Salto KS

The latest application version (v1.0.9.10) / API release version v1 has been released on the 19th of November 2018. This maintenance release introduces new functionality. No API endpoints have changed, but some have been added.

Functional changes:

Functional changes:

Bug fixes:

Bug fixes:

Since the last release (v1.0.9.8) we have made several enhancements and worked hard on new features, which warrant the release of a new version.

Get in touch to learn more about how we can integrate SALTO KS into your business.

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SALTO KS provides a flexible access control management system that requires no software installation or the added expense of a fully-wired electronic product. Modern cloud-based, wireless access control system is easy and simple to use for businesses including Coworking Spaces, Coliving Buildings, Purpose Built Student Accommodation, Retail, Multi-Tenant Housing, Gyms and many more. Our best in class wireless access control solution and smart locks guarantee the efficiency for your business. Integrate smart locks, start easily managing wireless access control now!

With 650 attendees coming from all over the world this year The Class of 2020, Europe’s leading platform for all topics related to student living was the perfect opportunity for cities, universities and the real estate community of Milan, Italy to join forces.

As an official partner of The Class of 2020, SALTO couldn't be more proud to see The Class Conference in Milan was the largest event up until now. This November the conference filled two days with the finest in PBSA (Purpose Built Student Accommodation), as well as coliving identifying the current needs and shape student living of the future, ensuring the 650 attendees that travelled from 27+ countries got exactly what they were coming for.

“PBSA is critical to attract international students. It is integral to provide good housing, with service and security” - Jorick Beijer, Director of The Class of 2020

The conference presented the exciting opportunity to connect with the European network of student living. City leadership and the higher education community are working together to shape the future of living, working and learning across the globe. Gaining an insightful look into all topics related to talent attraction and student living in order to build ecosystems where student living feels efficient and welcoming is therefore of the utmost importance.

This year’s theme was: ‘From Post-Industrial City to the New Urban Campus’ focusing on cities repurposing their former industrial areas and transforming them into the beacons of innovation for the next economy. Enabling their universities to morph into the backbone of the innovative ecosystem they need to become in order to attract young students. Urban campuses lead the way to social and economic success by being the melting pot of living, working and learning. Milan is aiming for a greater share of the international higher education marker and could double student numbers, according to a research project conducted by the city and student housing think tank.

“PBSA the easy times are over, so value creation through product development and a strong focus on operations is key.” - Vincent Rouget, MD Perella Weinberg Real Estate

Our very own Aznar from Spain, Christian from Germany, and Fabrizio, Alessandro and Michele as deputies from the Italian SALTO Business Unit visited The Class of 2020 representing SALTO KS with our very own booth. With SALTO’s electronic lock portfolio manufactured in Spain fitting any type of door worldwide, we were able to showcase a solution for the international audience that visited The Class of 2020. It was good to see the familiar as well as new faces that were showing their interest to integrate SALTO KS functionality. By becoming a KS Connect Partner, student housing providers can Integrate their own, or their preferred software solution with SALTO KS resulting in the ultimate customer experience providing access on the go and instant real-time lock communication as main benefits.

It was great to see our product portfolio has many solutions for use cases not uncommon in the student-housing sector. With real-time lock communication to a third party coliving platform, KS enables solutions for several use cases. For instance:

It was great to see our product portfolio has many solutions for use cases not uncommon in the student-housing sector. With real-time lock communication to a third party coliving platform, KS enables solutions for several use cases. For instance:

One of this year’s highlights ‘Campfire chats’ was initiated with students leading the conversation on their living preferences, offering us more helpful use cases of the KS solution. Click here for more TheClassof2020 highlights!

#ClassConf2019 will be held in Berlin due to the city’s talent for education and innovation that is a magnet for internationally skilled students. You can register here for The Class Conference that will mainly focus on ‘Blended Living’ in 2019. Following Berlin, The Class of 2020 will join forces beyond Europe. Expanding their barriers to Singapore, New York and Sidney for starters.

Read The Class Annual Trend Report of 2019 here and take a sneak peek to find out what Berlin’s got in store for us next year.

Discover how SALTO KS can improve your students' experience, click here to receive a quote or find out how you too can become a KS connect partner by integrating your management platform with SALTO KS.

