The open office concept was popularized in the early 20th century, by an architect Frank Lloyd Wright, who believed that besides being extremely cost efficient, such design democratizes the workplace by tearing down walls both literally and socially. A century later, when the coronavirus pandemic hit the globe, 70% of American corporate employees were working in the open office setup.

As workplaces are slowly sputtering back to life after months of forced telecommuting, it becomes clear that walls - not necessarily literal - might have been unrighteously neglected all this time. To keep up with the growing office health and safety standards, real estate executives and facility managers are looking for tools imposing boundaries, limiting social interactions, and regulating capacity of shared spaces.

With this in mind, we are launching the YAROOMS Desks solution, available starting this week. It is a must-have booking tool to set up necessary physical distancing limits in open workspaces, and not only!

Product highlights

• Agile approach to spaces and space types. Created for desk reservation by default, the new booking engine can be adjusted for parking lots, rooms, or seats in a larger room.
• Different behaviours and business rules can be implemented depending on the space type, to accommodate a variety of use cases.
• Floor plan support, or an interactive floor map - an optional feature, helpful for real-time space usage tracking.
• Granular access rights which can be set up per building or floor.

Use cases

YAROOMS Desks reservation solution was primarily developed for open offices, but it’s applicability goes far beyond corporate workspaces. Here’s a non-definitive list of what it could be used for:

• Assigned seating - when each employee has an assigned desk, and only they can book it. Maximum capacity of the location or floor is ensured.
• Hot desking, when employees book their workspaces from a common pool of desks.
• Parking lot reservation - can be set up with or without a floor plan.
• Meeting room or conference room reservation - can be set up with or without a floor plan, too.
• Seating arrangements - handy for universities and other educational institutions, in need to ensure that maximum location capacity of large rooms is not exceeded.
• Event space reservations - booking of multiple spaces on multiple dates with varying requirements.

Reach out to us if you would like to try out YAROOMS Desks, or have questions about the features and possible use cases. Excited about our newest product, we are here to help you get the most out of it!