Digital Component Construction Provides For Faster, Greener Office Space Design

BY DOROTHY ROGERS-BULLIS

If you’re feeling some whiplash with your professional work style and setting, you’re likely not alone. We went from working a traditional five-day workweek in-person in the office, to working a hybrid schedule, to going fully remotely during the pandemic, to today when many companies are requiring that employees return to the office either full-time or for part of the week. It’s been a whirlwind few years.

With this return to the office, companies are looking for fast solutions to upgrade their existing office or outfit new commercial space. They recognize that employees who have grown accustomed to working from the comfort of home need an incentive to come back into the office, which can include updated work spaces.

In addition to that, with the tight labor market, top talent is in high demand. Companies need to put their best foot forward to entice these prospective employees to join their ranks. These human-centric factors, among others, are contributing to the rise of one of today’s hottest office trends: digital component construction. And one of the industry leaders in this popular trend by storm is Falkbuilt.

Digital component construction from Falkbuilt blends the speed of off-site component fabrication with the precision of digital design. Customize walls, doors, offices—whatever your creative vision is for your commercial space.

But these aren’t the low-quality, prefab materials you might be imagining. This is high-design and construction that is built to last. Falkbuilt uses sustainable and recycled materials, reinforced with steel, so it is strong yet less expensive to produce and assemble than a traditional sheetrock commercial interior. Falkbuilt materials also prioritize safety, featuring a one-hour fire rating.

But another crucial differentiator between Falkbuilt and other digital component construction firms is their proprietary ECHO computer software. Before, commercial interior designers had to contend with the numerous different platforms used by designers, manufacturers, shippers, and installers.

ECHO is the world’s first “technology agnostic” computer platform that synthesizes all of these platforms into one centralized location. This enables Falkbuilt to design the perfect office space with precision measurements, and follow the project end-to-end — from design to manufacturing, from shipping to installation.

When you remove these silos, you streamline the entire design and installation process, making Falkbuilt’s digital component construction one of the fastest commercial design solutions available.

The benefits of digital component construction

The digital component construction trend offers businesses numerous advantages over more traditional office space design and construction options. When you choose digital component construction from Falkbuilt, you get:

Speed. Thanks to Falkbuilt’s ECHO technology, precision-measurement design, and streamlined manufacturing and shipping, you can have a new (or newly remodeled) office space in as few as five weeks. This enables you to quickly get remote workers back into the office in a new space—or a reimagined one.

Less hassle. Thanks to Falkbuilt’s custom prefabrication, the majority of the build process is actually conducted offsite. Your construction components arrive in large sections, ready for installation so assembly produces no dust, and less waste, noise, and disruption. It also requires fewer tradespeople than traditional construction, adding to the streamlined speed of your project.

Cost effectiveness. Digital components are often less expensive than on-site, stickbuilt office interiors. Plus, you own your Falkbuilt components. They are designed

Continued On Page 13

Real-World Scenarios To Apply AI In Business

BY MARK SHAW

Oh look, another article on AI (artificial intelligence.)

Ok, I promise this won’t be one of those, “AI is here and it’s going to take your job, help you cheat on college papers, or end the world” kind of articles.

There is a lot going on with ChatGPT and its parent company OpenAI making such waves in the news. People are using AI to gather information faster, assist with writing better articles, and even creating art.

While all of this is amazing and it’s interesting to “play” with, what are some real-world scenarios that you can apply AI to use in your business? That is a great question. Far too many articles go for the big hype instead of the small and incremental successes you can have with AI.

Let’s talk about something that isn’t really being talked about when it comes to AI: customer delight. How do you use AI to delight your customers?

If you are a business and you have emails, ticketing systems, or any interaction with your clients electronically, you could be using AI several ways. For example, what if you could have AI review your emails, and if you have a client who appears to be unhappy or showing concerns, your computer would highlight and bring those emails to the forefront to be dealt with first? Would that be an advantage?

AI can be used to review “sentiment” which means, reviewing the use of language to make a determination if someone is upset, or using terms that might make them be at risk of leaving your company or services. This would let you see these emails first and respond quickly.

That isn’t the only way to increase the value to your clients. Imagine receiving an email from a client asking questions about your products or services that they are interested in, or maybe even a problem they are having. AI could do the research and document anything relevant about the clients request in a private note document, saving you the manual research and time. This allows you to get back to them faster with more accurate information.

A great example of this exact situation is any computer error code you might get. Imagine that when you email your IT support company about “Error code 1490 showing up when I open QuickBooks,” and in seconds, AI has parsed the email, generated research on error 1490 codes when it comes to QuickBooks, and has spit out the top five solutions to the tech support team.

The request was not just received, but the basic research has already been done, and the engineer is now actively reviewing the problem and not wast- ing any time. Is that valuable?

This doesn’t have to be tech support related; it could be as simple as asking a manufacturing company in email if they have a product in stock and how long would take to get it. AI could pull all that information and have a note for the salesperson with information about the clients location, the warehouse the product is in, and how long shipping lead times are.

For a sales executive, this would cut out all research and allow them to respond quickly to the client with all the important facts already researched and sitting there for them. Boom! Customer delight.

We have seen the customers sentiment as well as some potential answers to their questions provided for a human to review and act upon, but what else can we use AI for? Clear communication. Making the client feel empowered, educated, and listened to. Isn’t that all we all want out of any business interaction anyways?

Imagine if once you have solved the client’s problem, you could have AI answer the next most commonly asked questions such as, “How did you fix it?” and, “Are you sure it won’t break again?” and, “If it does, what do we do?” Put these questions into AI and it will come up with a wonderfully clear and concise response you can share with your clients.

AI is wonderful at breaking down complex concepts or solutions and explaining them. This adds more customer delight, because the answer can go from, “dunno” or “it’s fi xed” to a response that brings the client in, educates them, and helps them feel more part of the process. All without any delay.

Run Since 1981"