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SALTO KS provides a flexible access control management system that requires no software installation or the added expense of a fully-wired electronic product. Modern cloud-based, wireless access control system is easy and simple to use for businesses including Coworking Spaces, Coliving Buildings, Purpose Built Student Accommodation, Retail, Multi-Tenant Housing, Gyms and many more. Our best in class wireless access control solution and smart locks guarantee the efficiency for your business. Integrate smart locks, start easily managing wireless access control now!

This November 500 coworking space operators and facilitators from 45 different countries gathered in the impressive B.Amsterdam B1 building to attend Coworking Europe 2018: The annual place to be if you want to keep track of the rise of coworking. In this year’s edition, all topics related to coworking were discussed from three interesting perspectives: Business, trends and impact.

Coworking is reshaping the way we work in a rapid pace. Working people are not the average ‘9 to 5 employees’ anymore. They are independent business travellers, digital nomads and flexible professionals. These people need a solid community and want to experience the new and efficient way of working: Coworking.

Amsterdam is the perfect location to host this year's Coworking Europe conference. With a fast-growing coworking community due to an increase of freelancers and entrepreneurs, Amsterdam is one of the biggest startup cities in Europe.

As a proud sponsor of the conference, it was good to see all the great names in coworking gathered in the stunning venue that is B.Amsterdam. Together with our integration partners Zapfloor, Nexudus, Office R&D and Bisnerr we enjoyed powerful discussions among inspiring speakers. One of them being the Co-founder of Clay. Rick Voogt participated as a panel member in the discussion on ‘How to automate your space so you can focus on what's most important: Hospitality and community’. The key outtake is every coworking space’s needs can be different due to size, target audience or even location. But having well-connected software will make all the difference in running a space but also providing a unique seamless member experience.

“Putting smart products into your space will bring you your deserved revenue” - Rick Voogt, Co-founder Clay

At the beginning of this year, we foresaw a trend in coworking that would create a ripple effect during 2018: Automation. People will work alongside machines more and more: A.I. will be applauded instead of frowned upon. New technologies in workforce management and HR software will enable space managers to collect data and speed up unnecessary long processes. With all this newfound efficiency, these managers won’t have to focus on the ‘pile of paperwork’ anymore and find time to focus on building a strong community enforcing the relationship with their members. Being enabled to have more time for human interaction also means we get a chance to beat modern illnesses like burnouts. With A.I. embedded in the workplace, people will become healthier and happier.

With its 40.000 square meters and three buildings, B. Amsterdam claims to be the biggest startup ecosystem in Europe. The B.1 is a creative workspace for innovation, education and growth and houses more than 350 pioneering companies, a rooftop restaurant overlooking Amsterdam, a rooftop park, coffee lounges, parking spots, a small cinema and even a gym for its customers! All of this made B. Amsterdam building 1 the perfect venue for Coworking Europe 2018.

"Coworking is more about people than about buildings" - Thom Wernke, Co-founder StartDock

Coworking Europe is an annual conference featuring the rise of Coworking and its impact on entrepreneurship, innovation and, overall, the future of the workplace. The conference was founded by Jean Yves, CEO of SocialWorkplaces.com and organizer of Coworking Europe, Coworking Africa and the Coworking India conferences.

The Coworking Europe Conference was launched in 2010, in Brussels, Belgium. It has already been launched in Dublin, Brussels, Berlin, and Barcelona, and has managed to create an amazing community of space owners, operators and stakeholders who aim to engage with the local community wherever they go. Coworking Europe 2018 in Amsterdam was the ninth conference organized in a row.

Click here for an overview of all the slides of the Coworking Europe event 2018 speakers.

More on coworking? Read this comic book created by our integration partner Nexudus: Nexudus: The Dawn of Coworking comic book

Curious how SALTO KS can help you automate your space? Contact us, we are happy to help!

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SALTO KS provides a flexible access control management system that requires no software installation or the added expense of a fully-wired electronic product. Modern cloud-based, wireless access control system is easy and simple to use for businesses including Coworking Spaces, Coliving Buildings, Purpose Built Student Accommodation, Retail, Multi-Tenant Housing, Gyms and many more. Our best in class wireless access control solution and smart locks guarantee the efficiency for your business. Integrate smart locks, start easily managing wireless access control now!

Structuring work while collaborating with different teams in a large company is important. In this blog post, we want to share insights on how we actually work, the Scrum framework, and how we deliver a product we’re proud of.

