EPISODE 158 | Andres Avalos, chief product officer for OfficeSpace Software
The hybrid work model has become a permanent fixture in the modern workplace, but are you truly equipped to harness its full potential? In this episode, we delve into the critical components of a successful hybrid strategy, exploring the intersection of technology, strategic planning and evolving employee expectations. We also examine how forward-thinking organizations are adapting to this new paradigm and building workplaces that support both individual focus and collaborative teamwork.
We discuss the importance of data-driven decision-making and the need for a human-centric approach to hybrid workplace design. Join us as we explore the future of work and how businesses can create a thriving environment for their employees, both now and in the years to come.
- Discover how OfficeSpace Software can help you effectively manage space and optimize the hybrid employee experience.
- Understand the challenges and opportunities in navigating the evolving relationship between employers and employees in a hybrid world.
- Learn how to align workplace policies with your talent strategy and company culture to boost productivity.
- Explore the concept of a “Data Fabric” and how it can inform better decisions about real estate, resources and employee engagement.
- Hear insights on how organizations can use AI right now and future-proof themselves for emerging technologies.
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Learn more about solutions from OfficeSpace Software at officespacesoftware.com.
Transcript
Derek DeWitt: We’ve talked quite a bit on this podcast about how technological tools are being used in new and interesting ways to try and meet the challenges for modern workplaces, educational facilities, healthcare facilities, government facilities, everybody. Everyone who needs to communicate to their audience – their employees, their staff, their students, or even the general public and visitors, are finding new and interesting ways to accomplish their goals and finding new goals along the way that the technology enables.
Obviously, the hybrid topic has been top of mind for a lot of people lately. It’s still being discussed, rather vociferously at times, in the press and elsewhere. And there are many opportunities out there for organizations to use companies that specialize in facilitating and expanding the hybrid work experience. One such company is OfficeSpace, a software all-in-one hybrid platform that allows teams to better use workspaces, coordinate in-office days, even make smart decisions about real estate and much, much more.
So, we’re going to talk about all of this today with Andres Avalos, who is the chief product officer for OfficeSpace Software. Thank you for coming on the podcast today, sir.
Andres Avalos: Thank you for having me.
Derek DeWitt: All right. And thank you everybody out there for listening. Don’t forget, you can subscribe (he says again) to the podcast, and you can follow along with a transcript on the Visix website, where you will also find many helpful embedded links.
So, Mr. Avalos, OfficeSpace Software set up in 2006, so you guys have been around a while. You guys do all sorts of stuff: you do room and desk booking, you do reports and analytics, you work on facility management, real estate management, space planning, workplace insights and improving the workplace experience and, of course, facilitating hybrid work. Is that a fair summation of what you guys do?
Andres Avalos: That’s exactly what we do. We consider ourselves, you know, a top-tier, premier hybrid workplace management platform. And in that platform it does help support number one, employees orchestrate their day. So, you can imagine trying to make the decision whether or not to come into the office that day, you have a flexible workplace policy. You need software, you need the tools to be able to reserve a room for the day with your colleagues, to be able to reserve a desk; manage visitors that are coming into the office that are not part of your organization though still need to be tracked; have the right amount of access into the building and into the floors and into the specific spaces; be able to broadcast your schedule, so your colleagues can also orchestrate their day. We’re the software that helps enable that entire experience.
And on the flip side, you’re exactly right. We help support everyone that’s responsible for the facilities of the organization, whether that’s the entire building, a floor or a subset of floors. The ability to manage space effectively. For space and planning professionals, what they care about the most is how the space is laid out, and this platform helps them make the decisions on which space is meant for me-work, meaning for the individual, versus we-work, or collaboration.
And this platform helps provide insights around utilization, occupancy, various personnel that are in the office. So that way colleagues can search for who’s in. So that way they can figure out which space is needed for the day for the various sets of collaboration activities that are going to be going on throughout the day.
