Healthcare
Dry Erase Walls and Surfaces More Popular Than Ever
A&K Painting provides a canvas for brainstorming and finding solutions.
Dry erase walls and other surfaces, like tables and work surfaces, continue to gain in use and popularity. They promote a better means to get ideas out, work on solutions and actively see the big picture; particularly when working with fellow team members as well as working by yourself. Getting rid of the tired white board look and gaining whole walls and table tops to work on, to brainstorm, plan and find solutions provides a great benefit for your people and company.
We have many options available that fit most needs. Visit our Dry Erase Solutions page for ideas. We’re experts at both presentation coatings and wallcoverings. In fact, we have Dry Erase solutions on walls and sections of walls throughout our own offices and at our Operations Training Showroom. Contact us today to learn more and bring our expertise to your workplaces. We have solutions for offices, hospital and medical building or production and manufacturing facilities. We have many design options too. Not just white. Think design colors and patterns, and lined and grid patterns solutions perfect for educational settings, classrooms and labs.
Today’s Wall Street Journal story about Evernote’s Silicon Valley office building highlights one of the products we use called IdeaPaint, an excellent dry erase coating. Evernote’s complex utilizes dry erase solutions throughout, in offices, conference rooms and common areas. Unfortunately the full WSJ article is in the subscriber protected area otherwise we’d link to it. Here are two photos of the Evernote offices.
From the WSJ Article
The whiteboard has three chief virtues: It’s fast. It’s easy to use. And it’s big. “We’re often doing something I call ‘designing in the hallway,’ ” said Jamie Hull, the product manager for Evernote’s iOS apps. “When a new problem or request comes up, the fastest thing you can do is pull two or three people aside, go to the nearest wall, and figure it out.” Unlike a computer or phone, the whiteboard is always on, always fully charged, and it doesn’t require that people download, install, and launch software to begin using it.
The Pace of Business is On the Rise
Business challenges we all face when responding to change.
Research by Progress Software/Economist Intelligence research showed some interesting statistics regarding the shifting business landscape around us. The statistics show that the pace of business is the on the rise, and the top three factors causing this change over the past five years are the volatile economic environment, increased competition and a fast-changing regulatory environment. Unfortunately, businesses have barriers to overcome to react to the fast pace, including lack of resources, lack of coordination and inaccurate or incomplete data. Take a look at their infographic.
Most importantly, an overwhelming 53% of people believe leadership is ineffective in making the right decisions about how or when to respond to change. Fortunately, we can all overcome these challenges by incorporating strong leadership, effective flow of information and keeping accurate and up-to-date data.
Americans with Disabilities Act and Restriping Parking Lots
Americans with Disabilities don’t need any more hurdles to overcome than they already face, especially in their everyday lives and this includes attempting to visit a place of business. The Americans with Disabilities Act takes this into consideration and has set requirements for businesses that are restriping their parking lots. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, from the ADA Business Brief, “when a business restripes a parking lot, it must provide accessible parking spaces as required by the ADA Standards for Accessible Design. Accessible parking spaces for cars have at least a 60-inch-wide access aisle located adjacent to the designated parking space. The access aisle is just wide enough to permit a person using a wheelchair to enter or exit the car. These parking spaces are identified with a sign and located on level ground”. The ADA also has requirements for van-accessible parking, which include “a wider access aisle (96”) to accommodate a wheelchair lift, vertical clearance to accommodate van height, and an additional sign that identifies the parking spaces as ‘van accessible’”. The ADA also has requirements on how many accessible parking spaces to provide when parking lots are restriped, which is based on a percentage of the total number of parking spaces provided per lot. Also, according to the ADA, “the accessible parking space must be located on the shortest accessible route of travel to an accessible facility entrance”.
A&K Painting Company understands how important accessibility is for people with disabilities and provides solutions to meet ADA requirements when striping parking lots. Our expertise and attention to detail can provide property owners and managers with the peace of mind that their parking lots have been designed with safety as the top priority and that all ADA requirements have been met. Providing great value to CRE professionals and property managers, keep the bottom line in mind. It all starts with the use of proper preparation techniques which provide longevity and a better value overall.
Learn more about A&K Painting Company’s Striping for Safety and Maintenance Solutions. Contact us if you have any questions and when we can be of service to you.
Indoor GPS- How it Will Benefit Users and Business
In recent years, companies have been developing something called IPS, or indoor positioning service, which would allow your phone, tablet or any other wireless enabled device to be constantly tracking certain signals in your location by using Wi-Fi signals that already exist in the building. Some companies, such as Google, already offer mobile maps of locations like shopping malls and airports, and according to a recent Wall Street Journal article, analysts believe that further advanced indoor mapping and tracking could be used to “direct users to their gate at the airport, provide audio tours in museums or push offers to consumers based on where they are standing inside a store”. Also, Opus Research analyst Greg Sterling “believes that data about consumers’ indoor whereabouts could be extraordinarily valuable for retailers studying foot traffic and making merchandising decisions”.
Another extremely large market that could benefit from an indoor GPS application would be the medical field; especially medical centers that have massive offices or campuses. Time is sometimes of an essence when it comes to hospitals and people would probably rather not spend that time trying to find where their loved one’s room is located or even what building their appointment is in. An indoor GPS would allow people to quickly find their destination and probably reduce stress levels dramatically. This could also apply to college campuses, where students are notoriously late on their first day because they can’t find their classroom.
One possible drawback to an indoor GPS would be privacy; however, it is highly unlikely a company would market a service unless there are definitive guarantees that your data is safe and your location won’t fall into undesirable hands. There also wouldn’t be such a large number of companies interested in the indoor GPS market if they thought it would have serious privacy risks. Overall, despite the privacy concerns, the indoor GPS will probably be highly beneficial for consumers in the near future, but more so, very profitable for the retail, hospitality, entertainment and medical industries.