Despite the challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic, a truly global partnership ensured the seamless design and delivery of Bottomline’s first workplace in India.

Unispace partnered with local designers and global experts to realize the Bottomline offices in Bengaluru, India.

A high-stakes challenge required a reliable partner Bottomline’s payment solutions make complex business payments simple, smart, and secure. This innovative company needed a partner they could rely on to deliver their first workplace in India, creating an exciting space that would reflect its energetic, innovative culture and mission to push the boundaries in the payment solutions space. Connecting innovative design with a new agile work environment, we delivered a vibrant workplace that aligns with brand identity to inspire next-gen digital solutions.

Igniting excitement around their arrival in India, this workplace shows the art of the possible

Having a deep understanding of the client, Unispace knew that the design for these creative tech geniuses would need to support their desire to make the statement that Bottomline has “arrived” in India.

Following the extensive period of working from home, the space was designed to draw people back into the office and bring together lots of new teams. Bottomline’s ambition was to provide a workplace their staff would be proud of and have spaces where people can come together and foster a community for the Bangalore office.

With the majority of staff being engineers, a good percentage of the space needed to be allocated for focus work with optimized ergonomic work-points. Bottomline desired to challenge the current perceived engineering desk-based working culture and create spaces that allowed for more collaboration and solution-based interactions between their teams. Within the focus working clusters would be drop-in team tables and acoustic seating booths for short discussions. Surrounding these work clusters would be access to enclosed meeting rooms, flexible semi-collaborative meeting spaces, and a central destination innovation space.

Destination break-away spaces were included in the workplace, each with flexible settings that can change functions from breakout to work event and town hall. These areas include a café with serviced canteen and a games area with board games for employees to reset. The use of color has been applied to ignite collaborative spaces, inspire focus spaces and energize community spaces. Carefully considered environmental graphics and artworks were placed in locations that connect the client’s brand with the local Bangalore culture.

To provide these new spaces for collaboration and innovation Bottomline moved to an agile work policy where seating would be unassigned. Through the strategy and early planning phases Unispace modeled different work policies and densification scenarios to bring confidence to Bottomline’s ambition to future-proof their workspace and ability to adapt if business requirements changed in the future.

Innovating with local and global talent delivers optimal outcomes The Design and Client Solutions teams from Unispace in Boston, US, were familiar with Bottomline’s business objectives and design aesthetic after forming a close relationship throughout several previous engagements. They acted as the conduit between the US-based client and our on-the-ground, talented Design and Delivery teams in Bangalore to create a unique workplace that not only reflected the company’s global values and vision but also encapsulated a local influence.

After expediting the design phase to meet the client’s tight deadline, India experienced a severe third wave of Covid-19, only weeks into the construction phase. Strict guidelines were enforced nationally in accordance with GOI and WHO guidelines which resulted in lockdowns of commercial sites. The Unispace team was well prepared having implemented risk mitigation plans from the project outset. This meant that the project suffered only minimal material supply issues and labor shortages.

Unispace’s international collaboration in solutioning Bottomline’s project objectives, brought innovative ideas and international perspectives, while accommodating local cultural preferences. The result is a space that’s flexible, energizing human-centric, and ready to evolve as Bottomline’s business grows.

Despite having to work around the impacts of the pandemic, our team’s careful planning, staging, and programing ensured the project was delivered on time and within budget.

Design: Unispace

Photography: ishinora

9 Images | expand for additional detail