Building better workspaces with technology

20 February 2021

Building better workspaces with technology

  • Economic Times

There are approximately 7.6 billion people in this world and nearly half of them are connected to the Internet. The possibility of connecting with everyone, everything and everywhere is changing the way we do things. With most business and corporates offering solutions in IoT and AI, there are tremendous opportunities for further growth. Technology coupled with constantly evolving management practices, has changed the functioning of traditional Indian offices too. Nowadays workspaces are not limited to being just a place to work. With every new innovation, they have been transformed to a space where employees can freely collaborate, communicate and connect with each other, thereby, boosting employee morale and in turn increasing the workplace productivity.

Another reason why technological advancements are increasingly becoming more important is that today’s workplace environment has become more competitive and complex than it was before. According to a Deloitte report, a manager is able to save 43 minutes a month if they have access to new and improved workplace tools.

In today’s day and age, where employees value their work-life balance more than ever, they want a workspace that is technologically advanced and interactive while being cool and edgy. Today’s always connected, instant access environment helps in dissolving the distinction between personal and professional life. A study conducted by CBRE has shown that about 70% of millennials would make various trade-offs that will help them in securing a workplace that allows them to maintain work-life balance. This can be easily achieved through collaborative and tech enabled workspaces.

Technological advancements at coworking spaces are enabling the workforce to achieve their full potential, which has now led to a number of large corporates opting for these smart workspaces. To accurately reflect in changing work experience, organizations have begun to implement an entirely new working environment – the digital workplace.

Integrating IoT and Artificial Intelligence at Workspaces
Cloud computing, web conferences, instant messaging and e-diaries have enabled better communication around the world and within the organization. By further leveraging IoT and integrating it with AI, workplaces will now be transformed to smarter, dynamic and interactive offices. It is not far when gadgets such as laptops and smartphones will become redundant and will give way to voice activated assistant, wearable technology, including wearable glasses, embedded chips, and wrist devices, connected with Internet of Things (IoT), ensuring seamless connection between work surfaces and individuals, thereby creating a self-sustaining working environment.

Automating Preferences
Utilizing the ability of these wearable devices to adopt to individual’s preferences will provide insightful data that will further help create workplace solutions that are customized to individual work styles. With time, space infrastructure including lighting, air conditioning and air quality will adjust automatically to the task at hand including the number of users and work setting.

Virtual Reality
With continuous evolution of technology, the future of tech-enabled workspaces is tinged with virtual reality. The definition of workspace has been evolving, from being defined, as ‘physical’ and ‘virtual’, digitization is further transforming the future of work across varied dimensions. Virtual workplace is no more a thing of future as VR technology is already playing a significant role in setting up virtual meetings. Soon enough an individual will be able to put on a VR headset and have access to a virtual mouse, keyboard and unlimited monitors. The use of avatars, 3D visualizations, and resilient telepresence, will be the new online meeting norm, essentially creating a truly collaborative and interactive environment that web and video conferences have been unable to achieve.

Blockchain
An ingenious invention, blockchain has always had industry disrupting capabilities. Right from market giants such as Amazon to publishing houses, blockchain has played a crucial role. In the year 2020, the same is being said for the coworking sector. Blockchain can perform tasks such as agreement management, payments, and procurements with better efficiency and traceability.

Technology is slowly and steadily becoming a compulsion and not an option. For an organization to sustain in this time and age of Artificial intelligence and Machine Learning they need to adapt themselves to the technological advancements and cater to their clienteles needs / workforce requirements. As machines become more advanced and gain new cutting-edge performance capabilities that match or exceed human capabilities, the adoption of automation in this sector will steadily pick up.

This story appeared in the 10 February , 2020 issue of Economic Times and is authored by Amit Ramani, Founder and CE0, Awfis. This article was originally published at : Building better workspaces with technology, IT News, ET CIO (indiatimes.com)

Awfis leases over 11k sq ft workspace in Kolkata to 3 large corporates in 6 months

13 October 2022

Awfis leases over 11k sq ft workspace in Kolkata to 3 large corporates in 6 months

  • Posted by Awfis Editorial

Awfis, India’s largest network of coworking spaces has leased over one lakh sq. ft. workspace in Kolkata to 3 large corporates in last 6 months alone.

In line with this partnership, Grant Thornton has taken customized set up in Awfis’ Eco Centre (Awfis Gold centre) at Acropolis Mall in Kolkata. Along with Grant Thornton, Awfis has also partnered with Teleperformance, a global digital integrated business service provider, and Conneqt, a leading digital IT and BPM services provider for over 1000 seats at Godrej Waterside and Technopolis centres respectively. In the past, Awfis has also partnered with electronics giant Samsung for over 500 seats in Kolkata.

Flex players are now taking up spaces in malls and hotels to expand their presence as startups, SMESs and enterprises warm up to the idea of shared facilities over owned premises. Given the above, Awfis is taking the collaborative workspace model to newer spaces like hotels and malls to meet the hybrid workspace demand, which has skyrocketed post-pandemic.

