Welcome to the deep dive. Yeah, you know if you stepped into an office recently
things feel different, right?
The whole landscape is fundamentally changed that dedicated desk with your name on
it. It's kind of becoming a relic instead
It sometimes feels like this. Well this chaotic game of musical chairs this huge
global shift
Towards hybrid work has created a massive logistical puzzle
How do organizations even manage their physical space which cost a fortune when
people just you know come and go flexibly
So today we're diving into a specific type of enterprise software designed exactly
for this to solve this modern headache
Our sources focus on one platform called seat surfing and our mission
It's really to give you the learner an easy way in we want to cut through the buzzwords
Desksharing free seating cloud native this PWA that I really understand what this
stuff does. How does it actually help employees?
How does it help the company manage these flexible spaces? We want this to be a
beginner friendly look
But before we unpack all that we really want to thank our supporter. This deep dive
is supported by safe server
Safe server handles the hosting for software like this and they can support you in
your digital transformation journey
You can find out more at
ww.safeserver.de
Okay, let's get into it
So when we look at the source material these phrases pop up everywhere desk sharing
room reservation free seating for enterprises
Oh, honestly for someone new to this it sounds less like office management and
maybe more like I don't know
Running a huge co-working space inside a company. What's the actual like core
problem? This kind of software is trying to solve
That's actually a great analogy. It is like an internal logistics system, but for
resources that aren't fixed anymore
Basically this software category exists to manage physical things desks rooms that
aren't permanently assigned to one person
The goal is pretty straightforward
Let any employee in the company book a seat a desk or maybe a meeting room often,
you know, right when they need it and
The why behind it is critical think about it if a big company has say a thousand
employees
But they only need to be in the office maybe three days a week
Well, the company might figure out they only really need maybe 600 desks by going
hybrid
They've deliberately created a situation where desks are scarcer than people. They
can't afford an empty desk
That's wasted money. But crucially they also have to make sure that the 600 people
who do show up on Tuesday actually have somewhere
Guaranteed to sit and work right? So it's this balancing act
Maximize the use of expensive real estate but still keep that promise to employees
that yes
There will be a spot for you when you come in
Exactly and seat surfing according to the sources is positioned as the tool to
manage these
Hybrid work features. Oh, it's about optimizing how space is used
But also importantly cutting down on that wasted time employees spend just
wandering around looking for an empty desk
That makes total sense from the company's perspective managing costs and efficiency
But you know often the catch with powerful enterprise software is the user
experience
For the actual employee just trying to book a desk for Friday. Is it gonna be clunky
slow?
Frustrating how simple is it meant to feel that's a huge focus for these modern
platforms
It has to be frictionless simple. The source material really emphasizes this find
and reserve your perfect seat in seconds
It's that simple. That's the promise if it takes an employee more than say a minute
to figure it out or make a booking
They've failed people will just give up. Yeah, they'll just revert to wandering the
halls again. Yeah. Okay. I like that focus on speed
We've all felt the pain of wrestling with some over engineered internal booking
cool, but convenience isn't just speed, right? It's also about access
Where can employees actually use this booking tool? Is it just another website?
They have to remember
That's vital for getting people to actually use it
It needs to be where they already are where they do their work the sources
highlight this clearly multiple access points
You can use seat surfing on your phone obviously on your desktop
But crucially also directly inside the collaboration tools people live in all day
like Microsoft Teams or Atlassian confluence
Okay, so it's embedded exactly that deep integration means you don't have to
context switch
You don't have to open another app just to book a desk for tomorrow
And this really showcases, you know modern software design thinking the main
interface for users the booking part
It's specifically mentioned as being built as a progressive web application a PWA PWA
Okay, we hear that acronym thrown around a lot for someone new to this
What does that practically mean for me the user trying to book a desk?
Think of it like this a PWA behaves like a native app you'd install from an app
store. It's fast. It feels integrated
You can even install it sort of put an icon on your phone's home screen or your
desktop
But and this is the key part
You don't actually go through the hassle of an app store download or some complex
IT installation process
Ah, okay
So it's app-like but without the usual app headaches precisely it gives you that
quick smooth access without the IT overhead or the
Distribution friction you get with traditional apps that seems like a smart way to
balance things keep it simple for the user
Handle the complexity elsewhere now, let's switch perspectives for a minute a
smooth user experience is great
But it needs a solid administrative back-end right someone has to manage all this
Who's dealing with the complexity behind that simple booking screen? Let's talk
about the admin side, right?
This is where the the real enterprise features come into play for the
administrators
Maybe the facilities managers the software has to cope with real physical often
complicated office layout
So admins can upload their existing floor plans
Maybe they have them as CAD files already and then they can visually configure the
space to find seating areas
meeting rooms using drag-and-drop tools right on that map hang on drag-and-drop
sounds nice and easy, but
Uploading and then maintaining those floor plans. Yeah, doesn't that sound like a
potential nightmare a huge admin task
Is that where the real cost comes in just keeping that virtual map accurate every
time someone moves a partition or adds a standing desk?
That's definitely the challenge these platforms face keeping the virtual map synced
with reality
But making the interface visual drag-and-drop it aims to lower that barrier
compared to say older systems
Where you might be editing configuration files
The idea is to take workplace management as the sources say to the next level
By making that static floor plan into a live dynamic map of what's actually
available right now. Okay, I can see the value there
Yeah, but what about organizations just dipping their toes into hybrid work? Maybe
smaller teams
Do they have to commit to some big expensive corporate subscription right away?
