Connected and Sustainable Work
Double U: Smart Work Network
Double U Smartwork. This network of Smart Work Centers (SWC) is part of a collaboration between Cisco and the City of Amsterdam under the Connected Urban Development program (CUD), which serves to address modern urban challenges including mobility, climate, energy and sustainable ways of working. The Double U Smartwork aims to be a one stop shop for location providers, individual users, independent professionals and corporate users, where all Double U SWCS can be booked directly by a central booking tool.
Cisco, ABN AMRO, Rabobank and Touchdown Center are the founding parties. Double U is supported by Amsterdam Topstad and the City of Amsterdam which, as an employer, will be a launching customer for Double U Smartwork. A smart work center is a physical facility where high quality workplace solutions are offered to professional workers in a neutral, centrally located and easily accessible environment. To minimize traffic, a Smart Work Center is located in the vicinity of roads, traffic junctions, stations and residential areas. Currently there are several providers of SWC-like facilities in the Netherlands. The Double U Smartwork Foundation serves as a coordinating platform for SWC providers and aims to develop a national network.
The Double u network
- Nationwide network of Smart Work Centers
The starting point for the creation of Double U Smartwork is to achieve national coverage of locations with an initial focus in the Randstad region, and the second stage in other parts of The Netherlands. Any user, regardless of where they live or reside, should have access to a good workplace within biking distance. Until recently, existing smart work centers were too fragmented and locally focused, therefore, employers operating on national level were not interested in offering their employees an alternative working spot. Double U links a network of over fifty open and smart work centers, with the plan to extend to one hundred national centers. - Facilities
Smart Work Centers are well-equipped and go beyond providing a workplace. The services and facilities are not only meant to facilitate work itself, but also to provide work related services as daycare and catering facilities as well as public TelePresence, Cisco’s immersive meeting technology. The first flagship SWC location, ‘Amsterdam Bright City’ in the Amsterdam South, will be the first to be equipped with TelePresence with several centers to follow across the country. In a later stage, the Dutch TelePresence sites will be linked to the international network of Tata, so SWC-users can collaborate worldwide.
- Central Booking Tool
Anyone can use the facilities offered by one simple online booking system. Through the portal, www.w-smartwork.nl, users can quickly find the nearest location with the right facilities, whether they are on the road or at their workplace. The available providers are automatically displayed, or, in case in the requested location a facility isn't yet present, the nearest centers.
- iPhone app Worksnug
The new augmented reality app for the iPhone, Worksnug contributes to the user friendliness and the innovative nature of the SWC sites. By using global positioning in combination with the iPhone camera, Worksnug shows the best workplaces in the area around the camera image. The Double U smart work centers in Randstad will be included later this year.
