#space manager

A person working in space

Here at Cobot, we’re always amazed at all the spaces around the world using our software. The Cobot community has spread across all six populated continents (still no Antarctic coworking space yet!). Over the past year, we have seen an increasing number of coworking spaces popping up in Africa, Asia, and South America. This past July, Africa saw its first coworking unconference. The South American GCUC is in Sao Paulo in March. And Cobot will be at the second Asian coworking unconference this February.

Perhaps the best indication is to simply look at the map published by our friends at coworkingmap.org:

Registered coworking spaces worldwide

Today we wanted to look more closely at 91springboard and their growth across India. Their story helps illustrate how spaces opening in other countries around the world are mostly experiencing the same joys, hiccups, bumps, and successes that you are. This is why it’s important to treat coworking as a global movement - to grow coworking together!

91springboard

Cobot has been 91springboard’s space management system since they started in 2013.  We continue to grow with them as they have expanded to six hubs throughout India.

How and why did you start?

91springboard was created on the principle that ideas multiply when they come in contact with other ideas. We developed a collaborative environment for members to connect with each other, mentors, investors and tap into the collective knowledge of the community.  

We began in 2013 with a single location in Okhla, Delhi. In 2014, we added two new spaces. In 2015, we opened three additional locations in Hyderabad, Navi Mumbai, and Noida for a total of six 91springboard locations.

And what does the name 91springboard mean?

+91 is the country code for India. Our core ethos is to play a pivotal role in the growth of the members that join our community and help ‘springboard’ them to greater heights by taking advantage of the host of resources we provide.

What types of members are accessing your space?

We get a mix of people: 91springboard is used by startups, freelancers, small businesses, NGOs and sometimes even smaller teams of larger organizations.

Do each of your spaces follow the same model in terms of types of members and partnerships?

No, there are different models we follow. We work with a variety of different types of partners, which includes real estate owners, corporate entities and even government. We continue to look for mutually beneficial agreements with these and other stakeholders. Each of the models is specific to who comes on board locally, though.

Are you finding it easier to get these partnerships now that you are more established and as coworking becomes more globally recognized?

Yes! As coworking awareness grows globally and is also starting to become a buzz-word in India, we are getting approached at an incrementally increasing rate for partnerships in general.

What about support from local government?

There is some chatter regarding subsidies, but only in a very early stage of formulation. It seems like there’s activity here and things could emerge in the future, but not very much right now.

What types of resources do you offer?

Our resources fall the following categories. 

Infrastructure: All the infrastructure facilities that an organization or an individual may require at a plug and play office space. 

Knowledge: The spaces are designed to enable knowledge sharing via coworking and events. 

Network: Events & Coworking also help people build their network. 

And finally a sense of Community is what evolves from these cores components.

These resources are the springboard that leads to growth of the individual and organization

We know from the coworking survey that one third of spaces are expecting to expand to an additional location this year. How has expansion been for your team?

Actually, surprisingly easy. We have been working to bring a level of tech standardization across all of our spaces. As that falls into place, it has made training and standardization of our tasks easier.  

Cobot plays a key part in that because almost all of our daily tasks -- invoicing, collecting payment, meeting room bookings, communication with members, both broadcast messages and trouble ticket items. These are all being handled centrally. When we bring a new space online, we’re able to migrate that logic directly into the new space, with the administrators already trained to use it in real time at one of our other locations. Additionally, if a member wants to use a different 91springboard location, we have a script that will automatically provide that access through Cobot.

Why Cobot?

Primarily because of the easy and intuitive UI. Once we found the website, it seemed like it was built by people who understood the coworking ecosystem well. The software is well-designed and easy to use. We also appreciate how quickly your team responds to our support inquiries!

To wrap up, please tell us why coworking is so important to you personally.

In simple words, coworking creates value for everyone involved. When an environment is created where information travels quicker and learning is maximized, the amount of symbiotic relationships that emerge are extraordinary. Coworking is a whole new way of looking at work and always leads to growth.

Thank you, and good luck with your next steps!

Every month we see another handful of articles talking about the growth and benefits of coworking, usually with the subtitle “coworking is here to stay”. We couldn’t agree more! Our Cobot team has been based out of our coworking space co.up for 5 years and couldn’t imagine switching to a different working environment.

From our discussions with Cobot spaces we see that there is a growing trend to become more professional in the management of the spaces and to offer tools specific to small companies that are using coworking spaces as an starting point for their business.

When new needs arise, we always look to address them with our 20+ free add-ons. Cobot is meant to be easy to use for everyone. The add-on model allows our spaces to “get up and running” quickly and without confusion. As the spaces grow and add services, the add-ons then provide exactly the management tools you need without the confusion of endless menus and sidebars.

Today we wanted to highlight two of our tools that allow you to manage longer-term resources within your spaces: Office Space & Office Manager.

Office space: managing long-term resources

The add-on Office Space was created so that you as a space manager can keep an overview of who is using long-term resources in your space. The most typical items we see spaces tracking are fixed desks, lockers, monitors and keys. More often than not, the resource assignment is also paired with a “monthly extra” charge in the plan.

As always, here at Cobot we try to keep the initial setup simple and smooth. Let us give you an example how easy it works:

Add the Category you want to track (Front Door Keys)

Put in how many of the resource you have (35)

Click the resource to assign it a member

Ok - that was it!

You can add as many additional categories and resources as you would like and everything can be downloaded as a .csv for management or accounting. Now you have a simple management tool to keep track of where resources are allocated and avoid double-booking.

Office Manager: custom management of units, offices and multiple locations

Office Manager was created as a customized app to support several of our larger spaces that primarily work with “units”. Those units are either rented offices or fixed desks (often located in throughout multiple properties) which should directly integrated with Cobot’s billing system.

The Office Manager app allows the space to easily sort their office units based on availability, track occupancy rates, manage payments and register new members/companies - all within a single management screen. For quarterly or end-of-year reporting, a few clicks will show daily, monthly and yearly occupancies reports, all of which can be downloaded as .csv files. For spaces that are spread across multiple properties, the app allows the linking to assign members who register at one space to an open office at the other side of town.

Because this app is directly integrated with each unique billing plan, Office Manager is currently only available as a customization upon request. Our Cobot team is available to quickly provide this tool to your space using the pre-built architecture.

Your Ideas Matter

We are always trying to stay on top of your spaces’ needs so that we can provide the tools to help your space manage itself! So that you have more time for your coworkers. If you have feedback or are searching for customized features - let us know: [email protected]

Cobot offers a number of different ways to build on our infrastructure; our free Cobot add-ons, custom development by our internal team, API hooks available for your developers or having an app created by our partner Magic Labs.

We love new challenges and look forward to finding out how we can help your space achieve what you need!

Happy coworking!