Connected and Sustainable Work
Smart Work Center Overview
A Smart Work Center (SWC) is an office center within a close proximity of a residential community, which provides space to workers in individual or in a group work setting. Through the use of IT technologies, all work processes are fully supported and enhanced. Employers are able to take advantage of this collective setting to provide its workers with flexible and scaleable working space options. The use of SWC benefits the worker by providing a physical workspace close to their residence, resulting in reduced transportation demands and increased productivity.
The SWC is a flexible concept with multiple applications, depending on the user groups that are being catered. The value proposition can be as basic as a flexible workstation with connectivity, to a full pervasive collaboration environment sustaining on and offline collaborative communities. The broader services include access to interaction technologies such high quality video conferencing, as well as child day care, high-end catering services, financial services, supplemented by good access to highways and public transport. SWCs are also equipped with open lounge work spaces and larger public areas. Amsterdam is the first CUD city to deploy the SWC.
Business Modeling
The SWC delivers benefits to two key stakeholders:
(1) The SWC enterprise : The SWC, set up as a private business, rents out flexible workspaces to organizations and individuals. The SWC offers basic packages which include workstations, connectivity and hardware use, with added services which can be offered to the worker by third parties (i.e. child daycare, restaurant). As such the SWC becomes a market place for services relevant and valuable to the worker.
(2) The second model delivers resource optimization to the employer. Once the SWC has been wholly integrated into the employer’s mid and long term resource planning, the emerging blended model delivers reductions in costs such as office space, energy and centralized services.
Future implementations of the SWC models include: SWC models used by airlines to provide alternatives to physical travel or as an alternative to routes and destinations for which demand due to lack of access, route profitability or traveler interest. Another implementation currently considered is the SWC as an international franchise model, available for replication by local small/medium size enterprises.