1. Residential Buildings: The Acceleration of E-commerce.
McKinsey estimates that, in the United States, at the start of the pandemic, ten years' worth of e-commerce adoption was concentrated into just three months. This is certainly not a phenomenon exclusive to the United States; in general, more and more apartment buildings are limiting package reception areas where deliveries can be left when residents are not home.
2. Office buildings: companies that operate less centralized work models
Last August, CBRE's EMEA Occupier Survey 2021 published that most companies, and nearly 80% of large companies, are already opting for some type of mixed or "hybrid" work pattern, with employees splitting their time between the office and home.
Furthermore, a hot topic in the world of office management is the potential benefits of the 'hub and spoke' model, which involves having a main headquarters (the hub), typically in the city center, along with satellite offices closer to where employees live (spokes). For example, 21% of companies surveyed in the UK in Knight Frank's 'Re-occupying and Reimagined Workplace Survey' stated that they are considering allowing their employees to work closer to home. Meanwhile, a recent PwC survey (US Pulse Survey from PwC) suggests that many North American companies are embracing this approach.
To respond to these trends, 2N® IP Style, which recently received the prestigious Red Dot Design Award, now features a QR code reader to facilitate the exchange of access data with couriers and other visitors.
In residential buildings, it allows a courier to have unique access to the main entrance and the parcel room and, at the same time, send a message to the tenant to inform them that there is a parcel waiting.
On the other hand, in the office environment, the trend towards decentralization and hybrid work is a shift away from the "traditional" office model and will leave many companies unable to justify having a staff member permanently assigned to the reception area. The 2N® IP Style's QR code reader helps companies manage this. It allows a cleaner to access the building once a week at a pre-arranged time, and only access the areas they have been asked to clean; or it allows an employee from the company headquarters to access a satellite office for a single day.
In all these cases, access is programmed remotely via 2N® Access Commander, with the details sent directly to people's mobile phones.
Other new enhancements to the 2N® IP Style that will address these trends and will be available soon include:
• Two-way video function: allowing visitors to see the person they are speaking to and vice versa.
• Camera adjustment function: further increasing the current angle range of the existing 5 MP camera in the 2N® IP Style, which already incorporates wide dynamic range (WDR) technology, ensuring complete image quality and visitor identification even in darkness or irregular outdoor lighting conditions.
Jean Paul Navarro, Business Development Director for 2N in Spain, notes: “These trends—particularly the rise of e-commerce—were already visible before COVID-19, but have increased considerably with the pandemic. Across Spain, the focus is now on convenience and flexibility, and this update to the 2N® IP Style helps us deliver that. The fact that this intercom already sets the benchmark for technological and design excellence and supports WaveKey, the latest and fastest Bluetooth-enabled mobile access technology, is also a major advantage.”
