Scaling up and setting a new standard for virtual desktops in the AEC industry

Our first sale was 3 years ago. Now, 27 UK architects & engineers use over 600 of our vdesks

When we kicked things off in August 2019, we spent several intensive months developing our Inevidesk application. Beta testing it. And refining the technology. Architects and BIM consultants from the likes of Hopkins Architects, Hutchinson & Partners and Archilizer acted as our steering group by testing the product and providing feedback on where we could improve.

And then… just as we were starting to feel like we were in a good place – the pandemic hit. An uncertain time for everyone, and definitely for us as a new startup trying to get off the ground.

But it actually ended up being the catalyst for us making our first ever sale – before we’d even ‘officially’ launched Inevidesk. Hopkins Architects – who’d already found “the performance of Inevidesk during [its] early trial really outstanding” – snapped up three Inevidesk pods in response to lockdown. And since then, vdesks have played a key role in its post-pandemic working strategy, with 146 vdesks now supporting the London head office, remote workers  in the UK and Europe and - for a time -  even team members based in Dubai.

Almost three years since our first sale, we have now hit more than £1 million worth of sales.

As I write this, we have delivered 94 pods and 650 vdesks (and counting) to 27 architect and engineering firms across the UK. It’s fair to say we’ve hit scaleup territory. But amid our growth, we haven’t lost sight of our mission to make good technology accessible and to set a new standard for virtual desktops in the AEC industry.

How have we done this in three short years? Let us catch you up…

·       Sep 20: The long-awaited ‘official’ launch of Inevidesk came after the country emerged from the first lockdown, but was still in the throes of the pandemic. Over the next few months, new clients saw the potential for our vdesks to enable more agile ways of working, including Flanagan Lawrence Architects, Weston Williamson and Hutchinson & Partners (who use our vdesks to connect their Berlin based team to the London office)

·       Mar 21: Lipton Plant Architecture (LPA) became the first fully-hosted client in our data centre. Why you ask? Hosting server and workstation resource with Inevidesk is a much more efficient, secure and resilient way of working. Plus, it frees up office space from servers and workstations. Over the next few years, GRID Architects, HLM architects, eight versa, Architype and Silver EMS, amongst many others, also adopted virtual desktops for their teams: some hosted, some on premises

·       Nov 21: We dipped our toes into industry events, exhibiting for the first time at Digital Construction Week. You can still catch our talk where we outlined our mission to empower the industry to work in whichever way it wants to – at the office, in satellite offices, while travelling abroad or at home – without impacting performance when working on BIM models and CAD

·       Dec 21: Cullinan Studio’s Foundry in Islington, London became our new home after the firm’s move to vdesks meant the studio was able to offer a new flexible working model and free up building space that had previously been taken up by onsite server infrastructure and fixed desk workstations (not to mention that the move also reduced overheads and improved the resiliency of its IT services)

·       May 22: Another move but this time to a new data centre in East London where we opened our private suite to accommodate the rapid growth in our hosted clients. This saw us consolidate and move all hosted clients into one secure and beautifully managed area in a brand new, top of the line, datacentre. More clients now opt for the hosted model, with around 70% of our vdesks now hosted in the data centre, to centralise all their resources and improve business continuity

·       Oct 22: We hit the £1 million mark in sales and 500 active vdesks. This truly took us out of startup and into scaleup territory, as our vdesks became increasingly recognised by the industry as an innovative, credible challenger to the offerings of VMware, Microsoft Azure and Citrix

·       Nov 22: We hosted our inaugural FORUM event at The Building Centre, London to exchange ideas to progress the way the AEC industry works. Thanks to Professor Neil Spiller, editor of AD who spoke about the relationship between cyberspace and architecture

·       Dec 22: Because we build Inevidesk – the hardware, virtual platform and application – all ourselves, that means we can easily spin up changes that improve the experience for vdesk users. Most recently, we released our latest client application to allow a wider range of remote desktop technologies and updated our Administration Portal, which introduced many new efficiencies to reduce time consuming IT admin. Vdesk users on our Premium connection service can also now use pen devices to draw on screen and improved colour clarity for market best remote resolution. And we’re already working on the next set of updates that will further improve the vdesk experience this year

Looking back over the past three years, I am proud of how far we have come in our mission to set a new standard for modern infrastructure in the AEC industry. But, this is just the beginning and I’m excited to see where we go next.

Our clients know the value of working with us. If you want to learn about the potential for Inevidesk in your organisation, reach out to us at info@inevidesk.uk