And then for facilities folks, people who have to worry about what’s happening on the floor, such as spills in the office, ink cartridges that are out of ink and need to be replaced by printers. An entire orchestration of request management that connects employees with the facility personnel that can assist them throughout the day and make sure the employee experience is optimized for worker productivity.
Derek DeWitt: I would imagine that this also enables a certain amount of flexibility, where things can be changed up fairly quickly on sort of an ad hoc, as needed basis. When you were talking about some of the different ways that people would think about to configure multiple floors or just one floor, or even just part of a floor, and whether they should do me-work or we-work, which is quite nice, I’m reminded of the concept of office neighborhoods. And I’ve always rather thought that that idea of, hey, we’re all working on this one project or this one thing that sort of is similar in some way, so it makes sense for us for right now to all sit next to each other. And then when that project finishes, then we (choom!), we break apart and we can go sit someplace else. I assume that this sort of thing is also being done, or is this still something that companies aren’t really doing?
Andres Avalos: Companies who have fully embraced the concept of hybrid work, absolutely plan around project work and departmental work. And we refer to these types of worker paradigms as “neighborhoods” inside OfficeSpace. So that way, space planners can plan out specific neighborhoods. If you have an R&D team which is made up of product managers, designers and engineers working on specific long-term projects, you can assign a certain area of the floor for those employees, so that way they can have better collaboration activities throughout the day. And then once those projects are done, or if there is a reorg, these space planners and facilities folks will make changes in OfficeSpace, the platform, to accommodate those changes.
And also, this concept of we-work versus me-work are all flexible. One of the big things that’s happening right now are organizations are still trying to figure out their hybrid workplace strategies. And a lot of that is being tied directly to talent strategy.
You know, we were talking a little bit right before the podcast around, you know, how productive remote workers feel in-office based on the role that they have. And so, organizations are trying to figure that out for themselves. They’re trying to tie workplace policies to talent strategy to overall culture.
And you see this playing out in the market space right now. Amazon has a stringent return-to-work policy. If you’re following what’s happening on the national level in the United States, the federal government is mandating that the majority of federal workers go back 100% in-office. So, down to enterprises all the way up to the federal government right now in some of the larger countries in the world, are trying to figure out their workplace strategy and how that’s going to impact productivity.
So, what that does is put a pretty important lever on platforms like OfficeSpace to provide that level of flexibility to try new strategies, change them quickly, and accommodate the needs of the business in the moment. And that’s exactly what our software does.
Derek DeWitt: Now, do you think that there’s this, let’s call it a conservative backlash, why not, to the hybrid work thing, because the people in charge either just can’t get their heads in the right space; it’s just so alien to them, they don’t understand it? Or is it that they don’t know that there are now these comprehensive all-in-one technological solutions like what your company does out there to help facilitate it? And they just think, well, this is just a big headache, and I don’t even know how to begin thinking about it, so I’m just gonna say everybody come back.
Why do you think there’s this weird reversal in what seemed like a very positive and forward-thinking trend? And I’ll also just throw in there, a trend that’s going to reassert itself, whether the bosses like it or not. I mean, I hate to say it, hybrid work’s here to stay. And companies that don’t get on board with it are gonna find themselves really searching around for talent, in my opinion.
Andres Avalos: That’s right. There is this friction between the employer and the employee as they’re trying to navigate what the future of work looks like. And that’s what it really comes down to. And there’s not one specific factor. Our friends over at the Flex Index have a number of different hybrid trends reports that dive deep into this specific topic. And the summation of what they found is that it really depends.
It depends on where you live, as there are regional differences in terms of what employees expect versus what employers are demanding in terms of workplace policies. So, in the South, for example, in the United States, culturally it is more prevalent to come into the office and have more of a full-on return-to-work, or full in-office attendance culture than it is on the West Coast. You can also break that down by politics.
So, you’ve got this natural friction that’s happening. And I think employers are trying to grapple with what they think works best without really having a lot of the data to influence the decisions around workplace policies.
