What products or services do you provide?
Condeco is one of the world’s leading workspace management software companies, specialising in the development of world-class room and desk booking software and the manufacture of a range of unique interactive room and desk hardware The combination of state of the art software with ground breaking digital hardware has allowed Condeco to grow by 300 per cent in the last 4 years.
Our unique offering of software and hardware is used by several FTSE 100 organisations that want to better utilise office space during a time when more and more employees work flexibly.
Condeco empowers our clients to create a smarter working environment, where desks and workspace is able to be booked when needed and not left empty. This can reduce the amount of office space required by up to 30 per cent. This reduction provides significant cost savings, helps reduce an organisation’s carbon footprint and improves productivity.
What is your USP?
Condeco’s stand alone offering provides a full range of software and hardware products that allow their customer’s to understand their occupancy and usage of a building and to provide the tools to help manage that space better. This in turn allows the customers effectively manage their real estate and reduce costs.
Condeco is the only vendor to provide complete end-to-end project management from R&D, design, services and support. We to help monitor and manage the workplace and provide local support through our global offices in US, UK, Switzerland, South Africa, Dubai, India and Australia.
What have you done to make sure you get the right people with the right skills in place?
Having experienced 2 years of strong growth, we were presented with a number of problems: how do we retain the current staff and recruit the best talent in the market place? We have spent the last 2 years developing a strong management team that will allow us to not only to develop the current workforce but also attract the market leading talent that we need to take Condeco product to its global market
Do you have any tips for managing suppliers and customers effectively?
You need to ensure that your customers receive the service they need and wherever possible aim to exceed their expectations. This is not always that easy when dealing with very large global clients with very demanding needs, but I believe that Condeco has managed to do this by maintaining a very personal level of service with its customers and understanding exactly what they require from their software and hardware solutions.
Our suppliers are fairly limited as we have in house sales, development and support teams, but being loyal and providing consistency to the suppliers we do have has always helped to maintain good relations, plus paying them on time is always well received.
Any finance and cash-flow tips?
Cash flow is always a challenge for a rapidly expanding company, but we are fortunate to be privately funded, profitable and cash flow positive. If I were to provide advise, it would be to agree the payment terms in advance with your clients and ensure that any credit provided is documented and that the company can afford the debt.
Any advice for the government?
An issue that’s been heavily discussed and is yet to be addressed by the government is the issue with empty office space. London has the most expensive and desirable real estate, rather than constantly creating new buildings, we need to use the existing space more efficiently, which will not only save businesses money and in turn help the economy but will also help to resolve the issue of over-crowding.
The government needs to put pressure on big FTSE 100 companies, to asses their actual space requirements and occupancy rates based on fact, rather than basing decisions on assumptions. However many businesses are unlikely to adopt workspace saving technologies unless it is lead by example. Government should be leading this change in attitude. They are constantly under scrutiny to save money in the public sector. By looking at new ways to utilise existing space according to the working patterns of their employees, they will save huge rental costs for building that are proving to be underutilised, which will in turn will prompt other prove sector businesses to assess with own workspace.
What is your attitude towards your competitors?
We believe competitors help shape the market and help to build a business case; in most circumstances they are a necessary part of business. It would be naive not to keep a close eye on the competition, although I am confident in saying that Condeco is certainly leading the way in our space. We have always been a forward-thinking company and invested heavily in the technology, R&D and design to ensure that we are constantly re-evaluating our position.
Any thoughts on the future of your company?
Condeco aims to become the clear global leader in the workspace monitoring and management market over the next 3 to 5 years. This will be achieved through continuous product investment and extending our network of regional offices to support Condeco’s growing customer base and maintain our world class service delivery.
