Sungard and Orchard team up to offer bespoke offices

Be it man-made disasters such as terrorism or weather events such as hurricanes, over our 40-year history we have built up workplace environments that are resilient and available for businesses in times of need. However, no one could have foreseen this latest shock, the Covid-19 pandemic, and how it would change the world of working.

The mass shift to homeworking has meant that the commercial spaces we offer have to be more safe, more reliable and more attractive to employers and their employees than they have ever been. The customers that I am talking to can now do much of their work from home, and as a company we have realised over the last 12 months that there needs to be something in the office that attracts them to it and gives them the impetus that makes them want to come in.

That is why we have teamed up with Orchard Group, the highly experienced design, build and fit-out specialists, to roll out our new global Serviced Workspace offering.

Our partnership is a departure from our normal business model. Our ambitions have evolved from being a pure IT service group focusing on resilient and reliable infrastructure to a real estate one as well, where we think more about the look and feel of the office space that we are delivering.

The collaboration between Orchard Group and Sungard AS means that we are now bringing to market highly secure serviced office spaces that can be made bespoke to client requirements.

The concept is to create a safe environment in a multi-tenanted building and for it to still feel like it’s your world, rather than our one

We have looked again at how we can make the office space more usable, more friendly and an all-round fun place to be. From a disaster recovery perspective, it has always been the case that we have provided space for an emergency situation. With our IT services and the hard facilities, such as reliable networks, power and infrastructure, our model is about making sure that the space people have got is 100% their own space and that it is entirely secure. The focus has been on making sure that everything works. It has therefore always been fit for purpose, but the layouts have often been basic.

Now, it’s a completely different gig. Teaming up with Orchard Group, we have reshaped the look and feel of what we offer. Together, we’ve put together what we see as a product that hits a tenant sweet spot, in which we offer our expertise in safety alongside Orchard’s knowledge about design.

While we at Sungard AS have deployed Perspex screens, temperature cameras and monthly fogging in our offices as just a few of the many measures to make sure that they are clean and safe in the time of a pandemic, Orchard has given us new thoughts on walkthroughs, entrances and the flow of people into the office, as well as far broader insights into designs and workplace features.

Turnkey service

Whether you are looking to complete an office refurbishment to make better use of space or you’re looking for a full office design on new premises, Orchard Group’s turnkey service will fit the bill. Whatever the size of your budget, its skilled team of design and fit-out specialists will find the perfect solution with the aim of always delivering on time and on budget.

Our product is custom-built, so each customer, depending on their own requirements, can make it look and feel like what they really want. Orchard’s expertise in build-outs and fit-outs means the company is able to bring the latest thoughts and fashions to the table.

Whereas previously tenants might have had a common meeting room or canteen, for example, now we’re building it so that each customer can get their own suite, a certain number of desks, a coffee point, a meeting room, booths they can sit and collaborate quietly in and much more. With every element we’ve brought in, from the heat cameras and the reception areas right down to the types of coffee in the machine, the strategy has been centred on the attention to detail that we now have across our spaces.

Apart from coming through the lobby, you’ve got everything you need in your own place. We’re making it feel like a seamless transition from an office you might have been working in before you needed this one, and an extended part of your world as a place that you want to come to work in.

The concept is to create a safe environment in a multi-tenanted building and for it to still feel like it’s your world, rather than our one.

Traditionally, our customer base has been centred on sectors such as the financial industry, where staff members such as traders might need solid, reliable infrastructure to do their job. The collaboration with Orchard Group has meant that we can service and improve these traditional relationships, and indeed some of the bigger banks have already taken up such an offer.

Applicable to all

However, our partnership means that we can also reach out to a far broader base of companies that want the IT and infrastructure reliability we offer alongside the best designs and fit-outs from Orchard Group. Whether you are a company that needs one desk or 1,000 desks, our service can apply to anybody.

We are a global company, with thousands of customers across the world and operations in nine countries, but we launched this product here in the UK and we’re already beginning to see it evolve. The new designs that have been rolled out have been well perceived, and we’re seeing a big demand for the service, especially in central London.

We’re seeing many companies that are adjusting the size of their own real estate footprints in the wake of the pandemic and many of them are in the process of working out how much office space they truly need in a more hybrid world of working. No one really knows where the balance of home and office working will end up, but that is precisely why we think now feels like the right time, the perfect time, to be offering a product that gives customers the ability to be more flexible with their office demands while still keeping our historic guarantee that everything will always be working.

Our global Serviced Workplace offering opens your workforce to more flexible, affordable and collaborative office space, fully customised to maximise the creativity and productivity of your team. We hope that as the world looks to recover from the shocks of the last 12 months, our partnership will be ready to cater to the needs of customers in the post-Covid office space, whatever they may be.