Which is why platforms like OfficeSpace, and much broader than that – just a data ecosystem and bringing together sensor information, digital signage information, BMS solutions (Building Management Solutions), the information from HVACs, HRIS – a number of different systems together to show what’s truly happening inside the spaces these organizations are responsible for. And how that relates back to employee wellbeing and employee productivity. That’s where the natural friction comes. It’s like a lack of information, a lack of data that’s available to make informed decisions.
Derek DeWitt: Right. And that’s one of the things that OfficeSpace allows for is it does have pretty in-depth analytics, which in turn inform insights. Because you know, you may be sitting around the break room or whatever, in your home, you’re a top C-suite person or even a mid-level manager thinking, well, common sense says this. But common sense is very often not that common at all. And so, in fact, you may be wrong. And then when you have that data in front of you, you go, wow, that’s interesting. I thought for sure this would be the case, the spaces would be being used like this, but now we have the data, and we see that that’s not how it’s being used at all.
Andres Avalos: Yeah, absolutely. And there are similar situations playing out in the corporate offices as well. I was just visiting a major university here in Texas, where I’m currently located. And they pay people to walk around their facilities and manually count the number of employees or number of students that are in the actual facilities using specific space, particularly collaboration space. And this is a use case I’ve heard not just in the education sector but also in retail, financial services. They essentially come in every day and walk around, get in the elevator, walk up the stairs to different floors and manually count folks.
So, one of the big things that we’re focused on as OfficeSpace is building out what we’re calling the Data Fabric of Workplace. Now, the Data Fabric, you can imagine fabric, right? It’s a bunch of threads woven together to create something that’s useful. And what we’re finding is that a number of employers are in dire need of data that’s gathered and collected in a more automated way, which, you know, instills trust in the data a little bit more than manual. ‘Cause you can imagine, you get tired if you’re going up many floors in a day, you might miss one or two people that were using the collaboration space. And then if they move, they could have been just sitting there for, you know, a few minutes, and that space really wasn’t used for the majority of the day, right?
So, this concept of the Data Fabric is bringing together sensor information, access control information, which includes biometrics, badges, digital wallets, BMS systems. So, HVAC systems to calculate energy usage, for example. So, that way we can create a broad story of not only what’s happening with employees and utilization and occupancy, but also how that correlates back to wellbeing. Like how cold or how hot is it in a particular room? Are there certain thresholds of air quality that you want to instill based on how much a room is used and the air quality of that room at that time?
So, one of the things we released at the very end of 2023 is our Workplace Intelligence Dashboards. And so, this is really the foundation for everything that the Data Fabric is today at OfficeSpace, which is the conglomerate of all of these disparate data sources put together or brought together to build reports off of. But it’s primarily based on utilization and occupancy. That is the number one factor that’s informing hybrid policies.
If you have a hybrid policy and it’s to come in three days a week, which most hybrid policies in the western countries of the world are going to be two to three days mandated in-office, our, the number one question that I hear all the time that needs to get answered: are employees actually coming into the office on the days that they’re required? ‘Cause you can book a desk inside a piece of software, but did you actually show up? Were you there? Because that can inform a number of different potential CapEx and cost savings for real estate decisions in the future.
You know, I was just chatting with another large retail organization. They have over 20 leases that are going to be expiring over the course of 18 months, and they don’t have a lot of really good data around utilization and occupancy to inform which leases to renew or which leases to request changes on, for optimizing space based on their hybrid policies, which are changing quite frequently; more at the whim, more off of gut checks by the employers that are responsible for real estate decisions.
Now, of course, you know, in the future, in the future of work and what we’re kind of banking on, it’s going to be a lot more than just occupancy and utilization that employers need to care about. It’s going to be heavily tied to employee engagement. And we are, and OfficeSpace is, the conduit to how employees engage or interact with workplace policies. They have to come in two to three days a week. You log into OfficeSpace, you book your desk for those three days, you can schedule rebooking desk of those days, and have that be your standard linchpin into the engagement model for your workplace policies.
