Coworking was born alongside new technologies: your success thus depends on your capacity to provide your members the best, latest and user-friendly equipment to facilitate their work. It will also influence your reputation to be a high-tech fan manager! Follow our tips to make of your shared spaces a cool working place.
1) Web connection, Wi-Fi and super strong network
Let us fix something straight. You can do whatever you want to make your center stylish and “design”. However, if it does not have the best internet connection and Wi-Fi network you could possibly think of… It will be a failure. Before settling in, make sure the building is connected to the optic fiber network. If not, then try to get your internet supplier onboard to reclaim it.
Another important aspect: the mobile network. Having the best internet connection will not be of any use if your members cannot even receive their messages because of a poor mobile network. You should try out every room before settling in, especially in the basement and the attic (if you have any of them). In large agglomerations check if you receive the 4G network. If the mobile network is defaulting in your coworking center, you should know that solutions exist. For instance, SFR launched in 2015 the Femto box which brings coverage to rooms than have not been reached by the network.
2) Mailing, cloud and social networks: build a strong community!
Once the internet and mobile networks are settled, you can take your coworking center to the next level by giving life to an online community. Cowork.io here lists you a few options:
- Create a personal online space for each coworker, both for you to collect professional data and for the coworker to pay the performances they benefited from or to book meeting rooms inside the coworking center.
- Connect this personal online space to a payment card (with or without contact), for your coworkers to order printing credits.
- Develop your presence on social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn/Viadeo, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, etc.). Why not creating your own social network dedicated to the coworking center with chat, directory, wall and forum functionalities. Also offer your members the possibility to store their work on the center’s cloud.
- Want to go even farther? Transfer these functionalities onto a mobile application. Electronic cards will be replaced by your coworkers’ smartphones.
Cowork.io has build a software to help you manage your coworking center. Discover what we offer!
3) Printers, screens, digital tablets, sound: buy some high end equipment
Your center will not be labeled “techno-friendly” unless you buy some good equipment. You should count it as a large portion of your budget launch. Do not forget to invest regularly in new hardware to prevent any obsolescence.
- A Wi-Fi connected printer has become a must have in companies and it should be the same in your coworking center. It also needs scanner/copy/fax functions. Link it up to the intranet so you will be able to pilot it from a distance. Do not forget to adapt the printing service capacities according to your members’ activity sector.
- You should also probably invest in a couple of flat screens (especially for the meeting room). Maybe even in an overhead projector. Do not forget to connect all of these tools to the network.
- Now that you are set for visual performance, do not neglect sound issues. If you are on a tight budget and cannot afford a full Bose package, you can opt for 2.1 or 5.1 kits for laptops. Most kits are of good quality and can be plugged onto a large panel of devices.
- If you want to be particularly kind to your members, you can give them audio headsets.
- And the latest yet very popular tool… the digital tablet. You can equip the meeting room and offer your coworkers to work on their presentations and prepare their meetings with such tools. Another idea could be to install a tablet at the entrance of the center and transforming it into a sort of janitor. It will prove useful if your members benefit from an hourly tariff for example, or it can be used as an announcer for outsiders coming in for a meeting.
- A good working center has the capacity to build up a community of workers. You can maybe suggest your coworkers to mutualize software. Or, if your members work on scientific projects which need an important amount of computerized resources, why not negotiate the supercomputer of a faculty or a large company in the neighborhood? If you have a large proportion of graphic designers, photographers or journalists you should probably invest in Photoshop and InDesign licenses that you will rent daily or monthly.
4) Ban wires from your center!
Electronic devices obviously need power to work. This concretely means tons of wires everywhere to plug in various devices. Our advice for you is to BAN WIRES.
Nowadays, high end phones are compatible to the Qi technology which works by electric induction and thus enables the refill of many gears at the same time. Also, check out your equipments’ compatibility to Bluetooth (wireless keyboards and mice are brilliant!).
