Serviced office space tube map
June 26th, 2008 | by Samantha Middleton
We have taken some time to create a view of the serviced office industry that you may have not seen before - through a tube map.
Since we created Choregus, we have encountered many employees from office space companies through meetings and telephone conversations. Experiences have been both positive and negative in terms of how those companies approached the industry online and their own perception of Choregus.
We will even be as daring to say that there are some Marketing Managers and Heads of Online at office space companies and brokers that are actually costing their companies enourmous sums of money by their own lack of skill, drive and poor approach to the web.
Some companies such as MWB, Office Broker and affiliate site, Prime Find are excellent when it comes to approaching and embracing the net for new business - and others (that shall be remain anonymous) are not so hot. Notable online luminaries in the industry are Marcus Flacks at MWB, Paul Austin at Office Broker and the team behind Prime Find. It is also important to remember the guys that changed the online landscape, the creators of OfficeBroker.com.
Regus are finally getting better online too and the industry as a whole should be better off for it.
Anyway, back to the map. The map is created from our own perspective of the industry since we started out all those years (months actually - Ed.) ago. Major players from the office space provider, office broker, affiliate and classified sectors are each given their own tube line.
* Click on the map to see a larger PDF version
The map depicts the current landscape for the serviced office industry (online). Items in bold are what we feel are the most important sites currently. We have tried our best to include all of the major players in the online serviced office world, but some will have been missed. Have they been missed for not making enough noise?
For those that are on the map, it means that from an online perspective, you are getting it right!
We thought that the map would be of interest to those that work inside the world of serviced offices and would give you a few minutes of time to waste looking at the landscape that you may have not seen in this way before.
If you have any comments about this map of the serviced office space industry, please feel free to comment below.
Samantha
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10 Responses to “Serviced office space tube map”
By Simon pipkin on Jun 26, 2008 | Reply
Is it a coincidence that the most important industry websites are the ones advertising on your site. You think Gumtree is a more important website to the serviced office industry than the BCA. You also classify the BCA as an office space provider. Do you know who they are? obviously not. Expected gobbledegook.
By Choregus on Jun 26, 2008 | Reply
Regus do not advertise and Primefind are a direct competitor (and better at it than Choregus), so thats a silly statement.
As for Gumtree being more important than BCA - you obviously dont get it and this article is written for people like yourself - the whole raft of people in the industry that do not understand how online can work for the industry. Gumtree is MORE IMPORTANT TO THE CONSUMER of serviced office space than the BCA is ONLINE. Simon, it seems that you are a typical reason why the office space companies in general are losing control of the industry in an online capacity.
Have a look at the number of office space ads written daily on the classified sites. As for the question about who the BCA are - I have had many conversations with them. Great organisation, but they are important to the business centres themselves, not so much the consumer of them. Of course they are not an office space provider, but they are on that line because that’s who they deal with.
By Hannah Lyons on Jun 26, 2008 | Reply
Samantha, whilst I respect that naming these so called online time and money wasters may be problematic, if you are indeed “daring” to tell us about these seemingly despicable “Heads of Online” and their dastardly deeds perhaps you could at least give us some hint as to what you are basing these findings upon, or indeed what you imagine they are bringing to the industry that you find so damning as to be news-worthy?
In line with the comments by Mr Pipex I find it particularly interesting that the online companies that you do praise are also those advertising on your site. Whilst a large part of business related marketing certainly involves creating a sense of product superiority over ones competitors, you will find that making such sweeping statements that are seemingly void of any evidence-based findings whatsoever in order to quash yours will do little to inspire confidence as to the competence of your site, and its writers, in this reader!
Perhaps you could try to base your findings on some real-life, practical experience and to start you off on the subject of how much of their clients’ time these online property related companies are wasting ….well it has taken me at least 10 minutes to read and reply to your latest blog!
By Kay W on Jun 26, 2008 | Reply
This is certainly one way to get serviced office providers to wake up and look at online presence from a new perspective! I work with UBC and they have certainly noticed a big increase in awareness by making sure they get regular news out there, especially on Choregus which is optimised for Google News.
Online presence, across business and broader consumer sites, is definitely an essential factor for any serviced office provider. But I guess one dilemma for providers is whether to invest heavily in SEO to compete for rankings with the specialist online brokers who refer leads to them? I am sure you will enlighten us as to the best strategy…
By Tim W on Jun 26, 2008 | Reply
I am sure we all agree that driving online footfall makes sense; that is exactly why the brokers and larger operators invest heavily in SEO. But how do operators running fully occupied centres look to drive their revenues and grow their margins? Additional viewings are no value to them with no new workstations to sell.
The mobile phone market is mature, close to saturated and home to some of the best marketeers in the game so perhaps we can learn something from them. Anyone noticed that they spend less time trying to get you to switch networks (customer acquisition) and more time selling you new services like mobile email (incremental revenue)? Real value-add services that are enabled by rapid evolution in the technology space are the key to them. Could it be that there is a real take-away here for the serviced office sector?
By SJR on Jun 28, 2008 | Reply
Agree that add-ons from servied office companies is a great idea. There are plenty of areas where the office providers could supply services that their clients would need, stationery, car hire, hotels.
On the other point if your running successful business centres that are at capacity, then surel y it is time to open another?
By John Nash on Jun 30, 2008 | Reply
Firstly, from a completely selfish point of view, I’m very pleased to see The Works on the map. I truely believe that the key has been creating an interesting site with relevant information, not just leaving a site in the hands of ‘SEO specialists’.
Regarding the first comment, of course it isn’t a co-incidence to see key sponsors of the site praised - but surely that’s the whole point? They are spending money sponsoring sites with up to date content to enhance their on-line presence, which is the whole point here surely…?
Now, if you could refrain from any future articles giving hints to the industry on how to boost their on-line presence then that would be great, the Google search results look fine just as they are.
By Sarah Jackson on Jul 5, 2008 | Reply
Isn’t it the case that this site has a very good right to say who it and doesn’t think are the people/businesses in the industry when it comes to online?
They have lead the way and made the industry look at things in a whole new way. I work for a very large provider and wish that they could have seen the same value that the so called ‘advertisers’ have been given by Samantha.
Doesnt it make sense that the people who saw Choregus’ value wanted to work with them on the site and have therefor been seen bu Choregus as the people who are in the know?