Archive for the ‘Comment space’ Category

Art, plants and floral arrangements provide great finishing touches to a new office space and give a further opportunity to express the personality of the company and staff.   If you’re looking for some ideas and inspiration, these are some of the good, local companies that we’ve come across in our time……

Acrylicize - a young, award-winning creative company specialising in bespoke acrylic and unique wall art – the concept for which grew out of a university art project. www.acrylicize.com/what_we_do

Curwen Art Gallery – a lovely gallery on Curwen Street run by Jill Hutchings since 1978.  They specialise in limited edition prints and have a large selection on site to choose from. Prints can be a very cost effective way to provide artwork to a number of rooms and help to create a uniform company identity.  Jill also champions young artists showcasing the work of the northern art school graduates each year. An art hire service is also available. www.curwengallery.co.uk

Getty Gallery – London’s largest independant photographic gallery founded in 1996.  Their archives comprise of over 300 seperate collections and in excess of 40 million negatives.  They regulary rotate new exhibitions in their 3,000 sq ft gallery space which can also be hired for corporate events.  Located on Great Castle Street, W1, the gallery is open for public viewing from 10 am to 5:30 pm.  Archives can be accessed on line too.  www.gettyimagesgallery.com

Elizabeth Marsh Floral Design – An expert in the traditional form of floristry, Elizabeth has an impressive client list across the coporate, restaurant, residential and retail sectors.  For business customers, she offers a range of services such as creating one-off pieces for corporate events, weekly delivered floral arrangements for reception or meeting areas and general plant hire and care.  www.emfd.co.uk

In these austere economic times, many business owners are putting spending plans on hold as they ‘sit tight’ or ‘batten down the hatches’ until a more stable future is on the horizon.  However for those that can or must change to enable growth or phase out inefficiency, embracing new technologies can bring immediate cost savings and benefits.  One such method which is becoming more prevalent, especially amongst small to mid-sized businesses, is the use of cloud communications or off-site hosting which can be applied to many aspects of business services such as telecoms and IT hardware.

Hosted telephony services are delivered using Voice Over Internet Protocol (or VoIP) sending voice packets in a similar way to data packets. Unlike the traditional approach to telephony of installing a phone system in your office, all telephony switching equipment is housed in data centre facilities. Voice services are then transmitted to your office, via an access network comprising of data circuits and SIP trunks, to IP phones connected to your office LAN.

Tip: When selecting a hosted telephony service provider, ensure that they utilise private or dedicated circuits separate from your data services and the public internet to ensure guaranteed voice quality.  Also check that they have a fail-over option so that if their service is interrupted they can switch to a back up site ensuring no loss of service to you. 

Some of the benefits of a hosted telephony system are:

Lower outlay cost – no need to purchase PBX phone system

Lower long term accounting cost – no hardware to depreciate

Lower support costs – phone system is maintained remotely so no site visits required

Energy savings – lower power usage on site as no switch is required

Business Continuity – if your cable is cut or your staff can’t get in to the office (only have to look back to the past few winters where snow and freezing conditions have majorly disrupted business services), you can forward each user handset to a different number (whereas with a traditional system using ISDN lines you can only forward to one single number).  A good service provider will pre-programme a fail-over number at the start of the project which can then be swapped to at the push of a button if need be.

If you’d like more information or to discuss this route with a hosted telephony expert, get in touch and we can pass on details of some of the trusted service providers that we have worked with.

www.surfacedesignshow.com

Just registered for the surface design show on the 15/17 Feb at the Business Design Centre.  The focus is all on innovative interior and exterior surface products so looking forward to getting some new inspiration and ideas for  wall and floor coverings to use in our 2011 office interior projects!

Other design show dates for the diary:

Clerkenwell Design Week – 24/26 May – various locations

100% Design – 22/25 Sep – Earl’s Court

Moving office may often be an essential part of strategic planning, enabling calculated staff growth or downsizing, improved cash flow or a change of business location.

However in today’s tough economic climate, we’ve been finding that more companies, including ourselves, where possible are choosing to renew their lease and refurbish their space rather than relocate.

For those that are happy with their location and rent charges but would like to facilitate a change in working style, desk numbers or brand image, an office refurbishment can be an attractive and cost effective alternative to moving.   Here are some of the things we’ve carried out for companies taking this route…

Re-planning and organising
Companies that have occupied a space for some time or have changed their working style, often find certain areas of the office are under-used or over capacity.   For example a reception desk that is generally unmanned whilst informal meetings often have to take place in a local coffee shop as the only meeting room is booked out.

Taking a fresh look at the space and re-planning it with the existing furniture will often create a more effective solution. Redundant areas can be reduced or completely opened up to provide more desk seating, storage or breakout, alternately rooms can be formed to provide more offices or meeting space. 

Part refurbishment
Companies that receive a lot of visitors or wish to bring more in, often choose just to upgrade their reception and meeting room areas.   If not already formed, partitions can be installed to separate the office from the client facing areas before upgrading the interior finishes, for example installing a wooden veneer floor, fabric wall panels, feature lighting and high impact signage.

                     

Re-decoration and flooring
A simple refresh of wall and floor finishes throughout can make a big difference to a tired space, boost staff morale and provide you with an opportunity to promote your corporate branding through feature walls, glass manifestation and wall vinyl.

Installation of a new furniture system
Companies that have grown organically and/or are using large old desks designed for PC monitors can free up a lot of space by installing a new furniture system.  Laptops, flat screens and electronic archiving have reduced the need for a large workspace and loosing just 200-400 mm off each desk can free up enough space to seat additional staff or create room for new areas such as a place for staff to meet and eat lunch.

As well as immediately providing a nicer environment for your staff, this is also a great way to enhance your branding with desk screens or seating fabric providing a simple way to bring corporate colour into an office.

   

If you are considering whether to relocate or renew and would like some ideas, layouts and/or budgets, do give us a call.  We’ll come and visit your space, chat through your requirement and wish list and then come back to you within a week with some ideas and costs.  To set up a meeting, give myself, Gareth or Ben a call on 020 7636 0525.

The highly anticipated, new Herman Miller chair was launched at office design and furnishing fair Orgatec this week.  With its sleek, innovative form and functionality yet reasonable price tag, the Sayl aims to bring ‘attainable design’ to the marketplace’. 

We’re liking the look of it and hopefully may see some in our projects next year. For more details,  http://www.hermanmiller.com/Products/SAYL-Chairs

* image from Herman Miller web site