Read on to find out more from our Product Owner Medi about the way we implemented the Scrum framework, the corresponding meetings and how the development team manages to maintain its momentum:

Read on to find out more from our Product Owner Medi about the way we implemented the Scrum framework, the corresponding meetings and how the development team manages to maintain its momentum:

In order to get the development team aligned we work with the Scrum framework. This is an Agile framework enabling the development team to accomplish projects within a two-week cycle called a ‘Sprint’. The teams are self-managing which means there’s no hierarchy within the teams and they decide individually how they work. Together the teams work on a project in which they have equal responsibilities and saying. The Product Owner gets to prioritize the projects (‘Stories’) in the backlog and decides which story is next in line to work on. The Scrum master is the buffer between the team and the Product Owner and makes sure all team members can do their work in an Agile way.

In order to get the development team aligned we work with the Scrum framework. This is an Agile framework enabling the development team to accomplish projects within a two-week cycle called a ‘Sprint’. The teams are self-managing which means there’s no hierarchy within the teams and they decide individually how they work. Together the teams work on a project in which they have equal responsibilities and saying. The Product Owner gets to prioritize the projects (‘Stories’) in the backlog and decides which story is next in line to work on. The Scrum master is the buffer between the team and the Product Owner and makes sure all team members can do their work in an Agile way.

The PO determines which stories make it to the backlog and in which timeframe they should be accomplished. The content is determined together with the different teams (Mobile, Front-end, Back-end, Mobile, QA and design). When an emergency occurs, for example when another story needs priority over the current one, the Scrum master determines whether to deviate from the planning. Together with the teams, the Scrum master decides which technologies are used to achieve the stories.

The PO determines which stories make it to the backlog and in which timeframe they should be accomplished. The content is determined together with the different teams (Mobile, Front-end, Back-end, Mobile, QA and design). When an emergency occurs, for example when another story needs priority over the current one, the Scrum master determines whether to deviate from the planning. Together with the teams, the Scrum master decides which technologies are used to achieve the stories.

We initially started with a three-week cycle so we could comprehend unforeseen circumstances, but it turned out two weeks has a more compact scope in case of unexpected situations that force us to prioritize another story. If we would shorten the Sprint to a week the planning would be a mess: With a one-hour meeting per team, a weekly retrospective meeting and Sprint review meeting once a week, Sprint would be very inefficient and nearly impossible. A two-week Sprint works best for our team at this moment.

We initially started with a three-week cycle so we could comprehend unforeseen circumstances, but it turned out two weeks has a more compact scope in case of unexpected situations that force us to prioritize another story. If we would shorten the Sprint to a week the planning would be a mess: With a one-hour meeting per team, a weekly retrospective meeting and Sprint review meeting once a week, Sprint would be very inefficient and nearly impossible. A two-week Sprint works best for our team at this moment.

During the Sprint planning meeting, we define a goal for the upcoming Sprint. The technical functionalities outwait the commercial belongings almost always. At the end of the day, our main concern is to deliver a high-quality product.

We do not announce the upcoming Sprints. During the Sprint planning meeting, the Sprint is defined. The Sprints are named after the week numbers so we can easily track what happened at that time. We are however very transparent in terms of sharing the product roadmap. Because we are with a relatively small team with a lot of different disciplines and just one PO it’s not necessary to announce a Sprint in the traditional way.

We do not announce the upcoming Sprints. During the Sprint planning meeting, the Sprint is defined. The Sprints are named after the week numbers so we can easily track what happened at that time. We are however very transparent in terms of sharing the product roadmap. Because we are with a relatively small team with a lot of different disciplines and just one PO it’s not necessary to announce a Sprint in the traditional way.

That is the beauty of Scrum: It’s such a flexible framework. We define how long a story takes by determining story points. If a story can’t find a passing because we underestimated the amount of work we prioritize which story is up next. The Sprint enables us to stay as close on the story as can be. The retrospective at the end of the two weeks gives us a chance to gain insightful feedback on the process: What made us lose momentum and why? Could we’ve done something to prevent this?

That is the beauty of Scrum: It’s such a flexible framework. We define how long a story takes by determining story points. If a story can’t find a passing because we underestimated the amount of work we prioritize which story is up next. The Sprint enables us to stay as close on the story as can be. The retrospective at the end of the two weeks gives us a chance to gain insightful feedback on the process: What made us lose momentum and why? Could we’ve done something to prevent this?

