MARKET REPORT The Smart Offi ce
“Smart office solutions play a pivotal role in the push to reduce costs and wastage across industries,
with energy management systems alerting operators to overused utilities.”
Bernie McPhilips, Sales Director of Pangea
• Self-adjusting lighting and
window shades (53 per cent
don’t have this but think it
would be helpful)
• e ability to personalise heat
and light settings for one’s
immediate space, and have
those settings follow you around
the building (53 per cent)
• Circadian lighting systems
that mimic natural daylight
(51 per cent)
• Heat and lighting systems that
adjust automatically according
to weather and occupancy (50
per cent)
• An app for booking desks and
meeting rooms (35 per cent)
• Meeting rooms where the
screens work seamlessly with
your device (34 per cent)
• Desk or room sensors that
track usage to monitor
e ciency (34 per cent)
BUILDING MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
Clearly there is an opportunity
around the physical building
for partners to sell management
systems in several areas.
Bernie McPhilips, Sales
Director of Pangea, explains
“ ere’s a lot to be said
for Building Management
Systems that enable predictive
maintenance. Rather than
play whack-a-mole with faults,
operators have the space to target
and eliminate problems as they
crop up and before they become
needlessly worse—leading
to substantial cost and time
savings, and avoiding outages
or the need to replace entire
systems.
Energy costs are at an
all-time high, with nearly half
of decision-makers across the
UK saying they’re a threat to
business. At the same time, 30%
of energy used in commercial
buildings is wasted. Smart o ce
solutions play a pivotal role in
the push to reduce costs and
wastage across industries, with
energy management systems
alerting operators to overused
utilities. Data-gathering
applications provide a wealth of
actionable insights, such as the
ability to track energy usage on a
desk-by-desk basis.
© Kirill-stock.adobe.com
Furthermore, carbono
setting is more than just
in-vogue; it’s now an ethical and
legal requirement for companies
across the UK. And a signi cant
reduction in operation costs is an
attractive prospect for businesses
small and large alike.
e retro ttable nature
of these solutions makes
installation simple and coste
ective: rather than rip up the
infrastructure of an historic
building or even restructure a
modern one, implementation
can be as easy as adding a clipon
device to an o ce desk. And
multi-building management
capability in solutions means
businesses with suites of
buildings can also enjoy these
bene ts.”
MILLENNIAL IMPACT?
When it comes to getting the
work itself done the ‘work
smarter’ ethos is also starting
to impact the tools and services
want to deploy. ese new
working demands are surely
coming from the millennials
who are starting to in ltrate the
workplace?
John McKindland, Head
of Solutions at Nimans,
commented “ ere’s little doubt
about the impact of Millennials.
Look at their home life as a
consumer. ey may have a
games console, use a headset,
collaborate online, use social
media - and sometimes walk
down the street on Facetime. All
of these tools are expected in the
workplace too. ose vendors
that have the ability to put all
this together simply, for someone
to be a portable mobile worker,
have a great advantage.
e key to success is not
about products but solutions
and how a reseller can bundle a
number of di erent technologies
together. With the right platform
and the right peripheral people
don’t need a desk anymore and
can work from anywhere, even
at a bus stop if necessary. anks
to collaboration in the cloud it’s
possible to deliver multi device,
exible working based on true
mobility. We as a distributor
have a responsibility to help
a reseller wrap around other
Bernie McPhilips,
Sales Director at Pangea
products and services and upskill
them where necessary.”
Iain Sinnott, Sales and
Marketing Director at VanillaIP,
added “We make the mistake
of thinking there is a blueprint
when in fact there is in nite
di erence. e di cult answer is
you need a diverse portfolio and
skilled sales people. Millennials
are not one type, businesses are
not solely made of millennials
and communications demands
are driven more by the customer
and the event than the employee.
We need a exible portfolio of
on-demand services so businesses
can evolve into the most e ective
solution as designing it right,
rst time is extremely di cult.”
Sinnott continued, “To
save money on the building or
through the use of a central
>
38 | Comms Business Magazine | January 2019 www.commsbusiness.co.uk
/Kirill-stock.adobe.com
/www.commsbusiness.co.uk