Toronto-based office supply and business solution provider Grand & Toy used this week’s Toronto International Film Festival to provide a hands-on view of what it believes future workspaces will look like.
The Media Centre IT lounge, hosted at the Windsor Arms Hotel in Toronto, serves as a functioning media office workspace for journalists reporting on this year’s annual TIFF. Inside the lounge, there are no desktop PCs or laptops to be found. Instead, each designated work station (about eight of them in all, given the small room space), is equipped with an HP (NASDAQ: HPQ) mini notebook, and a Kensington wireless mouse and keyboard. In the corner of the room sits a large MFP printer, also from HP.
Jennifer Horton, director of marketing technology at Grand & Toy, said there are three key trends that can be seen across all businesses, no matter their size. First off, Horton said organizations are looking at ways to become more mobile while keeping their employees efficient and productive.
“Organizations understand they need to invest in more face to face time with their customers to be able to provide exceptional customer service,” she said.
The second key trend, Horton says, is the level of increased competition among businesses resulting from globalization. Companies are now investing in key technology and solution practices to bridge the gaps that they may have previously faced due to geographic reach and location.
“The question becomes, can businesses that have done things before locally now go nationally?” Horton said. “With collaborative tools, notebooks, Internet access and Web and video capabilities, companies can now balance their time and reach better.”
Lastly, Horton says businesses are also now taking into account the needs of Generation-Y-ers (those born between 1982 to the mid-1990s) who are now entering the workforce.
“Expectations are a lot higher now than they were before,” Horton said. “Generation Y employees are changing the workplace because the cost to acquire and retain talent is changing. It’s the whole idea of not being confined to the office workplace anymore and becoming more mobile.”
Currently, Grand & Toy has over 250,000 technology products in its line card, in addition to various partnerships with many key vendors such as HP, Symantec, Microsoft, Cisco, and more.
Mark Lorne, general manager of technology and imaging at Grand & Toy, said the company has well over 100,000 business account customers in Canada. While Horton says Grand & Toy still has a retail store presence, a priority for the company now is to focus on its small to medium-sized business (SMB) accounts.
“For a long time Grand & Toy has been recognized as the office supply provider,” she said. “The perception used to be back-to-school, but now it’s changed to back-to-business. SMB is a very good market for us and our offering becomes stronger and better suited towards the SMB customer. We are one provider that offers solutions around technology, interiors, office products, imaging and professional services.”
Lorne says today’s customers are also interested in mini notebooks, such as the HP 2133 Mini-Note PC, a fully-functional PC solution designed mainly for the mobile workforce and the education market. Weighing in at less than three pounds, this ultra-portable notebook makes it easy to work from the office, on the road, or at home, therefore allowing users to work and play wherever they may be.
Businesses are also looking to move away from photocopier solutions to multi-function printer (MFP) products, Lorne adds. The HP Colour LaserJet CM6030 MFP not only prints documents, but it can scan, copy and send digital documents as well, all using one-single solution.
“That’s one of the many ergonomic products that we carry,” he said. “We also have a wireless keyboard and mouse solution from Kensington that allows for more workplace flexibility.”