It’s a struggle. You want to work with the most powerful IT systems, but you don’t want them on show in your office. It gets even harder when the number of employees grows, and a number of wires, screens and devices soar. However, your office is your pride and joy. It’s where you host clients and meet prospective employees. It needs to be a relaxing, enjoyable place for your employees, and not one fraught with tension. To make it this oasis of peace, you need the right décor – and unfortunately, having large, bulky piece of IT won’t help. So, you need to get imaginative. You need to use your space to the best of its ability and be tough when it comes to the tech that you want, versus what you actually need.
Hide the wires
It’s been a workplace trend for a number of years now, but keeping wires and cords hidden is a still a top priority. From under the floor, overhead to hidden in furniture, there are plenty of ways you can clear your desks of cords. Cable ties are a great way to start if you’re on a budget. Use them to tie your wires together and keep them stored in one place, rather than having streams of them flowing all over your desks and furniture. Bulldog clips taped onto the back of furniture is a good, low-cost way to keep wires out of the way, as is simply taping them to the backs or undersides of surfaces.
Use desks and cupboards wisely
If you’ve got powerful IT, you’ll probably have large modems and servers. If you don’t want them on show, invest in big desks, and pop them underneath. Or, try to have a part of the office sectioned and closed off, with your IT based in there. As long as it’s cool, you shouldn’t have a problem. While it’s tempting to cover them up and hide them away, you do need your IT to be accessible if you have a data breach or you need a specialist service carried out, like NAS recovery, you’ll need some kind of access to it. However, if you can look at some professional services and see if they offer remote services, you might be able to store your servers somewhere more secret.
Be ruthless with your IT
There are plenty of slim, sleek devices with high-performance abilities on the market, so if you can lower your requirements slightly, you’ll be able to get away with nicer looking devices and less bulk. Many models don’t require separate modems or a multitude of wires, but you will end up spending more for this. It might be time to upscale your IT, rather than working with legions of old computers that take up far too much space. Plus, you need to decide what you’re actually using these high spec computers for. If they aren’t being used that often, is it worth having them in the office, even though they take up space? It’s a tough decision to make, but one that’s worth checking out.