Yeah, and that expands out to digital signage. You know, digital signage is the way that we bring the digital activities of employees into the physical world. But how we marry the two, broadcast scheduling, you’re walking on a floor, and as you’ve booked your desk or booked your room for a certain time period throughout the day, being able to physically see that as you’re coming into the office helps employees orchestrate their day a little bit better. You can walk through a desk and see that your colleague Aaron is going to be at the desk a little later today. And you can decide, in the moment, to book your desk right next to Aaron.
Derek DeWitt: Right. Like, oh, I like Aaron, and I wanted to talk to him about the football game. Or, you know, when he eats at his desk, he really smacks a lot and I don’t wanna deal with it today, so I’m going to sit someplace else.
Andres Avalos: Yeah. To avoid Aaron too. I mean, yeah, it’s all those tiny, nuanced use cases, right, that really make up the employee experience and how employees think about the organization they work for, the brand that they work for.
Derek DeWitt: You guys are starting to really use EPS signs a lot in these efforts and endeavors.
Andres Avalos: That’s right. EPS is a core strategy of ours to make sure that we’re optimizing and continuing to build stronger integration in the future. Because digital activity needs to have real-world visibility. That technology is going to be crucial for showcasing not only, you know, who’s at a desk or what meeting is happening in the moment, but to also make changes in the moment. And also, in a very important use case that comes up quite a bit, for wayfinding.
Wayfinding is extremely important to OfficeSpace clients and prospects that are looking to purchase software for hybrid workplace management. And you can think about wayfinding as a big screen, you know, when you walk into a building or you walk out of an elevator, you have a map of the floor where you can find the room that you’re supposed to go to for the day. Very important for visitors, but also now becoming ever more important for employees who are not in the office that often to be as familiar with the landscape of the office.
Derek DeWitt: Yeah, that’s true. If I’m a fairly new hire, you know, six months ago, I’ve really only been there, you know, a dozen times in six months.
Andres Avalos: That’s right. And you can think about emergency services personnel, too. If there is an emergency on the floor, it’s extremely critical that, you know, firefighters, you know, God forbid there’s a fire on the floor, are able to quickly find the location based on the wayfinding screens that are available in the building or in the facility in which it’s happening.
So, you know, there are real world consequences to digital activities, and we wanna make sure that we got those use cases covered and that we are future proofing, especially as we start thinking about the future of work and how augmented reality, and I even think the Metaverse has its place in the future of work, is going to start altering the way we think about physical space in the future.
Derek DeWitt: These utilization statistics as sort of a beginning point and then from that, once you kind of nail that down, you can expand out to more abstracted ideas. Like, and now we can kind of discern employee engagement to a certain extent with more abstract things like policies and so on. I envision these ideas being applied to organizations across the board. Even, like a whole university campus can optimize their space using something as simple as just counting who’s using what, when.
Andres Avalos: That’s right. You know, a great use case that I hear frequently is also around cafeterias. You know, how many people are actually coming in? And that impacts how much food gets ordered to service the amount of people that are coming in throughout the day and likely to have lunch within the organization.
Derek DeWitt: Right. And when, also, you know? Like, it also seems to me it would allow an almost like combining those kind of statistics with dayparting and then even, like you said, with wayfinding. I almost envision, like, I guess, what’s the, I don’t drive, but, like the program Waze, which tells you, hey, there’s a blockage on I-60, you know, take this way instead; your GPS will reroute you in a different way to avoid a temporary clogging of traffic. I could see the same thing happening in the organizational level with people on foot moving through a building, moving around a corporate or educational campus. Hey, right now, if you can avoid it, don’t go to the cafeteria, ’cause it’s slammed, and it’s going to take you 45 minutes to get your food. Whereas if you wait 30 minutes, statistically according to the data we have historically, it will drop off, and you will be able to get your meal much faster, and it’s more efficient for you. So that the digital stuff that’s being presented to the audience is relevant and helpful right then and there to their specific needs.
