The Wool Mill Centre
Location: Melbourne - Australia
Project type: Bussiness
The Wool Mill Centre, in Melbourne’s inner city Brunswick, is a dream workplace. It combines soaring industrial architecture and light filled spaces with high tech and environmental sustainability.
The venture is the brainchild of John Kallitsas, who saw the potential in the former working mill and, rather than redevelop the site, refurbished it into a state of the art co-working space.
The Wool Mill Centre is home to major tenant SalaryMasters, and a growing number of small businesses looking for the perfect base from which to run their operations. The Wool Mill Centre’s physical structure is firmly rooted in past, but inside it is very much designed for the future. Planned and opened in 2020, it’s a co-working space for a post-covid world - incorporating contactless access, dedicated individual offices, and enabling clients to run 24/7 multiple shifts. With 300 solar panels, it has an eye on our environmental future too, and is a positive contributor to the power grid.
Figures
- 13 access points
Above all, I want my clients to be able to walk in the door and not have to worry about anything except running their business. With SALTO, I can deliver on that promise.
-
“When we decided to repurpose this wonderful building as a coworking space” says John, “we knew we had to think long term about the ways that people would be working post-pandemic, well into the mid-21st century. That meant being very high tech and environmentally sustainable. It meant offering our tenants complete autonomy, and a ready-to-go space, so that they could focus 100% on their business, not their building. It also meant that we had to be able to manage the space cost effectively so we could offer our tenants great value.”
When it came to technology, John knew that access control was an essential enabler for his vision. But there were several challenges in selecting the right system: “We wanted an electronic access control system”, explains John, “to make access simple for our tenants, and management efficient for us. But most required cabling, which in an old building like the Wool Mill Centre presented us with a potential cost and structural challenge.”
The electronic access control (EAC) system also had to integrate seamlessly with Nexudus, John’s chosen coworking management software platform and, with no onsite servers at The Wool Mill, it had to be managed via the cloud.
-
John selected SALTO’s cloud-based technology platform, SALTO Keys as a Service or KS, as the EAC solution for The Wool Mill Centre. “SALTO KS is an integration partner of Nexudus” says John, “and once we saw the product, we knew it was perfect for us. SALTO have a wireless lock option, which instantly did away with our cabling issue. The XS4 Mini locks are well designed, and are a great aesthetic fit with our internal building style.”
Tenants access the building and their dedicated offices with a key card or using their mobile phone as a credential. For visitors, the front main entry door has an intercom connected to individual rooms, and tenants can let their guests in using the SALTO KS app on their phone.
The installation was managed extremely smoothly by SALTO partner JTW Security. James West, Director agrees that SALTO was the perfect fit for this project: “With a refurbishment of an old building like this, a wireless solution is essential”, he said. “Running cables would have been almost impossible, not to mention expensive.” John was delighted with the way that JTW Security managed the whole setup process smoothly and completely hassle-free.
For John, the decision to implement SALTO KS was a good one. “Our major tenant, SalaryMasters, say their staff love the ease of using their phone for access”, he says.
Key benefits
- Enhanced brand positioning - The Wool Mill Centre promotes itself as a high tech, high spec facility, and SALTO’s world class access technology is part of that picture.
- The ability to offer a high level of customer service - tenants have almost immediate access, as soon they are registered.
- Ease of use for clients - choice of a key fob or using their mobile phone as a ‘key’.
- Autonomy for clients - they don’t need to rely on someone being there in order to access their offices
- Offering 24/7 access for clients, without compromising security
- No need for onsite management staff - all access control can be managed remotely.
- Reduced administrative overheads - not having to issue, register and manage physical keys saves money and staff time.
- Integration - SALTO KS links to Nexudus meaning that when The Wool Mill Centre adds a new client and issues an invoice through the co-working management system, SALTO will automatically instigate access control. The SALTO fob or app is also the user’s credential for The Wool Mill’s PaperCut print management system, ensuring that a document is only printed when it’s owner is at the printer.
- Future integrations - The Wool Mill Centre is looking to use the EAC credential for other functions such as booking and releasing the shared boardroom, all possible with SALTO.
With SALTO KS, you can simplify your operations, connect to your existing management tools and grow your coworking community.