That is the beauty of Scrum: It’s such a flexible framework. We define how long a story takes by determining story points. If a story can’t find a passing because we underestimated the amount of work we prioritize which story is up next. The Sprint enables us to stay as close on the story as can be. The retrospective at the end of the two weeks gives us a chance to gain insightful feedback on the process: What made us lose momentum and why? Could we’ve done something to prevent this?

Or as we like to call it the ’stand-up' is a meeting of maximum 15 minutes with the development- and Q A team to briefly go through the tasks of the day per person so we are all in sync of what we are working on. Fun fact: The stand-up can’t be executed sitting down to ensure the meeting will be as short and efficient as possible.

Or as we like to call it the ’stand-up' is a meeting of maximum 15 minutes with the development- and Q A team to briefly go through the tasks of the day per person so we are all in sync of what we are working on. Fun fact: The stand-up can’t be executed sitting down to ensure the meeting will be as short and efficient as possible.

A frequently hosted Agile retrospective meeting will turn a group of individuals into an effective team. After the Sprint Review, we discuss how the two-week sprint process went during the Sprint retrospective: How can we make the previous two-week process more efficient or improve our work? How are we planning to do this?

The Scrum master, product owner and most important stakeholders discuss the status of the stories in the backlog. What is the status of the stories and how do we prioritize them are the main bullet points of this meeting.

Our Product Owner Medi is in charge of the Sprints backlog: All the projects that need to be accomplished in order of priority. In the planning meetings, the product owner defines the planning of the sprint together with the back-end, front-end, embedded, QA and mobile teams.

Thank you Medi, for explaining how the KS development team structures their work to deliver a product they are proud of.

Keep an eye on our company blog for more interesting observations on the way we work and the latest company news.

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SALTO KS provides a flexible access control management system that requires no software installation or the added expense of a fully-wired electronic product. Modern cloud-based, wireless access control system is easy and simple to use for businesses including Coworking Spaces, Coliving Buildings, Purpose Built Student Accommodation, Retail, Multi-Tenant Housing, Gyms and many more. Our best in class wireless access control solution and smart locks guarantee the efficiency for your business. Integrate smart locks, start easily managing wireless access control now!

Hugo manages to go through his day eliminating tickets like a boss.

07:00 Alarm time, get up and grab my backpack and pancakes for lunch. Check if Schumi, the garden cat is awake and doing well (It’s our neighbors cat that sleeps in our yard 24/7 because he is a lazy cat).

07:27 Hop on the train from Houten to Utrecht and then run to make the connection to Amsterdam. I usually listen to music and read, but not every day.

08:30 Arrive at the Clay office, after glaring at tourists/assassin bikers on my way from the central station to here. I occupy the same desk every day even though we work with flex desks; the Swedish keyboard scares others away. I make some porridge out of “Havermout” and water, apparently not a popular breakfast according to most people in the office.

08:45 Go through tickets arriving during the night usually from people over in the US/Asia/Oceania. Check if anything really urgent has popped up, usually not. If not I spend the next few hours replying to everything and clearing out my mailbox.

10:00 Someone from SALTO tech support pokes me on hangouts about an issue at a customer, it is a bit time sensitive so we work together to find the issue and solve it as soon as we can.

11:30 At this moment no tickets need a reply. I usually kill some time watching highly relevant videos, like why London has a bad infrastructure, or practice my Dutch on Duolingo.

12:30 Lunchtime! Today pancakes from Albert Heijn because I am lazy. At Clay you can also get some nice lunch, but the Dutch lunch is basically breakfast food and that’s the end of that (unlike pancakes or poffertjes).

14:00 Ensuring any new tickets/Slack messages are replied to as they come in, I often spend the afternoon dealing with tickets that take a bit more time. Today I had a meeting with a new integration partner for SALTO KS. After pointing them in the right direction I worked with our embedded developer Geert to try and solve an issue with our M2M devices having trouble connecting to the mobile network in a location. We made some progress with how to solve it but didn’t get there just yet. (By the time you read this, it will be long solved though!)

16:30 After dealing with customers and other people all day it is time to head home! I hop on the train to Utrecht and check so nothing urgent arrives during the last half hour, luckily no one emails!

18:00 Arriving at home in Houten, today is not a workout day so I spend some time with my friends back in Sweden playing some online games. (If you want to listen to how stupid we are, check it out here).

20:30 The weather is nice today, so I grab my camera and try and find a good picture in Houten or Utrecht, dreaming about a trip to Iceland.

