Parakey at Entreprenörsgatan: "Simply better service!"

Rikard Westberg, co-founder of Entreprenörsgatan

15 years ago, Rikard Westberg and Eric Cardell started the Entreprenörsgatan Coworking on Kungsgatan in Gothenburg. Today they have 10 office hotels on Sweden's front page, about 700 members and 200 companies sitting in their premises. In early 2023, their latest facility was opened at Sankt Eriksgatan 6 and there all doors are equipped with Parakey.

"We chose to install Parakey on Sankt Eriksgatan as part of making it more accessible to members and easier to manage access - a better service," says Rikard. 

"As soon as customers move in, all their employees have access to the offices and our shared spaces. And when their membership is terminated, we also terminate the digital keys. Since we introduced Parakey, it is clear that we have better control over who has keys to our premises."

And what do members think?

Katarina Alwin, who works with training, tastings and the members' club at wine importer Handpicked Wines, now finds it perfect to unlock the office with the smartphone:

"I was a bit hesitant at first, but now I think it's fantastic. the smartphone is something I have to carry with me and it means I actually have one less thing to keep track of." 

And Nicklas Hansson, Dealer Account Manager at BusinessBike Sweden, which makes preferential cycling very accessible throughout Sweden, thinks it's very convenient:

"Initially we had access to the entrance via an app, but the office was locked with a key - we had two keys for eight people and it always ended up that the wrong people had the keys. So it worked very poorly and there was a lot of time spent locating keys. We want to spend our time on better things."

"It's easy to make mistakes when you don't have it digitized"

Rikard again emphasizes accessibility and simplicity for members as the greatest value of mobile access on Entreprenörsgatan, but also simplified access management. He describes a previous problem as "a hundred physical keys somewhere, and even if you try to be careful, it's very easy to make mistakes when you don't have it digitized.".

A further step in Entreprenörsgatan's digitalization is to build integrations.

"We want to automate and integrate," says Rikard. "I think that's what it will look like for us, and others, in the future. I don't believe in independent systems where our staff have to go in and change several systems, that's a recipe for missing things. Then it will be back to the same as with the physical keys: 'have you signed a key contract?', 'have you handed over this key?'"

Entreprenörsgatan has built a connection between its business system and member portal Office RnD and Parakey so that members automatically receive a key to meeting rooms when booking, but also to allow members to control which of their employees should have access to the office.

"Then they can add members to the member portal themselves and we automatically give them access with Parakey", says Rikard. 

To enable this, both the Zapier integration hub and webhooks have been used.

"Parakey has a very distinct API, it is well documented how it works. It's not really a challenge to build an integration today."

And continuing the theme of giving Parakey praise, Rikard says:

"It is very fun to work with a company that has been started here in Gothenburg. I think Parakey does it very well. Focus on what Parakey should deliver - and deliver on it. It also gives us extremely positive to have Parakey as a player and as a locking system." 

"We assume it will work and it delivers on that assumption"

"We find it very reliable, otherwise we wouldn't be able to use it. We expect it to work and it is delivered on that basis."

He continues: "It's not so reliable with physical keys when it's eight o'clock in the evening and someone has forgotten their key, but needs to get in somewhere and we need to send someone to help this person."

On this theme, Katarina of Handpicked Wines, who initially had no intention of having mobile keys in her office, has something to add:

"We were given a key and I thought it would be great, but the first day I came to work I forgot that key at home and I realized that it's just as well to be digital all the way in." 

She also adds that she would definitely recommend mobile keys.

"You just have to make sure the smartphone is loaded, but it usually has to be, so it's super easy." 

"We have quite a few conversations with other coworking operators about challenges, and access is part of that," says Rikard. "I think many would benefit from a system like Parakey for their coworking spaces."

He looks back at the introduction of Parakey at 6 Sankt Eriksgatan and says with a smile:

"We were not out in super good time or well organized and there I thought that Parakey met us well! We solved a lot on place and it felt very flexible. Parakey was responsive to what we needed to do and came up with suggestions for solutions." 

"Now we have Parakey partly in many places, but I think if you ask me again in two years, I would say we have Parakey on all doors, in all places."

We will ask again in two years.