The Awfis environment provides a unique amalgamation of different workstyles while providing the company’s employees with amenities and benefits such as meeting rooms, a well-designed collaboration area, a multi-cuisine restaurant, concierge service along with full hygiene and safety measures.

“We are delighted to have a leading establishment like Grant Thornton as a key client. This valuable partnership is a game-changer for the industry where large corporates have realised the benefits of flexible working and are increasingly shifting from a centralized conventional office to decentralized and distributed flex offices for their workforce,” said Amit Ramani, Founder & CEO, Awfis.

Sumit Lakhani, Deputy CEO, Awfis added, “The trend of using flexible spaces in commercial real estate portfolios of large organizations is witnessing unprecedented growth and will become more prominent in the coming future. The flex space take up from large corporates in Kolkata is a clear reflection of the surge in demand that we are seeing pan India across all metros and tier 2 markets as well. Flex players are now being seen as valuable partners in setting up highly customized, efficient and agile workspaces by companies of all sizes.” he added.

Sanjay Mehta, Executive Director- Workplace Enablement, Grant Thornton Bharat said, “The vibrant tech-enabled environment, provides the right mix of a corporate office ambience combined with new-age elements for collaborative engagements and enhanced innovation. This will help improve our people and client experience.”

Currently, Awfis has 9 centres in Kolkata spread across premier and sought-after locations that include Acropolis Mall, Chowringhee road, Salt Lake, IT Hub in Salt Lake Sector V, and plans to add 2 new centres in the next 3 months.

Awfis Space Solutions currently has the largest network of coworking spaces with 131 centres and 77,500 seats across 14 cities.

This story appeared in the 13 October, 2022 issue of Economic Times and was originally published at: Awfis leases over 11k sq ft workspace in Kolkata to 3 large corporates in 6 months

Flexible space demand rises in step with return to office

03 August 2022

Flexible space demand rises in step with return to office

  • Posted by Awfis Editorial

After a gap of two years, the return-to-office arrangement has gathered momentum, with 74% of the occupiers of office spaces looking toward distributed workspaces as a strategy to shift from location-centric to people-centric work facilities, mentioned a C-Suite Survey conducted by Colliers and Awfis.

The report further mentions that the new work way is expected to enable flexibility for employees while furthering productivity gains for businesses and includes a hybrid way of working wherein employees come into the office a few times a week.

The survey was conducted amongst top CEOs and CXOs across IT/ITes, BFSI and e-commerce sectors, with more than 150 companies participating. It mentions that about 35% of the occupiers have seen a majority (75-100%) of employees return to offices.

“Distributed workspace strategy is the way to go for occupiers in this new era of experiential workplaces, as occupiers emerge from the after-effects of the pandemic,” said Ramesh Nair, Chief Executive Officer, India and Managing Director, Market Development, Asia, Colliers. “Flex spaces, in particular, are leading this growth, as occupiers from varied sectors are housing teams in flex centers across cities.”

This shift in strategy is also reflected in the leasing by flex operators. They leased about 3.5 million sq feet of space in H1 2022 across the top six cities.

This story appeared in the 3 August, 2022 issue of The Economic Times and was originally published at: Flexible space demand rises in step with return to office

Awfis elevates Sumit Lakhani to Deputy CEO

21 July 2022

Awfis elevates Sumit Lakhani to Deputy CEO

  • Posted by Awfis Editorial

Awfis, one of the country’s largest network of coworking spaces has announced the elevation of Sumit Lakhani as Deputy CEO of the company. Previously, Sumit was the chief sales and marketing officer at Awfis and has been a crucial part of the company since it’s inception in 2015.

Lakhani has been instrumental in building the company from the ground up. He’s played a key business role, not limited only to sales and marketing. With his keen interest and acumen in finance and strategy, he has also been in the forefront of delivery, revenue generation and maximizing operational excellence. In his new role, Sumit will be responsible for all facets of the company’s investor relations, FP&A along with the existing responsibility of sales and marketing.

“Awfis and will continue to strive to further enrich the experiences for our existing community and scale towards greater heights. Awfis is redefining the future of work that focuses on creating a flexible, dynamic, and collaborative workplace environment for all its stakeholders and I am delighted to be a part of this journey.” said Lakhani.

Amit Ramani, Founder & CEO, Awfis said, “With his demonstrated ability to balance operational excellence with financial and marketing discipline, Sumit will provide instrumental leadership and direction to Awfis. I am confident Sumit will continue to drive innovation and growth for Awfis in his new role.”

Till date, Lakhani has successfully led various rounds of fund-raise and his zealous commitment to transform Awfis from a coworking network to a complete workplace solution platform.

This story appeared in the 21 July, 2022 issue of The Economic Times and was originally published at: Awfis elevates Sumit Lakhani to Deputy CEO