Coherent: Simple Shared Workspace and Community Management

Coherent is an all-in-one workspace management software for owners of co-working spaces. Simpleweb developed Coherent’s MVP over three phases responsible for workspace membership, booking and billing.

“We have been working with Simpleweb since the very beginning of Coherent and we couldn’t be more delighted that they are now a stakeholder in the business too. This is a really exciting time for the business.” – Gavin Eddy, Founder, Coherent

Helping shared workspaces

Startup investor and founder of Forward Space shared workspaces, Gavin Eddy, challenged us to create a system that would allow workspaces to manage their properties and facilities, and allow members to manage their bookings.

The Product

Simpleweb proposed a lean approach spreading development across 3 phases, starting with an MVP and iterating based on user feedback. The purpose of the MVP was to get the core of the system (membership, booking and billing) working. It was absolutely key that this core was bullet- proof, as it would be handling the majority of (if not all) financial transactions for a workspace.

Using Coherent, workspace operators can manage bookings, invoicing, payments and customer data. Members can make bookings, check availability and update their account. Unlike other, similar solutions, the beauty of Coherent lies in its simplicity. Smooth, functional and easy to use, Coherent handles complex data to make managing or booking a workspace quick and painless.

Payments with GoCardless

Coherent uses GoCardless to take monthly payments, and members set up a credit limit, so that they can add extras without running up massive bills. While GoCardless is predominantly used for direct debits, it does support one off payments. By integrating this with the tariff system, Coherent is now flexible enough to support monthly billing and ad hoc bookings so that payments and invoicing are always up to date and accurate.

Delayed user activation

Many workspace operators needed to be able to delay the launch of their Coherent account, so that they had enough time to get set up and integrate with their existing billing periods.

Coherent allows users to delay activation of their accounts to give them time to onboard without having to pay for anything they’re not going to be using.

“We put a lot of effort into selecting our partner for this project and we were quite nervous about getting it wrong. We genuinely feel we could not have selected better than Simpleweb and have acknowledged between us that we have had an almost perfect experience” – Ryan McKee, Project Lead, Coherent.

User hierarchies

Coherent will allow for 4 levels of user permissions, making the system fully self manageable for workspaces and their members.

Workspace operators – who may own several workspaces – will be able to view and manage the Coherent system across all of their properties in one simple dashboard. Operators can assign hosts to each property or workspace so that the Operator doesn’t need to be handling the day- to-day admin of every workspace they own.

Companies who hire a space will have “organisation admin” permissions, allowing them to manage Coherent for the whole company. “Organisation members” or individuals who work in companies hiring a workspace will be able to control their own accounts only. By having multiple members per Organisation, anyone can make bookings when they need, without having to ask the Admin user to process it. It gives organisations and their members a lot more flexibility and control.

Community

User profiles, browser notifications and an Eventbrite integration make it super simple for workspace members and operators to communicate and collaborate.

Where are they now?

Coherent launched publicly in late 2016 and expanded across workspaces throughout the UK. They went on to be selected as one of 10 Best of British Startups by Google Campus.

An all-in-one workspace management software

Workspace operators using Coherent can manage their bookings, invoicing, payments and customer data. Members can make bookings, check availability and update their own account.

Coherent is an all-in-one co-working space management tool handling everything from invoicing and payment processing to booking and resource management.