Andres Avalos: Absolutely. Bringing and servicing that level of realtime data to the employee to further advance their ability to orchestrate their day effectively, which makes them more productive if they’re having to come into the office, is going to be just as important in the future. And there’s not many tools that do that today. A lot of the reporting is catered towards administrative responsibilities.
But the future is going to have to be a little bit more flexible and continuing to go in that direction. Employees are having to make a lot of tough decisions, spend a lot of mindshare on a lot of activities throughout the day related to their job, much less related to the space that they’re interacting with. So, the more ease we can provide that, both from a desktop perspective or a mobile perspective, or even a digital signage perspective, right? Being able to walk around physically and find information as you’re going along your day, so you don’t have to stop and think about it. You can be proactively preempted on what information is available to you.
Again, just goes back to the need of more data, more types of data and everything in real time, which is one of our core four categories, making up our multi-year product strategy here at OfficeSpace. This like idea and concept of the Data Fabric and servicing that data, those insights back to both the administrators of space and employees is central to our strategy in a way that we view as futureproofing a number of different use cases and niche use cases depending on industry, depending on the policies that are being implemented, so that way our platform can maintain and be flexible for future needs.
Derek DeWitt: Well, I think that’s the key to futureproofing any organization, any aspect of an organization is, this is the 21st century watchword, agility and flexibility. Yes, you have to have a strategy absolutely, but you need to be able to respond tactically in an intelligent way in order to kinda keep ahead of things.
I mean, think about when the, you know, I know we’re still talking about it, but the COVID-19 pandemic hit, it was pretty fast and wow, most organizations were not prepared at all and it really threw them for a loop, and some of them didn’t survive it. But the same thing could happen. Like you said, you could have a fire, oh, well there goes your server farm, it burnt up. Now what are you going to do? There’s your whole business gone. Or there’s an earthquake or you know, whatever, a hurricane wipes out your warehouse full of stuff, which sets you back months and months and months. Or if you’re a healthcare facility, some disaster happens and now suddenly your patient census has quintupled in a matter of hours, and you’re trying to figure out how do we move people through this space efficiently? How do we not freak people out? And so on.
So, I think that this concept of being flexible and being able to respond in real time in an intelligent and efficient way makes the in-office, we’ll say, but in the physical organization space, attractive. More attractive in some ways than my house, where things are as efficient as I’ve made them, which in my house is not terribly efficient. I might want to go into the office if when I go there, I find myself in this cocoon of helpful, efficient information. I might choose to go in four days a week.
Andres Avalos: Right. There’s the workplace policy, but then there’s also the preference of the employee as well, based on their own individual needs. You know, what you said is key. I think one of the biggest trends that we’re going to see for talent strategy in the future is a more personalized experience for the individual, for the employee themselves. You know, they’re going to want to come in, be able to have the desk that they typically sit in, or the flexibility to work in a space that’s most comfortable for them based on the activities for them throughout the day. And that’s going to be expected.
Can’t remember which report it’s from, but the number two factor for high performing talent to consider when joining a new organization is workplace policy. How many days are you going to be making me come into the office? And also, what kind of space do you have available for me to do my work?
Derek DeWitt: Yeah, that’s true. You gotta come into the office three days a week and you’re going to be on a cardboard box in a closet. Shut up!
Andres Avalos: Yeah, absolutely. And I’ve met with organizations that, you know, still even to this day are mandating, you know, a certain type of attire or dress code, which is quickly falling out of favor with high performing talent of the future.
And, you know, we think about Gen Z. They are starting to come into managerial positions. And these are people that grew up with technology and screens throughout their entire life. They’re used to purchasing digital assets, you know, a lot of games over the last decade where you can buy certain ammo for X amount of dollars more to give you an uptick in a particular game. You know, that’s normal. And these people are coming into managerial positions, they’re going to be making big decisions about real estate, the physical space, but they’re going to have extra mindshare on the digital space as well and making sure that those two are married.