23:30 Sleeping time!

Thank you Hugo for showing us what your day looks like!

Clay’s mobile app developer Arthur is responsible for overall architecture and realization of all Clay mobile applications on iOS and Android

Arthur is a young dad that raises two lovely girls with his equally lovely girlfriend in Bilthoven, Utrecht. Besides running a busy household and a high demanding fulltime job at Clay, Arthur also teaches body combat in his spare time and manages to always see the positive side of things!

 

 

Since ‘How does he do it?’ is a frequently asked question at the Clay office, we wanted to give you a peek in the life of this particular Brick.

Take a look!

05:50 The alarm clock goes off far too early, but that way I’ll be able to come home in time to enjoy my girls!

06:31 Take the train to Amsterdam, and watch an episode of my favourite show Stranger Things on Netflix during the trip.

07:30 Arrive at the office, load the dishwasher and make my much-needed coffee.

07:45 At Clay we like hot-desking, so I pick a desk for the day and set up my gear. I check my email and boot up Slack; a very handy tool we use for internal communication on projects and fun stuff, to see if I have any important messages.

08:00 Check the app statistics to see if there were any crashes in need of some love and support.

08:30 The Atlassian board displays issues from one or more projects, allowing a flexible way of viewing, managing and reporting work in progress and pick up the next story. I boot up xCode or Android Studio depending on the story and get to work.

10:00 Finish up the story and create a pull request for one of my fellow developer Bricks to review.

12:00 When our (beer) bell rings I know its time for our daily standup. All the Bricks gather to tell each other what they are working on. The stand up is a good way to have a daily reminder we all work together to reach a higher goal.

12:30 Lunch is served! It’s nice to see the grilled cheese is still the winning lunch at Clay!

13:00 Play a game of pool with one of my colleagues!

13:15 Do some refactoring on the pull request to get it approved, then build a beta-version for Q&A.

14:00 Discuss changes in UI with our UI/UX designer Ad

14:30 Do some grooming for the next sprint

15:30 Review some pull requests for my colleagues

16:00 Q&A Engineer Latha found no issues: This is what we like to call ‘Latha approved’ at Clay, this means the code can be merged to the develop branch. Latha even got a ‘Latha approves’ stamp (her giving thumbs up!) at the annual Christmas dinner!

16:40 When I finished my tasks for the day and I’m ready to go, I gather my stuff and walk to the train. There’s a beautiful sunset and the Amsterdam canals look magical!

17:05 Take the train back home after a very productive and satisfying day!

Thank you Arthur for showing us a glimpse of your life!

Do you like this type of a working day? Then you are in for a treat, because we’re in search of a second Mobile app developer! Take a look at our career page and #becomeabrick!

We are looking forward to see more niche coworking spaces that contribute to more diversity!

 

 

 

 

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SALTO KS provides a flexible access control management system that requires no software installation or the added expense of a fully-wired electronic product. Modern cloud-based, wireless access control system is easy and simple to use for businesses including Coworking Spaces, Coliving Buildings, Purpose Built Student Accommodation, Retail, Multi-Tenant Housing, Gyms and many more. Our best in class wireless access control solution and smart locks guarantee the efficiency for your business. Integrate smart locks, start easily managing wireless access control now!

SALTO KS provides a flexible access control management system that requires no software installation or the added expense of a fully-wired electronic product. Modern cloud-based, wireless access control system is easy and simple to use for businesses including Coworking Spaces, Coliving Buildings, Purpose Built Student Accommodation, Retail, Multi-Tenant Housing, Gyms and many more. Our best in class wireless access control solution and smart locks guarantee the efficiency for your business. Integrate smart locks, start easily managing wireless access control now!

Beginning of this year we were looking for a design intern to join our team in Amsterdam. Lucky us, we got an application from a happy-go-lucky talented young man who always seemed to be in a good mood! We are proud to present to you our design intern Vincent King! (With a last name like that you must be born for success right!).

To us the perfect design intern needed to be a:

To us the perfect design intern needed to be a:

Tell us, who is Vincent?
I’m a Communication & Multimedia Design (CMD) student at the Hogeschool of Amsterdam, but I also have an interest in film and photography. I always try to show people the best version of me: A Happy, Energetic and interested Vincent.

How did you find Clay?
I found Clay through Fresh Heroes. A website specialized in offering jobs and internships in the tech/creative sector.

