This month in Steelcase’s London offices, senior leadership from Maverick, Steelcase and Microsoft shared with resellers and vendors the benefits of utilising the Microsoft Surface Hub 2S with the Steelcase Roam. Business Unit Manager Wesley Joyce shares his experiences and main takeaways from the day.
‘Heading into the incredibly impressive Steelcase space last week, we knew we were in for something special. The manufacturer is one of the leading names in office furniture and accessories and its products give fantastic insight into how design can really change a product into an experience.
‘Over the day we got a glimpse into the insight and ideas behind every Steelcase product. I had never been to a Steelcase Worklife Centre, and the first thing that struck me was the space itself. Every piece of furniture was the highest quality and in an open space, every area felt distinct and purposeful. Across the rest of the day we would explore how Steelcase brings that same level of craft to workplace furniture and in particular, the Steelcase Roam.
‘Jane Hammersley kicked off the day talking on the importance of collaboration in the modern workplace, and how Steelcase fits perfectly into the Maverick AV Solutions portfolio on the visual edge of the platform. A mantra that Jane focussed on was “first use, must inspire future use”. This extends the idea that in business first impressions are crucial, to technology.
‘Founded in 1912, Steelcase has over 100 years of knowledge creating work, education and healthcare experiences, therefore hearing from Jennifer McCready and Christina Vernon, who flew over from the US to share their expertise on the inherent connection between people, process, space and technology was great.
‘I was impressed to discover that Steelcase has a team of psychologists and design specialists who work to understand human behavior and how to design it into the entire ecosystem.’
In 2019 in a study of 3000 participants Steelcase discovered
- 73% of employees are unable to find the right stakeholders to make a decision.
- 70% of employees are slowed by not having access to the same information as their colleagues during collaborative sessions.
- 66% of employees said their technologies and software are not compatible. Workers are often bringing their technology to a meeting and compatibility between personal devices and displays often delays collaboration and creativity.
- 72% of employees want to be able to move, but only 53% are able to. Teams today want to be able to move around and get active, however most workplace furniture and devices are not ready to support this.
‘Steelcase and Microsoft used this research and these barriers to re-envision what collaboration could be with these barriers removed. Great ideas can’t always be scheduled and when they pop up, you want to keep them moving. Microsoft Surface Hub 2S and Steelcase Roam let you collaborate in planned sessions or spontaneously, whenever good ideas strike.
‘The sheer level of thought that has gone into something some might see as “just a stand” was genuinely impressive, and I think end users will be extremely happy to have the roam in their work environment.’
If you missed the event, don’t worry. All the technology will be on the Maverick Tiki bar at ISE in Amsterdam 11th-14th of February. So come and join us in Hall 5, stand T-40.
Read more of our latest stories