What's the entry point like good question?
The sources actually highlight the platform's scalability here
It's described as cloud native which is basically tech talk for saying it runs
straight from the cloud usually in your web browser
Critically, it says no installation required to get started and even better for
those just testing it out. There's mention of a free plan
Specifically for up to 10 users. Oh interesting a free tier
Yeah
It lets smaller teams or departments try it out prove the concept works for them
before needing to scale up or commit financially
That immediate start is pretty key for adoption these days now. This is where for
me
It gets really interesting from a strategic point of view
Because we seem to have a product that caters to two quite different needs almost
two different philosophies
It's offered as this fully managed ready-to-go service
But its core engine is also open source
Our sources say seat surfing is both a fully hosted software as a service sauce and
its back-end code is out there on github
That's quite a split. It is and that duality is really about addressing different
segments or needs within the enterprise market
But companies that just wanted to work minimal fuss they go the sauce route
They get as the sources list no installation required automatic updates
The infrastructure is all managed and it specifically mentions the servers are in
Germany, which for European companies worrying about data residency
That's a big plus. That's the convenience path. Okay straightforward enough, but
then there's this other path the open source angle
Why would a large company one that needs reliability security? Yeah, why would they
choose to self-host a core tool like this using open code?
What's the draw there control and audit ability?
That's the big draw of open source for many IT departments
It caters to organizations that absolutely need to know exactly what the software
is doing under the hood
Maybe for compliance reasons or they might need deep customization that a standard
sauce offering just can't provide
That's why the technical details are important here
So let's peek under the hood a bit the core server the back end that handles the
API the API being this sort of
Messenger between the app and the database exactly that communication layer. It's
written in go now go wasn't chosen randomly
It's known for being really efficient fast and great at handling lots of
simultaneous request concurrency
Choosing go suggests they built it for scale aiming to ensure it stays responsive
Even if you have thousands of employees hitting it at 8 a.m. Trying to book a desk
Okay, so go for speed and handling lots of users makes sense and we already touched
on the front ends the user interfaces
Those are typescript react. It's a pretty common solid choice for web apps today
What about the legal side of that open source code if a company self hosts?
What kind of license are they working with it's under the GPL 3.0 license now for
anyone not dip in licensing
The key thing about GPL 3.0 is that it's poppy left. It means the code is free to
use study modify
But if you do modify it and distribute your version you generally have to share
your modifications under the same GPL 3.0 license
So it promotes sharing improvements back to the community, right?
It's crucial for IT teams wanting the freedom to adapt the software to their unique
internal needs without getting locked into a vendor's proprietary
System and for the tech teams actually doing the self hosting the documentation
apparently makes it straightforward using Docker compose
Docker compose essentially bundles everything needed the go application the
required database
Which is PostgreSQL here for storing the data persistently it packages it all up so
you can run it relatively easily
Exposing it on a standard network port which is mentioned as 8080
That level of detail in the setup docs using something like Docker compose suggests
They really want to make self-hosting accessible easy deployment is clearly a goal
But that ease of deployment leads directly to a pretty big security point that
comes up in the material doesn't it?
It absolutely does while the goal is easy setup the documentation for the self-hosted
version apparently specifies default admin login details
The username is admin at seats surfing dot local and the default password is
Well, it's one two three four five six seven eight. Oh
Yeah, that's not great. That's like leaving the key under the mat. It's a major red
flag that needs immediate action
It makes the initial install incredibly simple
Yes, but it's a massive security vulnerability if an IT team deploys it and forgets
to change that password immediately that highlights a classic tension
Doesn't it making things super easy to get started versus maintaining serious
enterprise security precisely if you go down the self-hosted open source route
Rule number one step zero even has got to be change that default admin password
before you do anything else before even think about uploading
A floor plan that's a really critical warning for any organization considering
deploying infrastructure from open source
Don't skip the basic security steps. Okay, so let's pull back a bit. We've covered
a lot
What does this all really mean for the learner someone just trying to get their
head around this whole modern office management tech landscape?
I think the core takeaway is that a platform like seat surfing aims to be this
comprehensive
Scalable fix for the hybrid work puzzle
It does this by trying to balance two things that often seem at odds on one hand
Making it incredibly simple and easy for the employee booking a desk, you know with
things like PWAs teams integration
Very user focused and on the other hand providing powerful enterprise level
controls for the admins
Plus offering flexibility and how it's deployed either easy saws or controllable
self-hosted open source powered by that go back end
It feels like this is about more than just booking desks though
It signals a bigger shift and how we think about physical infrastructure. I think
so too this move to desk sharing
It's almost a textbook case of digital transformation leading into the physical
world
It forces the office environment itself to behave more like a digital resource
It needs to be instantly flexible searchable bookable on demand
It really shows how modern software approaches high-performance backends user
friendly
Front-ends can tackle these really tangible real-world problems created by changes
in how we work and that leads us to maybe a final
Provocative thought for you the listener to consider we can now instantly reserve
desks and rooms with an app
Given how flexible work is becoming what other things in the office that are
currently static or manually managed
Think about specialized equipment maybe company cars even parking spots or complex
tools in a lab
How long before those also require instant app based booking systems?
It feels like the future office might be entirely managed booked and allocated
almost minute by minute
That's definitely something to think about the fully on-demand office. Thank you
for walking us through that deep dive and one final
Thank you to our supporter safe server. They manage the hosting for this kind of
software and provide support for your digital transformation
You can find more information at
www.safeserver.de
Thanks for joining us and we'll catch you next time on the deep dive