

With technology constantly evolving, and the effects of the COVID 19 pandemic still in play, the wave of smart offices is not slowing down. Major strides have been made over the past 18 months, and embracing a technology-enabled workplace will promote flexibility and productivity, cut costs, and help you retain talented employees. But remember, all of these exciting technologies NEED connectivity that can support them. Smart office spaces are the future, but also the here and now. Let’s embrace the digital revolution, or at least get prepared for take-off by upgrading out of date infrastructure to ultra-fast, so we’re ready.