Keith Shirley

It’s a bit like waiting for a bus – Back in August I lamented about the lack of hot-desks in Carlow and now I find out that both the Shamrock Plaza and the Enterprise Board are going to have them.

Shamrock Plaza is being promoted by Jacqui McNabb (former Carlow Chamber of Commerce CEO). I met with her last week to review the offices and to talk to her about the facilities needed for hot desking. I am both happy and impressed to be able to say that she has covered all the points I could raise.

The building itself is located where Doyles of the Shamrock used to be – right on the Dublin/Kilkenny road in the centre of town. It’s a very impressive building with a finish that I hope other businesses will be inspired by. It’s always a pity to see a company move into a new premises and to let themselves down by using poor signs/flooring etc. There are a number of large corporate suites (with suspended floors) available which at the moment are completely open – you can configure them to match your requirements.It’s the small offices and hot-desk room that was most interesting for me.

The details are being finalised but the following were the points we discussed:

Lease Period: The offices will have short lease periods. This is important because in the current climate it’s hard to commit to a 5 year lease when you don’t know if you will still be in business. The vision for the hot desks is more of a mini office – you just rent the desk rather than an office. Real hot desking would involve leaving an empty desk at the end of the day. In this case you keep your desk – but if you still have it in 2 years then you need to make a commitment and upgrade.

Costs: Sorry – can’t say much about this yet and the details are being finalised. An office is available for 900 Euro a month – including phone line, power and internet link. The hot desk will be comparable. This is fantastic as it will allow people to try out an idea without having to sink all their savings into non productive assets. The hot desk includes a phone line and broadband.

Day-rental offices: There are no day rental offices as such – but they probably are not needed. Rented a meeting room for a day will probably cover most peoples needs.

Central Reception: The reception will be run by a Carlow company – AutoOffice – which I didn’t even know existed. They will provide full virtual admin services – answering the phone in your name, taking in post and deliveries and generally helping a small business to run efficiently and look like a bigger business. The phones are an interesting point – your bill be come via the central reception services – you don’t need to pay a seperate line rental.

Meeting rooms: There is a boardroom type meeting room available and a big room suitable for large meetings and training.

Out-off hours access: Everyone gets a little RFID chip that gives them 24 hour access. Obviously – if you are sharing an office with others you need to be a little more careful with securing your desk before you leave (this includes data protection issues).

Storage facilities: Each hot-desk will have some storage space with it. I spoke to Jacqui about providing extra space when needed but this might not happen.

Furnished desks: Furniture is included. It would kind of have to be. The good point is that it’s included in the standard office l;easing as well.

Parking: The building has underground parking as well as a few street level spots for short stays. It looks good and should avoid a lot of headaches.