Why did you choose Clay?
The way Clay wrote the job description really captured me. Especially since I used to write copy at my former internship. I guess I’m a sucker for good marketing. But it also helped my inner nerd who screamed that I had to do this. I had to try a tech company. It was totally different from what I was used to and exactly the reason why Clay appealed to me. It was so different and new and I was more than ready to dive in and experience something else!

What is the best part of being a Design Intern at Clay?
The best part is that instead of getting everyone coffee I got to shoot people with these awesome nerf guns lying around. Haha. Just kidding. The best part was definitely the patience people have with you. I started with pretty much no experience in Visual/UX design besides the assignments I did for a few courses I followed. Now I can make designs, and explain to my peers why I made certain choices design wise. I really felt Clay was the perfect environment to learn a lot! The internship turned out to be something I could be really proud of.

On which projects did you work during your internship?

On which projects did you work during your internship?

How would you describe Clay’s company culture?
To me, the company culture at Clay is the perfect combination of work and play.

How did the internship match your expectations?
It was actually more than I expected. I expected to be trained in one thing and one thing only. But I grew as a person as well. The way I communicate with my colleagues and also how I present myself as a professional. I am so thankful to have been a part of this team!

If you could make a change to your internship program, what would you change?
Couldn’t think of anything. Perhaps training on how to dodge Lennart’s Nerf shots!

What do you believe the next step is in your profession, and how did we help you get there?
Graduating is my first focus and Clay helped me prepare for that. I have a steady skill set and I learned a lot about the way I work. Now I know what my strengths and flaws are, I know better how to start a project, how small or big it might be. Clay helped me prepare for my career for the rest of my life.

Any advice for the next Design intern?
Come with an open mind. Expect nothing.

Thank you Vincent! For this interview and your ongoing motivation during your internship. We will miss you (especially since you were the perfect nerf gun target ?

Looking for an internship? Find out what we can offer you here!

This February Joey de Rijk started his Software and Information Engineering internship at Clay. As a student from the ICT-HBO Hogeschool Utrecht Joey quickly managed to become an important part of the Clay team.

We asked Joey all about his #lifeatclay, ambitions and the ambitious project he’s working on at Clay, take a look!

 

Joey, can you tell us a little bit more about yourself?

I am a 21-year-old Software & Information Engineering student, born in Utrecht. By the time I was three years old, we moved to Hilversum soon after my brother was born. I have always been big on technology, so my parents had no doubt that I would end up in a technical branch. In high school I followed information science for two years where I learned the basics about computer hardware (which I already knew, so I aced that test by far!), played around with Lego Mindstorms, and a tiny bit of Perl, SQL and HTML.

This was the beginning of Joey in the IT world…

By the time I finished high school, I went to the University of Applied Sciences in Utrecht. The first semester of the study was about general topics in the IT world, and the four directions you get to choose after the first semester; Business IT & Management, System & Network Engineering, Computer Engineering or Software & Information Engineering Business.

Now it’s my third year and I’m very excited to be working on my assignment at Clay!

How did Clay come to mind while browsing for an internship?

It wasn’t that hard to find and choose Clay; most of the other internships that were available were too ‘basic’ for me. Clay has a special ambience, which I noticed quickly by the pictures on the website, and when I visited the office for my first interview: The Nerf darts were all over the place!

 

What is the best part of being a Software & Information Engineering intern at Clay?

 

Being accepted for who you are. I can be a very shy person; so talking in public and asking for help wasn’t really my favourite thing to do. At Clay, I was forced to ask important questions for me being able to do my work. My colleagues at Clay were very comforting, which helped to boost my confidence. On a less sentimental note: Beers and playing pool on Friday afternoon weren’t that bad either!

How would you describe the company culture at Clay?

As I mentioned before, the company culture is very playful, but don’t let that fool you! Clay is an ambitious company and that shows. While working hard to move Clay forward the Bricks are always available for discussion. The culture is very open and accepting. Don’t want to be disturbed? Focus on one of the two meeting rooms for total silence, or in the ‘Aquarium’ (which is basically the third meeting room, but with loads of glass). Or, my favourite: Sit at one of the large pick-nick tables for the real scale-up experience!

How did the internship match your expectations?

It was actually more than I expected. I expected to be trained in one thing and one thing only. But I grew as a person as well. The way I communicate with my colleagues and also how I present myself as a professional. I am so thankful to have been a part of this team!

