Office in a Managed Campus: Know its Pros and Cons

The office space segment has witnessed a steady increase in demand in the past few years, fuelled by hybrid model of work, expansion plans of multinational corporations and the emergence of startups. A managed office campus is gaining traction as a preferred option for businesses due to its advantages of capital efficiency, flexibility, and customisation. A managed office campus refers to a tailor-made workplace solution catering to the requirements of companies. The workplace providers typically lease bare-shell properties from landlords and transform them into fully equipped campuses endowed with aspirational amenities. These managed campuses are then leased to multinational corporations, startups and companies. Unlike a traditional workspace, which requires heavy investment by enterprises and has a limited scope of customisation, offices in managed campuses like smartworks, offer more flexibility and customisation for businesses. The salient features of managed office campuses include 100% customised offices, privacy, scalability, facility management and flexible lease terms. This offers various benefits to businesses as described below:

Low investment

A traditional office space entails heavy investment and high upfront costs by enterprises. Managed office campuses, on the other hand, frees companies from the burden of facility management by providing office space and amenities. This allows companies to devote their budget to core operations without worrying about additional expenses on office maintenance. 

Organisational flexibility

The lease agreement of managed office campus offers more flexibility as compared to traditional leases. Moreover, these managed office campuses like smartworks are fully tailored to each company’s requirements, from customised interiors to dedicated spaces for meetings. The space flexibility facilitates the adoption of a hybrid work culture and allows companies to expand geographically while saving upfront capital expenditure. 

Operational excellence

Managed office campuses like smartworks, are equipped with necessary facilities as well as aspirational amenities. They also often offer value-added services to employees. The objective of these managed office campuses is to enhance efficiency and improve productivity by providing all necessary resources at the disposal of employees as well as enterprises. This helps businesses to focus on their core operations, resulting in time and cost savings in housekeeping, facility management and maintenance operations. 

Improved productivity and collaboration

The state-of-the-art amenities in managed office campuses play a pivotal role in enhancing the productivity of employees. The dedicated meeting zones, conference rooms, and open floor layout, along with the provision of ample sunlight and ventilation, boost employee productivity. Moreover, recreation zones, convenience stores, and break-out zones help foster a sense of community, ultimately leading to improved collaboration among employees. 

Superior employee experience  

Functional design and world-class amenities with provision for recreation and community-building positively impact the employee experience in a managed office campus. This, in turns, enables firms to attract and retain the best talent in the industry. 

Managed office campuses are reimagining work by offering umpteen benefits to employees and enterprises. However, they have certain disadvantages as well, as given below

Longer wait time

Unlike serviced office spaces, managed office campuses require longer waiting time as they are fully customised according to businesses’ requirements, and fit-out time usually takes between 45-90 days

 Higher costs

Compared to leased offices, the cost of managed office campuses iser for businesses as they pay a premium for bespoke design and amenities.

Examples of Managed Office Space

Smartworks is an office experience and managed campus platform with an 8.00 million sq ft footprint in 41 centres across 13 cities. It aims to make enterprises and employees more productive at work by providing superior experience via enhanced services and amenities and value-centric pricing. It typically focuses on mid-to-large enterprises and has built a growing client base, including Indian corporates, MNCs operating in India and startups. It equips campuses with modern and aesthetically pleasing designs using extensive design library, integrated proprietary technology solutions and amenities such as cafeterias, sport zones, smart convenience stores, gymnasiums, crèches and medical centres. 

Bolstered by the shift in business preferences, hybrid work model and focus on employee engagement, managed office campuses are reimagining the future of work. New-age trends such as technological integration, value-added services, and fit-out-as-a-service are redefining the office space segment.