The Story of Desk Buddy: How We Built a Workplace Management System for Our Hybrid Office
The Challenge
Back in 2021, while remote work was still the norm, management at Proxiad SEE made a choice: we weren’t ever going back to 100% office presence. Around the same time, we were preparing to move our Sofia office into a new building. The challenge was clear but not yet fully shaped: how do we design a workplace that reflects a hybrid model — fewer desks than employees, more freedom to come and go — while still giving both people and management visibility into who’s in, when, and where?
At first, it was just a set of ideas:
- No fixed desks. People come and go on different days, so flexibility had to be built in.
- Shared resources. Meeting rooms, parking spots, and collaboration zones needed fair, transparent management.
- Ease of use. Whatever system we created had to be simple enough that employees would adopt it instantly.
As the Sofia office plans took shape, so did the solution. What started as scattered requirements crystallized into something tangible: a tool that could make flexibility the default, not the exception.
That tool became Desk Buddy.
And it didn’t stay in Sofia. Once tested there, we expanded it to our Plovdiv office, and by the time we started operating in Skopje, Desk Buddy was part of the setup from day one.
The Solution: A Workplace Management System Uniquely Tailored to Us
Desk Buddy started as a way to manage the very real, very practical challenges of our Sofia office move in 2021. With more employees than available desks and limited resources to share, we needed a system that would keep things fair and transparent while making day-to-day use effortless.
In Sofia, the setup looks like this:
🖥️ 94 desks for 143 employees
🚗 15 parking spots
🧑💼 6 meeting rooms
The first version of Desk Buddy focused on managing these basics — starting with bookable desks, then expanding to meeting rooms and parking spots. And we added integrations with Microsoft 365 so bookings fit naturally into people’s daily workflows.
Then we expanded it further:
- Plovdiv office: 36 desks for 68 employees, 6 parking spots, 3 meeting rooms
- Skopje office: 20 desks for 43 employees, 3 parking spots, 2 meeting rooms
By then, Desk Buddy had already grown beyond a booking tool. It included:
✅ Multi-language support (English, Bulgarian, French, German).
✅ Notifications and reporting to keep people and management aligned.
✅ Group and role management for flexible control.
The Results
Desk Buddy didn’t just make booking a room or a parking spot easier — it gave us a new way of looking at our office.
- Smarter space use. The data showed which zones were underused. One area was completely redesigned, while certain meeting rooms were reassigned for wellness activities like massage sessions.
- Friction-free adoption. Because the app was intuitive, employees picked it up right away. Booking took seconds, not minutes, and the system quickly became second nature.
- Constant refinement. By using Desk Buddy ourselves first, we identified bugs, added new features, and shaped the app into a polished, market-ready product.
What started as an internal project soon became something bigger: a tool that actively shaped how we designed and experienced our office spaces.
Looking Ahead
From day one, we built Desk Buddy with more than our own needs in mind. Hybrid work wasn’t just our reality – many other companies would stay with this model beyond the pandemic.
Today, Desk Buddy gives organizations the ability to:
- Run hybrid offices smoothly and fairly.
- Optimize space based on real usage data.
- Provide employees with a simple, intuitive experience that makes the office easier to use, not harder.
Desk Buddy may have started as a workplace management solution for our own office move, but today it’s already supporting a number of companies in managing hybrid work — and it’s ready to help many more facing the same challenge.
