GETTING ACTIV WITH HOT-DESKING

ACTIV BUSINESS SOLUTIONS has created a solution for organising hot-desking in small to medium-sized businesses – and its creator believes it can generate other opportunities for dealers to make money

he pandemic forced many business owners to rethink their office spaces, as hybrid working and social distancing became the norm. Some have looked to reconfigure their workspaces, putting in more meeting rooms, breakout spaces and areas for online meetings.

Michael Lowes, managing director of Activ Business Solutions, has seen this trend develop since the second lockdown. “It was then that we started doing lots of reconfiguration of offices – moving desks and making a space where people wanted to come back to, giving them confidence to do so,” he says.

People are still making significant decisions – downsizing, but into a nicer environment, or upscaling if they have done well, or repurposing and planning not to have so many people in the office and making breakout spaces instead.

“That traditional, white/blue collar factory, work environment where most people eat lunch at their desk, where they don’t have somewhere to walk away to, is declining,” Michael says. A lot of people have realised they want to make the office a more appetising place for people to drive 30 minutes there and back.”

As a result of these reconfigurations, and the growth of hybrid working, some managers have decided to take away the traditional desk assigned to a particular person and implement a hot-desking policy – which makes sense if people are not regularly in the office.

While hot-desking in these circumstances has its advantages, it also

brings with it a burden of administration to ensure that people have a desk when they require it. To this end, Activ has developed Desk Booker, a system for people to book hot desks.

While desk booking systems are nothing new, the vast majority are aimed at corporates, and the larger end of the SME market, Michael says. This is where Desk Booker differs, as it is targeted at SMEs with about 25-60 employees.

“Early last year I was thinking about what the roadmap looks like. Clearly, we weren’t going back to the office full-time and a lot of my clients were moving to smaller premises or changing their facility. So I started talking to developers to help me with a product that allows hot desk booking.”

Michael explains that the user and admin parts of the system are based on familiar scenarios. Booking a desk has been designed to give a similar experience to that of booking a cinema ticket – in that, rather than choosing a film, you choose a desk, then the location, and date,

followed by a 2D layout of the office space where you can reserve a specific desk or meeting room. The administration of the app is based on Windows Explorer, with simple drop-down boxes.

“The hot desk rebooking system, as an idea, is in a crowded market, but the product isn’t available in the office supplies space,” says Michael. “We aren’t reinventing the wheel with this; we are looking to give access to an industry.”

Indeed, Desk Booker is more than just an admin system. “It also helps clients to understand the return on investment of their real estate, from an information management perspective” he says. “For example, if they have an office with 20 desks that are only populated 62% of the time, what else could they do with that office? Could they downsize or repurpose? Or, if it is at 96% capacity, could they uplift? It gives the dealer true information to go to an FD or MD and show what office usage really looks like.”

Michael adds that a flag comes up for a dealer if the administrator starts moving furniture in the layout plan. “An email is sent to the dealer saying there are changes in the office layout of the company. This highlights the opportunity to get to the front of the queue for any discussion that goes on about buying new furniture or equipment.

“I found this previously in the industry – if you are not in the furniture conversation early, you are not going to get the work. It doesn’t mean you have to be a designer, but you do need to be involved at the earliest possible stage to be in with the best chance of winning the business. This product is about creating new relationships, and opening doors that weren’t there before.”

This move into technology is a new strand for Activ, which Michael set up with his brother five years ago. Michael has a long history in the sector – sandwiching in a stint in medical insurance and financial services.

The company, traditionally, focuses on providing furniture and interior services to offices and workspaces, with traditional office supplies a part of that.

It is the furniture and interiors side that is currently driving growth in the business. Michael says he has seen an upturn in business in recent months, noting that many business managers are still deciding what, if anything, to do with their workspace. “There are a lot of positive leads and conversations coming from those who are active in the space,” he says.

Indeed, Michael is positive about the prospects for the sector in 2022. “There will still be some trepidation in the market because it has been two really hard years, but it is clear people are making their way back and, as a reseller, it is about identifying where the product and service areas are that we can make a profit from and engaging with the market as much as we can.”