New beginnings for iManage Belfast

With the needs of the Belfast team in mind, refurbishment work was set in motion in April 2022. And now, several months later, we are opening the (brand new!) doors to our space in Belfast and welcoming employees back to the office.

Starting in January 2016, with a humble ambition to build a team of ten, our Belfast team has scaled and grown at an exciting pace, on par with the growth trajectory of our global iManage team. While reopening our global offices over the last year, one thing became clear: the Belfast team, now home to nearly 70 employees, had outgrown their existing space and were ready to put down new roots. 

"Now we have a home that we can call our own, so you can see what we’ve done and I think you’ll agree, we’ve really turned this space into a great place to come and work," says Ian Raine, VP Product Management, Belfast.

Connection, collaboration, communication

So what does it mean to design a custom office buildout for a hybrid working team in 2022? Of course, we took the opportunity to create flow and open spaces and brightened up the space with a splash of our branded colours, ensuring that when our employees and customers alike step through the door, they immediately know they are in an iManage office. As with all our global offices, we paid special attention to building a space to support the 3 C’s that guide our ways of working: connection, collaboration, and communication.

With this informing our design decisions, our teams now have the space to come together, connect on a personal level while collaborating to tackle challenges at work, all while having the tools, resources, and practices to communicate with distributed global team.

"My team has doubled since we went into lockdown – it'll be nice to actually meet some of the people we’ve hired in person!" Mark Hardy, Cloud Support Manager, Belfast, enthused.

Meeting up

The existing meeting rooms have taken on a new look and with updated names that reflect our Belfast office heritage and culture. Not only this, but additional meeting and collaboration spaces have been created for stand ups, knowledge sharing, and informal 1-1's in an open space environment.

Zooming in

To support our distributed workforce, all meeting rooms are equipped with Zoom Room capabilities, creating a seamless process for connecting with employees outside of the office, whether working from their home office in the next town over or from the other side of the world. Additionally, we’ve created a large open space in the centre of the office for Town Hall meetings and office get togethers, to provide a productive and interactive space for larger scale events.

Craic-ing up

Over the last few years, one thing has become apparent: we miss the social connections and water cooler conversations that happen organically in the office. So naturally, creating a space to support and encourage social connection was at the forefront of our office redesign. As such, we’ve added a pool table and table tennis area for our gamers in the office. Coupled with the kitchen extension (which has doubled its previous size!), the new space has elevated social connection as a main focus in engaging our Belfast team. Anyone up for a game?

Hope for the future

Now we’re putting together an office space where we can start to see people coming back to use this space to collaborate and work with colleagues. That’s our hope," said Ian Raine

What’s next for the Belfast office? As we look ahead to the rest of 2022 and years to come, we are partnering with our Belfast employees to continue ensuring the space a great place to work in and a space that works for the needs of everyone. Our EMEA Culture Committee, made up of employees who are passionate about the company culture, has a pivotal role in creating programs and events that drive engagement and improve the employee experience.

We look forward to embarking on this new beginning with our Belfast Team and enjoy this beautiful new space for many years to come!

Can you see yourself working here? If you’re looking for a "fresh" challenge and a "brand new" home, you can find out more about what it’s like to work at iManage and review our updated job openings here.