If you could make a change to your internship program, what would you change?

For school, I need to deliver loads of documentation. Explanations about which competencies I would like to accomplish, how I am planning to accomplish these, how am I approaching the internship etc. While I do understand why all the documentation and explanation is necessary, I would’ve liked to focus more on the method of working in the IT world. Basically, I would not change anything about my internship program at Clay, but the internship and its deliverables for my school.

How did this internship match your expectations?

It differs a little bit from what I expected at first, but that might be because this is my first internship. I initially thought the internship would entail more programming, and less documentation (for school, but also for colleagues: stories, designs & diagrams). Because I like to learn more about the method of working within Clay this is no issue for me. I still have a lot to learn, but Clay taught me well and propelled me in an excellent direction.

What do you believe the next step is in your profession, and how did Clay help you get there?

First of all, I am going to finish my last couple semesters. Clay gave me a head start and the confidence to develop my personal skills even more. I will start doing that this upcoming semester in the ‘creative industry’. I am not sure what to do after my bachelor. Maybe I’ll travel around the world, get another degree, or I might mingle myself into the IT world. The one thing I am sure about: Clay gave me a huge push in to the right direction.

What is your favourite project to work on at Clay?

My favourite project is definitely the assignment that assigned to me by Clay: Developing a microservice that allows users to configure events. The assignment had a few requirements, which gave me a lot of room to research the right tools, solutions, designs that were discussed with other Bricks and adjusted where needed. It would be awesome if the project gets implemented, and tons of users could benefit from something I made. That type of experience is still on my bucket list!

Could you explain how you approached this project?

I started studying on how Clay works: Which tools Clay uses, how they write code etc. Then After I gathered all the functional requirements that tell you what the system eventually does I started sketching the design of the system: This is a great method to get all the ideas out of your head and on to the paper. These sketches improve over time after various meetings and individual brainstorms. When the designs eventually were ready, I started writing the code for the project.

Why and how will your project affect users?

My project enables users to customize their notifications. For example, A coworking space owns a building with 500 spaces. All these spaces have Clay locks. The user can set a trigger, for example, a ‘low battery’ event. This trigger sends an SMS to a mobile phone number with the details which lock’s battery is empty. Sounds logical, but what if this happens outside office hours?

This project allows users to set multiple ‘notification rules’. In that way, the user can specify that an SMS should be sent if the low battery event happens between 9 am to 5 pm. If it is outside those hours, the security company should handle those events: Therefor an API call will be sent to the systems of that security company.

How do you see your project evolve in the future?

I hope I can make the back-end of the system production ready. In that way the front-end developers can use the endpoints and create a nice front-end for the program. When finished, the system should be ready for production and available for tons of users.

Thank you Joey for sharing your thoughts on Clay, providing insights about your impressive project and being part of the Clay family!

Are you looking for an inspiring internship that doesn’t entail getting coffee and collect prints like Joey’s? Check out our job openings and you might #becomeabrick!

Last weekend was a pretty exciting one for us at Clay. While most were out partying on King’s Day and combining that with a long weekend; we were having a different celebration. Regus Access Control – Beta Pilot was launched on Saturday, at Singelstaete; an impressive Regus business centre with marble interiors and high ceilings.

 

 

 

Regus, the world’s largest provider of flexible workspace solutions, today has over 3000 locations, spanning over 1000 cities across 114 countries. To gain the ability to remotely control building access, Regus turned to Clay’s API. Before its partnership with Clay, Regus used a mix of mechanical locks and disparate card systems for office and building access control respectively, so key and lock management was completely manual.

With Regus Access Control, Clay and Regus deployed an access control system globally for remote centre management. By partnering with Clay, Regus improved its customer experience significantly by eliminating the management of physical keys. “We keep growing and expanding in many international markets, and Clay has proven to be the right partner that supports us to scale globally,” said Andre Sharpe, Chief Information Officer at Regus.

As of this week, every new Regus business center that will open around the globe will be using the Regus Access Control by Clay. We are excited for our work to be recognized by many successful companies working at Regus business centres around the world. The event on Saturday was great for all of us who worked hard on this project, to come together and celebrate. And no celebration is complete without a tasty drink! That’s why we treated the Regus team and everyone involved in this exciting project with a traditional liquor of our hometown.

Cheers to exceptional teamwork!

