04/ 02/ 2007
by Harvey King
The latest ways to organize your high-tech workspace
Look around your office, store or plant, and you'll likely see some impressive high-tech equipment--perhaps some flat-screen monitors, a new laser printer or a digital phone with more features than you'll ever figure out how to use. But how high-tech is the furniture holding all those gadgets? Has your office furniture evolved to cope with all the wires that come with all that gear?
During the past two decades, technology has transformed small businesses. Finally in recent years, furniture and fixtures are slowly being re-engineered and redesigned to catch up with our changing workspaces.
Since the life span of office furniture is considerably longer than the life span of the equipment sitting on it, you might not have checked out the recent developments. Recently, MyBusiness visited some trade shows and office-furniture showrooms in search of the latest trends. What did we discover? At nearly every price point, you can find versatile technology-friendly furniture and fixtures that hide power cords and look cool. While we always recommend checking out your locally owned office equipment and furniture retailer first, we discovered that almost every type of retailer--not just business or technology stores--is jumping into the latest furniture trend.
Get Moving
Searching for mobility? If your office environment encourages collaborative thinking, but your furniture makes huddling up difficult, check out The Hon Company's line of wheeled computer-friendly furniture in its Perpetual collection. In addition to the collection's updated look, the items are very modular, competitively priced and available from many locally owned office-furniture retailers.
Contain Your Cords
Feeling frustrated by a proliferation of power cords? Tame your wires with low-cost solutions like clips, ties and these cool color-coded tubes from The Container Store.
Clear Your Desk
As the price of flat-screen monitors falls, the option of where to place your computer display is no longer limited to your desktop's flat surface. Wall mounts are widely available, and MOView sells a clamp-type mount for your monitor that attaches to any work surface up to 2.25 inches thick.
Space Saver
One of the first companies to focus on tech-friendly office furniture, Antro's creative designs include mobile and modular computer stands and office chairs for those glued to a monitor all day. If saving space is your goal, check out the new line of eNook stations that are like Murphy beds for your laptop computer and desk space. The concept is catching fire in institutional environments (for example, in hospital hallways) and in snug small and home offices.
Image Makers
If you envy those hip futuristic offices Hollywood loves to feature on the latest movies and TV shows, perhaps something from Steelcase Werndl's Emerge line may appeal to your inner Jack Bauer.