And if you think further out, going to Gen Alpha that are 10 years from, you know, becoming professionals in the workplace, as babies, a lot of them, and I think we can walk around, you know, any public space and we’ll see little kids, and fairly young, you know, one year, younger, in front of an iPad. You know, it’s projected that these individuals are going to get the same sense of collaboration as maybe you and me feel when we’re working together in person. They can feel just as productive working with someone else digitally.
Derek DeWitt: Right. Or even more so, because they can be more honest, they can be more themselves, they don’t have to deal with, you know, whatever weird social cues and things like this. And they don’t have to worry about how they’re dressed. They don’t worry about how they’re going to be perceived; their teeth, their hair, whatever, whatever the things are that’s in their heads. They’re just, look, I’m a voice and maybe you see me on the video conferencing once in a while, but I, you know, whatever, I made myself into a rabbit today. What do you care?
It kind of lets you just go, let’s just forget all this other stuff because we are, we’re, you know, we’re primates. We’re sophisticated primates, but we’re primates. And if we remove all of those social elements that cause conflict and anxiety, we might actually find that we become more efficient in groups.
Andres Avalos: Oh, that’s so right. And, you know, workplace policies does have social impact, right? We spend the majority of our day working with our colleagues, every single day, for the majority of our adult lives. And so, we pick up different social cues throughout the day. There’s certain ways that we expect to interact socially with the people around us based on what’s happening at work.
So, I don’t wanna downplay the decisions that employers have to make when it comes to workplace policies. They really have to approach workplace and hybrid workplace policies or in-office policies, you know, whatever the policy is, with an extreme amount of care. Because whatever employers do there is going to have real world social implications.
So, the more information that we can provide these professionals today that’s realtime, that’s accurate, that has integrity behind it, the better off they’re going to be making those really important decisions.
And what we haven’t talked about, really, is just where does AI follow in this.
Derek DeWitt: Ah, yes. Well, yes. The buzzword of the age.
Andres Avalos: Yeah, everything’s AI. But when we talk about AI, I mean, all the rave right now are GenAI chatbots, right? And we have one ourselves inside OfficeSpace. We released it in 2024. It can answer basic knowledge questions about the product, how to use the product, what works best. But we’ve evolved it since then.
And what our chatbot can do today, and we call it Ossie; so what Ossie the chatbot can do today inside OfficeSpace is actually turn the entire experience interactive. So, employees can ask Ossie, in addition to asking basic knowledge questions, to find their colleague. And Ossie will bring up a floor plan where their colleague is currently sitting or typically sits or where they have a desk reserved and show you exactly where that person is on the floor plan. So, that way you can wayfind yourself to that person. And they can do that with resources as well. If you need to find a printer, just ask Ossie. You need to find a conference room, just ask Ossie. You need to find where your boss is? Just ask Ossie.
Derek DeWitt: Yeah, right. So, you can either go talk to your boss or avoid your boss.
Andres Avalos: Yeah, yeah. Like, stay away from this area of the floor. Yes, absolutely.
Again, for us it’s more around just the employee experience. How much information can we provide them that’s realtime, that’s accurate as quickly as we can in a nice, seamless, easy to use way, so that way they can be more effective throughout the day? And that’s where AI really comes into play in software like OfficeSpace. Not only, you know, chatbots, but just automating workflows as well. Being able to be proactively suggested actions based on what data is telling you as well.
So, being able to forecast trends that are happening in the future. Utilization rate has been up every Wednesday the past quarter. Are you having activities on that day? Whatever activities you’re having on Wednesday could be a happy hour, for example.
Derek DeWitt: Right. Or a food truck comes in or something.
Andres Avalos: Absolutely. Ask Ossie, you know, what can I do to drive more engagement on Tuesday? Consider having that food truck come in.