 

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SALTO KS provides a flexible access control management system that requires no software installation or the added expense of a fully-wired electronic product. Modern cloud-based, wireless access control system is easy and simple to use for businesses including Coworking Spaces, Coliving Buildings, Purpose Built Student Accommodation, Retail, Multi-Tenant Housing, Gyms and many more. Our best in class wireless access control solution and smart locks guarantee the efficiency for your business. Integrate smart locks, start easily managing wireless access control now!

Last August Dane started his ICT Software engineering & Cyber security internship at Clay. Because we are always curious how interns perceive Clay we asked him all about his #lifeatclay including if the internships matched his expectations and how he foresees his own future career path! Read with us!

 

So Dane, explain our readers: Who is Dane?

Hi, I’m Dane, a young Software Engineering student from “all the way down south” Maastricht. Or as some at Clay might say: Belgium. I was born and raised in Maastricht. A “sjeng” as the locals would say. But as both my parents are from different regions within the Netherlands and I sometimes despise the local dialect, I never became a real "sjeng". When I was really young I had a keen interest in computer technology and yes, of course, the games you could play on them. As I grew older I taught myself how to operate computers and manage them in networks. This resulted in a fun but fairly expensive hobby for my mother as she was the one paying the electric bills. Sorry mum!

 

Why Clay?

Soon I began to realise I wanted to pursue my hobby and follow proper education in the field of computer/information science. One thing led to another and eventually I found myself in the fifth semester of Software Engineering at the Fontys University in Eindhoven. In this semester students are required to find and apply for their first internship. By that time I had no idea what I was looking for until Babet, Irem and Vladimir from Clay held a presentation about cultural diversity within software development teams and their companies core values. This intrigued me as I took part in an international school project where I collaborated with foreign students from Finland. The fond memories I have from that time motivated me to try and apply for an internship at Clay. And so it began...

 

What particular aspect do you like best of your internship?

This might be the easiest question as it can be answered in two words, the Bricks. Everyone that works at Clay is a fun and unique individual with their own habits, quirks and culture. During my time at Clay as an intern, I made a lot of new friends with whom I could party and share a beer on Friday afternoons. And of course, the enormous amount of knowledge passed down from the always ready-to-help developers.

 

How would you describe the 'Clay culture'?

The company culture is as I had never seen before. The office is equipped with a pool table, football table and even a table tennis table! Everybody is free to choose their workplace which is great if you had enough of sitting on your butt all day and want to stand straight for a change. During my time at Clay there were numerous group events and parties that have strengthened the bond with my colleagues. Oh, and don’t forget the office-wide nerf battles that can break out at any time during the day. You've been warned!

 

What were the down parts of your internship at Clay?

I’m inclined to say that a positive change would be to make my internship last longer. But of course, this wouldn't be possible from my universities viewpoint. In all seriousness: I really am unable to find a specific flaw in the way my internship took place at Clay. If I would change anything about this internship program it would have to do with the required procedures enforced by the university itself.

 

Did your internship match your expectations?

I don’t know why but I never expected that an internship could be so much fun, even though I researched Clay online and read up on all their blog posts. The job itself was challenging in some ways, which wasn't really a big surprise taking the complex product developed at Clay into account. But with these challenges came great learning opportunities, precisely what I wanted from my internship. I was able to learn about the agile way software is developed by naturally becoming part of the team. It was a nice change from the standard procedures taught at my university, something I secretly suspected ?.

 

What will be your next step?

The time spent at Clay confirmed my intuition that I found the correct field in which I should study and eventually work. I feel I have improved in both my technical and professional skills during the past few months, and I have Clay to thank for it. Now I want to improve myself even further and continue this path of becoming a software engineer to find my dream job. But before I can start this adventure I’ll have to graduate first!

 

Dane, thank you so much for your honest answers and being part of the family! You'll always be welcome at the office, but don't forget to bring your own nerfgun ?

 

Are you looking for an internship where you can grow and find your passion like Dane did? Check out our job openings and you might #becomeabrick!

 

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SALTO KS provides a flexible access control management system that requires no software installation or the added expense of a fully-wired electronic product. Modern cloud-based, wireless access control system is easy and simple to use for businesses including Coworking Spaces, Coliving Buildings, Purpose Built Student Accommodation, Retail, Multi-Tenant Housing, Gyms and many more. Our best in class wireless access control solution and smart locks guarantee the efficiency for your business. Integrate smart locks, start easily managing wireless access control now!