eOffice Case Study“Knowing and Impressing your Market”

LSE – October 2009

eOffice Vision

eOffice‘s vision is to improve the quality of life of professionals by providing flexible and competitively priced ready made networked offices, touch down spaces, meeting and conference facilities in a contemporary and high tech environment in city centre locations across the UK, and worldwide, in the future

eOffice – The ConcepteOffice offers beautifully designed, high tech, fully furnished and serviced offices in city centre locations eOffice workspace is based on an open plan environment, or “office neighbourhoods” with few wall to wall partitions, where good aesthetics and design are combined with information-age technology. Main service lines are virtual offices (business address and telephone answering), hot desking (touch down), fully furnished office, meeting and conference facilitiesAdditional services include administration and online services, making eOffice a one-stop-shop for start-ups and SMEsStrong activities for members, including company visits, networking events and powerful online communities (faceboook, linkedin, twitter)eOffice centres provide a suitable office solution for small businesses, start-ups and self-employed, in particular in the creative, media and technology sectorsAll services are sold online, with an ecommerce platform

Office Trends

Decrease in the amount of workspace allocated to individuals

Increase in the creation of spaces to support collaborative work

Growth in the practice of distributed working

Growth in the use of technologies to support collaboration, connectivity and distributed working

Study by DEGW, 2004

MarketOffice space (serviced offices)

• - Market leader Regus (1000 centres, 135 UK), Servcorp (Austrialian based, 77 centres) , MWB (UK, 60 centres), The Executive Office (UK, 30 centres)

• - Very fragmented market, around 2,000 centres in UK• - Serviced offices offer little differentiation in terms of design,

technology and servicesConference / meeting rooms

• - Several hotel chains offering conference and meeting rooms• - Conference and meeting centres (Etc. Venues, De Vere)

Virtual office services • - Mail Boxes Etc (part of UPS): shipping, postal and business

services , over 4,800 locations worldwide • - FedEx Office (ex Kinkos): postal services, printing and office services • - eReceptionist: telephone number and answering services• - DaVinci : virtual office operator

HistoryDec 99 – eOffice is accepted as a trademarkJun 00 – eoffice.net and eoffice.co.uk are purchasedApr 02 - eOffice opens it first business centre in London SohoMay 02: eOffice launched prepaid hotdesking, then virtual officeSep 02: eOffice starts Google PPC, Google writes case studyJan 03: First wi-fi connected business centre in UKJun 03: CNN and BBC coverageMar 06: eOffice Manchester opensMar 07: eOffice Birmingham and Bristol openOct 07: eOffice wins British Council of Offices Innovation Award Nov 07: eOffice becomes first carbon neutral business centreJul 08: eOffice eNetwork launched, a network of independent worldwide business centresJan 09: 100 centres joined eOffice eNetwork

Products / Services

Virtual Office: business address, mail forwarding, telephone answering, messagingHot Desking: office access by the hour, with internet connection, prepaid hot desk hoursMeeting , Conference Rooms and Videoconferencing: available on hourly or daily basisServiced Offices: flexible office space for individuals and companies from 1 to 20 peopleePA: secretarial services on a prepaid flexible basisMembership and networking: access to community portal and networking events. Calendar function in myeOffice blog integrated to facebook, linkedin, twitterServices: voice, data, mail, fax to email, printing, copying, secretarial services, stationery, file storage and digital services

eOffice Soho

eOffice Manchester

eOffice Birmingham

eOffice Bristol

Pricing

Retail concept: £xx.99Competitive basic prices and adds on (low cost airline strategy)Different options: basic / premiumIncentives for prepayment (12+1 foc)Start low, build volume and slowly increase pricesKeep competitive prices, while building volume and add more services

Promotion / Exhibitions

PR - Endorsements - Awards

CNN Coverage 2002 (Design 360)

BBC Coverage 2003 (Dreamspaces)

eOffice Soho Finalist FX Awards 2002 and eOffice Manchester Finalist FX Awards 2006

eCiffo, Japan (2002): Selected as innovative offices

IAO (Germany) Office 21 – Future of Work, 2003, selected in their ‘Best Practice Tour’

HSBC Star Award 2004 – Finalist

BCO Innovation Award Overall Winner 2007

BCO Regional Winner 2007 – 2008

RIBA – Good Office Design 2009

Partnerships

Key Suppliers

Herman Miller - Case Study 2003

Kristalia – Case Study 2007

Avaya – Telecom

Canon – Imaging solutions

Key Marketing Partners

British Library – IP Centre

Make your Mark

Microsoft – Biz Spark

Nacue (entreprise societies)