Derek DeWitt: That’s true, ’cause the AI isn’t just for the, you know, the grunts, the regular employees, for their things. It can also be used to, again, make suggestions. It’s not telling us what to do, folks, it’s not Skynet. But it can be utilized by upper management as well. Like, hey, you know what, I have this situation going on. How can I fix it? Or like you said, hey, we seem to have a lot of traffic on Wednesdays, can we do something to make Wednesdays even more special? And the AI will go try this, try this, try this, try this. You could try ’em, you can not try ’em. It’s up to you. You’re still in the driver’s seat.
Andres Avalos: Yeah, absolutely. And that’s one thing that we approach with care. And we have a broad range of clients that we serve and different industries we serve. We have finance, insurance, business services, manufacturing, retail, energy and utilities, you know, and tech. Thousands of clients across all of these different industries. And then also legal, right? Which is an industry that’s very hesitant to adopt anything AI at first, right? So, they’re not going to be our early adopters.
So, just as much as it is important to provide the benefits of AI, especially as we build the Data Fabric, the more data you have, by nature, the more powerful any kind of AI you build is going to be. As long as that data is governed and secured and being used responsibly. Which we have a whole AI governance policy that it’s our manifesto, it’s on our website if anybody’s interested in going out and viewing that.
But, you know, we do view ourselves as being a responsible steward of AI as we bring out more features to the market. You can even turn it off if you don’t want it. And that level of flexibility is also important across the board. If there’s any kind of personal identifiable information that’s going to be run through algorithms, you know, we wanna make sure that our organizations and the organizations we serve are comfortable with all the AI benefits and the way that we roll out AI features and capabilities in the future.
So, it’s a two-pronged approach. You get a lot of facilities, folks, procurement folks that are asking exactly how this works. And then you get, on the employee side, just a lot of really excitement, and can I have more? Because automating and proactively engaging with employees on things that are important to them is going to grow more and more commonplace as more people get familiar with AI. You know, these things are going to be commonplace. And I view this space as big as the internet was in the 2000s.
Derek DeWitt: This is a tool that I’ve been hoping for, for ages. I hope it comes quicker, because I wanna be able to just walk around and ask questions to the air, and then have reasonable answers and suggestions, show up on my device or inside my wearable computing thing, or projected on the wall of my home or however I’m interfacing with it. That’s what I want. As I muse about an idea, gee, I wonder about this, you know, how many earthquakes have there been in Mongolia? Oh, this is how many. Oh, thank you for telling me. I didn’t, I could still be cooking my dinner and yet keep learning. Which is exciting.
Andres Avalos: Instant insights: commonplace in the future.
Derek DeWitt: Well, I have to say, this has been a really, really interesting conversation. It all reinforces something that I’ve been thinking for quite a while now, and which in fact is on the OfficeSpace website, that the future of work is flexible. I mean, that is really what we’re talking about. And how all of this stuff is available right now. Organizations of all kinds can do it right now. And eventually they’re gonna have to because as my guest today has said, the younger generations, this is just part of how things are done. So of course, you’re gonna have to do it, because they’re the ones who are gonna be making the decisions pretty soon. And they’re, of course, going to start using this stuff because it just makes absolute sense to them. Why not get on board now and get there early so that you have a leg up on the competition?
Like I said, a truly interesting conversation with my guest, Andres Avalos. He is the chief product officer for OfficeSpace Software. And we’ve been talking about all kinds of ways that his company organizes space management, space booking, space utilization, facilitating hybrid work and all the other things that kind of go into the modern workplace. And some ideas as to what might be coming down the road in the very near future.
Thank you for talking to me today, sir. Like I said, super interesting!
Andres Avalos: Again, thanks for having me. Thank you.
Derek DeWitt: Thank you. And again, I remind everybody there is a transcript on the Visix website, and you can find all kinds of helpful links on there as well.