Study Says Traditional Office Becoming Extinct

***Update:  The report discussed below has been released***

Following on yesterday's post on corporate coworking, another GigaOm article looks at a study being produced by Regus and Unwired called called VWork: Winning Strategies at Work. 

The study appears to be much more optimistic than we are in terms of corporations quickly embracing coworking as an alternative to traditional office space.  Key quote from the article:

"So what we’re doing is aligning the idea of “buy/bring-your-own” which is beginning to get traction in the IT world, with the idea of just provisioning work, so that companies give their employers a stipend, a budget, and the budget is for all aspects of the provisioning of work to suit them and the way they work."

They are also suggesting that many workers will choose 3rd places instead of home to work:

"But if we see a huge change, a sea change, in the way that big corporates are working — if they do reduce their property footprint by 30 or 25 percent — we’ll see tens of thousands of new workers looking for someplace to work, especially in their communities, but that hasn’t yet been provided for."

I found it interesting that the word "coworking" is not mentioned.  It is alluded to in a quote on the quality and quantity of existing 3rd work places:

"You can see them meeting the needs of the freelancers, the contingent workers, who go in with their Macbook Airs and have a coffee and they’re online, but they don’t meet the confidentiality needs and other services needs that they will have to respond to if Fortune companies adopt third space."

The actual report is due out next week and we're looking forward to it - it sounds fascinating. 

Comments

[Paula]

Hello, I also think the traditional offices enter into extinction, it is much easier, cheaper and hassle to install his company in a coworking space.
I was surprised with the efficiency of these spaces!
I worked at home for a long time, but was getting annoyed so I opted for coworking. I visited a few companies and I liked the most was the www.regus.com.br which is very nice but very expensive and www.clubwork.com.br, which has proposed a very different and not so expensive, I really liked, but decici yet.
I'll visit some more places this week and put my opinion here.
See you soon!