Seedcamp

School for Startups

TiE

‘Distribution’ eOffice 2.0

Search Engines: Google / Yahoo / Bing

Business Networks: Linkedin / Twitter

Social Networks: Facebook, ASmallWorld

Directories: Gumtree / Primefind / Craig’s List

Surveys: Zoomerang / Survey Monkey

Blogs: myeOffice.com / eOffice.tv

Directories encyclopedia: Wikipedia

Photo Sharing: Picasa / Flickr

Video Sharing: YouTube / Vimeo

Virtual Life: Second Life: myeOffice.net

Competitive Advantages

Lower property costs. eOffice operates from business centres of around 10,000 s.f. average (1/3 the size of traditional serviced offices), hence a lower property cost

High margin services. More than 50% of eOffice turnover is derived from high margin services like virtual office, meeting and conference rooms and videoconferencing and hotdesking, as compared to traditional full time self contained office space

High Density. Space efficient benches offer higher density in self contained offices, while the balance of the office space is dedicated to open plan workstations, giving higher density and lower fit out cost.

Direct Sales. A high percentage of leads come via search engines (using SEO techniques and pay per click campaigns) cutting the agent intermediaries

Selling Points / Benefits to ClientsCity centre locations, next to transport hubs, and leisure and retail, good quality and representative buildingCreative environment with contemporary design and ergonomic furniture. Variety of working areas, including large lobby, break-out areas, quite booths, hot desking / open plan. Advanced technology, including wireless broadband, voice logging-in anywhere, plasma screens and videoconferencingMembers networking. Registration to myeOffice blog, calendar and connection via Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter. Regular networking events called Net ThursdayFlexibility, scalability and competitive pricing. Price below market leader, options including virtual, part time and full time, possibilities of changing options every month and to scale up or down quicklyOutstanding customer service. Friendly, attentive and professional customer service, from administration, sales, front desk to IT support, fundamental to long-term client retention

eOffice Client Base

Virtual Office: start ups and overseas clients, around 500 companies Hot Desking: growing market, mostly consultants, SMEs, but also corporates Meeting Rooms: small businesses, creative businesses, large corporatesServiced Offices: mostly start ups, small businesses, consultants, rep. offices, companies with between 1-20 peopleNetworking, membership: 130,000 opt-in email addresses, 50,000 Linkedin contacts, over 10,000 twitter followers, over 1,000 eOffice card members

Growth Opportunities Virtual Office

• - Offer virtual office worldwide locations via a full ecommerce solution

• - Buy business addresses, add VOIP numbers and re-sell eNetwork expansion

• - Extend the eNetwork scheme to 200 centres by 2010• - Relaunch eOffice membership card scheme via affiliate

centresManagement Contracts

• - Develop a management contract scheme• - Target property companies with prestigious buildings in city

centre locations• - Landlords to invest in fit out, eOffice management / marketing

Licence/Franchise Agreements• - Introduce franchise contracts in non-core markets• - Obtain fixed fee and yearly fees percentage of turnover

Building Knowledge

Properties: Working with property consultant to identify appropriate sites. Visited hundreds of properties since 2001, hands on approach Interiors: Since 2000, visited major design/trade exhibitions including Salone del Mobile – Milano, and French/Germany/UK fairs Technology: Attending small and large technology events, including CebitStart up community: Attending smaller events targeting startup community in London and UK, and sponsoring many eventsClient Networking: Participating to eOffice networking events (Net Thursday, Coffee Fridays, and Lunch with the CEO), to understand clients requirements. Several online group resources tooKnowledge building: Subscribing to over 50 publications, and several specialised newsletters/blogs/online resources

Importance of the Brand

The name eOffice was first thought in summer 1999 (dot-com boom)

eOffice UK trademark was obtained before business started in Nov 1999

eOffice logo developed by small creative agency in mid 2000

eOffice word and logo is now trademarked in 5 classes of services in UK, CTM (25 countries of European Community), USA and all countries signatory of the Madrid Protocol.

Domain names eoffice.net and eoffice.co.uk were bought in 2000

eOffice now owns around 100 domain names, including eoffice.net, eoffice.co.uk, eoffice.de, eoffice.it, eoffice.fr, eoffice.ru, eoffice.us etc.

Memorable telephone number 0870 888 88 88 and fax number

Complete branding manual available

Simple, memorable brand reduces marketing expenditure and increase sales potential

Tips and lessons learned

Knowledge: Prepare yourself, study the market, attend events/fair/presentation and read a lot Innovate: Whatever you do, do it better than existing providers, offer benefits to your clients

Marketing: Try different marketing / promotional activities and then focus on the most effective

People: Even with the best products/services, you need a good team around you to implement your vision

Perseverance: If you believe in what you do, be focused and patient, it takes a long time to build a stable business

The eOffice Car Fleet …

in 2002 (left) and 2012 (right)…