Photos of our recent work for MND Exploration and Lonmin have been added to our Flikr account.

To view:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/spaceworkplace/

Many thanks to Rob at Lonmin PLC for providing the following testimonial for our recent fit-out work at 4 Grosvenor Place.

“Space Workplace stood out from other design and build companies as they presented us with lots of ideas and budget options from the outset and really took the time to understand what we wanted.  Sales Director Ben was always happy to listen to our ideas and incorporate these into the scheme, while giving us the benefit of his experience to find those solutions which worked best for us.  The end result is a sharp, professional-looking office space that reflects both our standing as a FTSE100 company and the culture of our business.   We love our new home!”
Rob Bellhouse, Company Secretary and Head of Legal

The start of a new month and it’s great to be able to promote a cracking February for Space with Ben and I being appointed for 6 new jobs:

Purple PR
Award winning fashion and music public relations company relocating to 9,000 sq ft on Glasshouse Street. 6 week project.
TheFrameworks
Global Marketing and Communications Digital Design Agency relocating to 1,800 sq ft at The Clove Studio, Shadwell Thames.  3 week project.
7City
A client of ours since 2003, this out-of-hours reorganisation project will open up space to create additional desking areas for new staff.
Curious
Having completed the landlord CAT A works on the 1st Floor of 41 Shelton Street, WC2H, we’re very pleased to have been awarded the interior fit-out for this established Brand Communications Agency (2,200 sq ft, 5 week programme).
Pozzitive Television
700 sq ft fit-out fit on Newman Street for prestigious comic directors and producers Geoff Posner and David Tyler.
CD Capital
In occupation refurbishment and furniture project for this Fund Manager on Babmaes Street, W1.

Photos/case studies to follow in due course and with some exciting pitches to take place over the next few weeks, I hope to post a similar comment again next month.  Thanks Gareth

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.