Washington D.C. based company Frameable is aiming to transform remote and hybrid work with its virtual Spaces services.
Frameable Spaces allows teams to build virtual environments for their companies that simulate offices. Along with the functions of regular video chat platforms, companies are able to create a collection of individual video conferences or “rooms” within the platform—similar to different rooms in an office. Spaces can be created for teams of employees who work on social media, design, infrastructure, IT and more, for example.
The company says that what sets Spaces apart from other video conference platforms is the collaboration factor.
Spaces allows employees to see who’s in what room, allowing team members to join any room if they need to speak to someone or ask a question.
This removes the need to email a co-worker, pick a time that works best for each other, and set up a meeting link, allowing for a faster pace of communication.
The platform also allows users to lock their room if they are in an important meeting or don’t want to be disturbed, allowing for a level of privacy.
“If I wanted to go and pop into any of these calls, if the [virtual] door was open, I would be able to do that,” said Adam Riggs chief executive officer of Frameable. “It’s easier to collaborate. We’re basically just taking the friction away from scheduled [meetings]. Everybody’s remote work experience is very heavy on scheduled interactions, because unscheduled interactions are very difficult with regular meeting software.”
“What people like about being in person is that they like that it’s possible to have those positive, serendipitous, unscheduled interactions which you could call an interruption, but it’s really just teamwork,” he noted.
He added that the way companies use Spaces differs between organizations. For example, some organizations may choose to use the platform at certain times of the day, whereas others may schedule a “project time” where they pick a specific date and time, making it easier to get in contact with employees.
“You don’t have to use it all day long every day to get value, it depends on your team and the culture of the company. But once people see how easy it is, it’s quite exciting. It’s like 90 per cent of the value of in person work but without the commute,” Riggs said.
Frameable, established at the end of 2020, is being used by everything from small firms with single digit numbers of people all the way up to Fortune 500 companies, said Riggs. He added that the company is looking to do a “full blown launch” in the third quarter.
Lastly, Riggs added that Spaces is looking to make sure remote workers within hybrid work models don’t feel a disconnect from their in person co-workers. When someone’s at home, if the tools that they’re given don’t allow for constant collaboration with their co-workers, they quickly lose that connectivity, he said.
Spaces aims to stop this problem with its “open door policies” and easy to connect features which look to simplify communication between co-workers in different locations.
“We are human and when we interact with each other in person, it’s different from interacting from afar. This technology, the product that we built, really allows a company to bring humanity to remote work in a way that it had been missing,” Riggs said.