What are coworking spaces. How are they different from business centers. Advantages of coworking spaces or business centers.
What is Flex space?
Breaking the mould of the traditional office leasing model, numerous forms of innovate and new age leasing concepts have been introduced in the market which offer flexibility of space and services to tenants. Combining many of these forms and nomenclatures commonly known in the market like co-working spaces, serviced offices, liquid space, community working, plug and play cubicles, shared offices, peer spaces, on demand spaces and so on, Flex space is JLL combined search facility to assist prospective tenant in exploring the most comprehensive list of options available in the market with relative information which would help you compare their facilities and advantages on various aspects.
Most of these Flex spaces offer multiple options of choosing seating plans ranging from open to assigned seats and small enclosed offices to even whole floors and buildings. These spaces can be managed by specialist operators, individual landlords, partnerships between the two, or in the case of liquid space, a tenant that has the right to sublease part of its office. For ease of searching, we have segregated these options into Co-working Spaces and Business Centres options
What are Co-working Spaces?
Co-working” is recognised as a style of working as well as refers to the physical space which is shared by individuals, freelancers, small teams or large organisations for their workspace requirements but with access to each other’s critiques, opinions and ideas.
The new age Co-working space of today offer tenants the flexibility to choose from open floor formats to enclosed lockable units with shared spaces for meetings, networking and collaboration. They primary focus is to provide on demand services for tenants with complete flexibility to scale up and scale down seating requirements without the liability of capital investment in fitting out and maintaining one’s own office space.
Generally, characterised by dynamic, lively, interactive and buzzing environment, these centres are breeding grounds for innovation and new ideas in business. There is great focus on creating communities and networking forums which can fuel cross business growth for its occupants.
How Business Centres are different form Co-working Spaces?
Essentially offering similar mix of open, fixed and enclosed seating plans, Serviced offices can be characterised by more formal setup with features aimed at more traditional office and business requirements. They focus has been to be flexible yet extended office space offering in multiple locations and cities across the world. They are geared to provide services like telephone access, internet, video conferencing, meeting rooms etc. as part of daily, weekly or monthly package. Some also include access to business equipment like fax machines, copiers, audio-visual equipment, and office furniture. There is a more recent and increasing trend of business centres adopting to community building practices of Co-working centres there by thinning the line of difference between the both.
What are the advantages of Co-working or Business Centres?
The choice of a Co-working and Businesses Centres can help in differentiating and providing competitive advantage to a tenant who are prospective employers of new talent in the marketplace. The kind and quality of work place also plays a big role in not only acquiring quality talent but also retaining the same.
Besides adding to the image of your organisation, being part of an established community gives occupiers immediate access to an established network of business leads and referrals, digital technology and apps, and the convenience of a fully managed office.
Simpler lease terms in these spaces offer the scalability to add or reduce seats on demand. Grow your commitments as your business grows and enjoy the convenience of consolidating if the need be.
There is no or minimal upfront capital expenditure commitment required in these spaces and you can start working in a fully fitted and equipped office space from day one. Some centres also give you the advantage of using multiple centres in different locations and cities as per your requirement.
What are the implications and opportunities for MNCs looking to embrace Flex space?
Unlike some who believed that Flex space are a proposition only suitable for a Start Up businesses, there are many large MNC’s which have started operating from Co-working and Business Centres. Multiple requirements like specific teams of a new projects, test markets in new locations, expansion aligned to new business growth or functional needs which are location specific like training, recruitment drives, client proximity etc., have motivated these firms to look at Flex spaces.
Inspired by their cool quotient, lively and buzzing environments and cutting edge amenities, some larger organisations are looking to create their own customised workspaces that can meet the specific needs of their staff and clients in terms of design, technology, headcount growth, and more.