Simplifying desk sharing: how LOOPING GROUP used deskbird

Founded in 2016, the storytelling agency LOOPING GROUP has made it its mission to help individuals, companies and brands tell their stories. Because in the "editorial society", the monopolies of publishers and broadcasters are a thing of the past; nowadays, everyone can be a sender and receiver of messages. The company takes special care to achieve journalistic excellence and at the same time economically effective accuracy in order to reach the right people at the right time on the right channel, be it with a TV documentary, a book, a podcast or a TikTok post. Clients include automotive groups such as BMW and Mercedes-Benz, personalities such as Tina Turner, luxury industry brands, insurance companies and the public sector.  The agency also operates its own media brands such as MADAME magazine, Germany's oldest lifestyle magazine for women.

LOOPING GROUP relies on the ideas and craft of its writers, designers, data analysts, and strategists - because marketing in today's world requires creativity and collaboration, as well as precision and ambition. But what's the best way to work on complex projects when one part of the team sits in offices in different locations and the other works remotely?

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Even before the start of the pandemic in March 2020, the LOOPING GROUP's employees in three locations at the time - Berlin, Munich, and Hamburg - had the option of working remotely temporarily. Since then, the need and also the desire for hybrid work on the part of the company and the employees has changed drastically. Mobile work has long been accepted and is actively encouraged. At the same time, however, the team spirit was to be maintained. 

In 2021, they opened a second office in Munich, and a new one was added in London, although it was clear from the start that the space capacity would reach its limits at some point. In this situation, LOOPING GROUP consistently implemented the already established shared desk concept. How could they organize who would come to the office on which days, where they could sit, and how could they do this across all locations? Ideally, the solution should be clear and simple, without having to keep cumbersome Excel lists. It quickly became clear that a tool for booking workstations was needed, as was already familiar from co-working offices.

At LOOPING GROUP, several tools that enable desk sharing were evaluated. After reviewing the alternatives, the company finally decided on deskbird. Although a must-have feature initially set by the agency (assigned spaces) was not yet supported (but is now), deskbird was preferred due to other decisive criteria: the clear look with simple UI, the analytics and flexibility in the admin center, the user-friendliness, as well as the interactive floor plan.

The implementation of deskbird went smoothly and with the help of the support team, the tool was also integrated into OKTA Identity Management. This tool makes it possible for employees to log in to deskbird comfortably with their familiar and secure login data. The use of the tool is simplified and leads to better acceptance by the users.   

Even after the successful rollout, LOOPING GROUP is in regular contact with the deskbird team to push forward missing features, such as the Outlook synchronization of the conference rooms or, for example, a large-scale, temporary blocking of tables, areas or floors by the office managers. At this point, however, it can be said that the deskbird team is already working on the development of these features.