Office Space News
Laurent Dhollande Weighs in on The Office of the Future
Published July 27th, 2009 by Mike Sullivan
Laurent Dhollande is the CEO of Pacific Business Centers (PBC), one of the largest and most influential business center operators in the US. With 15 locations and growing, PBC is building a solid network of offices in the San Francisco Bay area along with a recent opening in North San Diego County (Carlsbad, CA).
We were able to secure an interview with Laurent and the first question we asked clearly turned into an article by itself. We decided to publish his response by itself in this post. In the following weeks we will publish the rest of our interview.
What does the Office of the Future look like and how will it be delivered?
The office of the future is mobile, ubiquitous, and on-demand.
The adoption of the Internet and mobile technology added more technology in the office, more telecommuting away from the office, but it has not transformed the nature of most corporate offices yet. However, it did drive significant behavioral changes in how workers get their work done. These changes are about to destroy ‘the office’ as we know it.
The recession is adding a new reality that will only accelerate this metamorphosis. Companies feel the urgency to slash occupancy costs and shed office space altogether.
Many office users have already learned to live without dedicated offices. Start ups and entrepreneurs drove the initial explosion of Virtual Offices. On the corporate side, companies such as Accenture, Cisco, or Sun Microsystems have successfully deployed touchdown spaces with various hoteling and hot-desking approaches. A growing portion of their workforce is used to operating without a permanent office. Corporations have learned new ways to save on occupancy cost and be more productive at the same time.
What will come next is the complete virtualization and outsourcing of huge chunks of the commercial office space. The last thing corporations want to own, or even lease, is real estate. Yet, the need for office space and meeting rooms is not going away. The office space itself is not disappearing, it is being outsourced.
The workplace needs to move with the user. Data connectivity has long been ubiquitous. ‘Find me, follow me’ features of most VoIP Unified Messaging systems enable seamless delivery of voice connectivity to users wherever they are. The physical infrastructure needs to follow suit. At Pacific Business Centers we call this paradigm Cloud OfficingTM.
The office of the future is not controlled or managed by corporate. It is hosted and on-demand. Paid per use and delivered under a utility model. It is not constrained by 4 walls in one building. Just like hotel rooms, the office needs to be here and there, and everywhere.
Office space will no longer need to be leased, but instead will be paid for on an hourly basis or under a subscription model. Large corporate users will buy defined capacity, in the form of so many hours of usage of office space, conference rooms, and related services, over a network of locations that fit their geographical needs. Capacity can be easily increased or decreased under predetermined financial parameters. Some corporate users will ask for the network to host dedicated and secured mini-suites, but only for a small core of projected occupancy.
The office of the 50’s, with the diplomas on the wall and the golf trophy on the desk, is dead. It is being replaced by a network of locations that all share the same basic functionality: furnished, connected, with access to a large array of tools ranging from networked color printer, VoIP telephony, and Telepresence video conferencing.
The office of the future is serviced and managed by a specialized operator. It is delivered as a service over a ubiquitous network of locations with workplaces available anywhere, anyplace, anytime.
The future is now. Landlords must retool their infrastructure and partner with a new breed of service providers that can effectively market and manage on-demand offices. The dedicated office is dead, but long live the Workplace-as-a-ServiceTM!
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About the Author
Rob Zeus July 28th, 2009 at 10:00 am
Mobile. Ubiquitous. On-demand. I like the way he summed up the office of the future. I also found the subscription model concept where space is rented by the hour fascinating. He makes some bold predictions about the office of the future, unlike Stark who said in another article that there won’t be much difference.
Elizabeth Sanchez July 29th, 2009 at 11:31 am
This got my attention: “What will come next is the complete virtualization and outsourcing of huge chunks of the commercial office space. The last thing corporations want to own, or even lease, is real estate.” Wow. Real estate used to be seen as an investment. I wonder if it’s possible that after this global meltdown, real estate will be seen more as a risk. This guy really has some major paradigm-shifting perspectives on the commercial office industry.
Melanie Jones July 29th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
What a great series on the office of the future. Laurent really has the most aggressive stance of anything I’ve read. I’m sure some wonder if it’s realistic. Only time will tell. But it’s definitely interesting. Serviced offices seem poised to lead the way.
Coming Soon: Office Business Center 2009 International Conference July 29th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
[...] on the changes that are occurring in the industry (and the office trends we have been describing recently), it is fitting that this year’s conference tagline is: OBC [...]
Maggie Correta July 30th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
I love Laurent’s take on the office of the future. He even goes way back to the 1950s. Reminds me of Leave it to Beaver. Some of what he said also makes me think of The Jetsons. I mean, who would have ever thought we’d have the office technologies we have today. And the use of space is rapidly evolving. This is really an interesting article.
Bill Brookshire July 30th, 2009 at 5:03 pm
I agree that the workplace needs to move with the user. No longer can we have one mammoth headquarter building and expect it to serve all the officing needs of the corporation. Technology definitely facilitates the office of the future, from cell phones to VoIP to laptops and now netbooks. Mobility is the key to the office of the future.
Maggie Correta July 30th, 2009 at 5:04 pm
We’ve seen Software-as-a-Service, Desktop-as-a-Service… now Laurent seems to be suggesting Office-as-a-Service. I think it’s a concept that can catch on. Delivering the office as a service rather than a hard asset to which you are locked in to a long-term or even a short-term contract seems the natural evolution of office space.
Q and A: Laurent Dhollande Discusses Changing Needs of Serviced Office Customers August 12th, 2009 at 5:17 am
[...] Dhollande is a visionary. He understands the history of office space — and he understands the future of office space. He understands the importance of office tehnologies and he understands how to compete in the burgeonong serviced office industry. [...]