The Challenge

Beyond the immediate aesthetics of the physical spaces, CreativeCubes.Co’s differentiator was the breadth of its quality ICT infrastructure offering.

George Garth, Head of Operations and co-Founder of CreativeCubes.Co said: “The rationale for our concept is to give members a sense of community within an environment that elevates their brands. Because tech drives every business today, we couldn’t just offer physical spaces. It’s our complete ICT offering that elevates our brand.”

The aim is to keep member overheads down while lifting their productivity. “All they have to do is bring their own device, plug it in and focus on what they do. CreativeCubes.Co takes care of the rest,” he says.

Most members commit to running their businesses from CreativeCubes.Co for 6-18 months. Members are placed on monthly contracts which includes ICT infrastructure.

In planning its first site – 2017 in Richmond – the CreativeCubes.Co team knew “as a starting point, we had to have a great, really fast Wi-Fi network. But there’s a whole lot of detail underneath, like privacy and security” said George on reflection.

Security – in all its forms – is a paramount concern. Everything from the physical access controls to networking. “I was hyper-conscious because a competitor of ours had had a serious breach in its unsecured environment,” George says.

“At the outset we had the big picture in mind. We wanted to open 30 sites across Australia,” he says. To achieve that national footprint, while the physical spaces of each CreativeCubes.Co site would be unique, the technology infrastructure had to be scalable and replicable – and seamless for members.

CreativeCubes.Co needed a systems integration and procurement partner with deep expertise across all technology areas and “because we were in for the long term, we had to have the cultural fit of a positive, dynamic partner,” George says.

The Solution

“I’d experienced working with Compnow in my previous company and had no hesitation in asking them to come on the CreativeCubes.Co journey with us. Having conceptualised our first four sites in Melbourne, Compnow has proven itself as our strategic partner on all things IT. And with its national footprint, we’ll be taking Compnow with us as we open sites 5-20 interstate,” George says.

The scalable infrastructure will be seamless across Australia. “Members and their visitors can go to any site, use their same profile, have the same security and the same experience wherever they’re working from”.

Compnow’s presales and design teams’ discovery work teased out everything CreativeCubes.Co’s members would need. “To ensure we always have the best on hand,
we have a constantly moving design, modify, update services model,” George says.

With hundreds of individuals and hundreds of different member companies, the Extreme Networks suite of products were chosen using structures that were designed with those vital separations. “Each member is protected within its own bubble. We also have all the physical security smarts – like CCTV and door, building and lift access – protecting their businesses”.

CreativeCubes.Co’s first two sites in Richmond and Hawthorn were equipped with two servers, plus a remote server and UPS “which were heavy on hardware and redundancy to manage backup, WAPs (Wireless Access Point), authentications and directories. The plan was to centralise once we expanded to four sites. Because we’re doing so well, we’ve brought forward our push into the faster cloud servicing for WAPs across the network, management services and databases. Without equipment on site, it’s so much easier and cheaper to scale,” George says.

Lyndon Cookson, CreativeCubes.Co’s Customer Experience Manager, is responsible for making everything happen on the ground. The onsite Happiness Team take on the operational background roles: running the office spaces so members can focus on their businesses. “Member satisfaction is our north star”. Technology and associated help desk support “is there to lift their productivity.”

“All they need is incorporated within their monthly fee. What Compnow provides out of the box works for 95% of members. For others wanting to, say, connect to a VPN or use a special printer, we can fix it easily. To achieve that took a lot of expert design work from Compnow,” he says.

The fitout of meeting and event spaces has taken on a new importance since the arrival of Covid. And the AV kit is the priority – including display, balanced sound, wireless casting and video conferencing as well as panels, mics & cameras. “We have the best of all options to accommodate today’s face to face and remote attendances. Time is precious, every piece of equipment has to be easy to use and totally reliable,” Lyndon says.

Compnow set up a virtual command centre to help the Happiness Team navigate Covid lockdowns and reduce staff exposures. Working from home, using the Teleportivity cloud-based customer support video platform, the Team continues to cover all locations. “Visitors coming to the front door are still served by a real person, even if they’re geographically remote,” he says.

The Benefits

George says: “Having access to unbreakable networking and fast WiFi is easy to say. To make it happen takes expertise from technical design, through to procurement and project management, and beyond to support.”

Through Compnow’s industry wide expertise and its deep connection with the equipment vendors “they know what’s best in the market now and, importantly, what’s coming. As they explore new technologies, we get to hear about them. And, because they understand our business so well, they know exactly how those advances can make a difference to us and our members. Compnow also has the clout to get the best prices for us,” he says.

“Compnow jumps in when we need them. As an example, we provide printing to members via a 3rd party leasing arrangement. But Compnow manages the connectivity and print queuing which is seamless across every venue.”

Compatibility is a given. The integration work delivered by Compnow means CreativeCubes.Co’s members don’t have to change they way operate – everything just works and works the same way in every site.

Lyndon says: “Having Compnow on our team cuts all the headaches. People come to the door with every type of device. I’ve got a Mac, the rest of the business is on Surface Pros, she’s on an iPhone and he’s got a Samsung – it doesn’t matter, we have all the connection points and they can print from anywhere,” he says.

“The experiences of Covid have accelerated our value proposition. It’s brought forward demand for new ways of working by a decade. Compnow and we are going to be very busy for some time to come,” George says.