Axon: A turnkey solution for a fully-serviced office space overseas

The American Nasdaq-listed company Axon is a global leader in law enforcement technology. It is known for the TASER Conducted Energy Weapon (CEW) and body cameras worn by police officers.

Since February 2018, Axon's camera technologies have been developed in Tampere, where the team is headed by a long-term imaging professional, Axon's VP of Imaging Juha Alakarhu.

– Axon had no product development operations in Europe before this setup. I don't think they'd ever heard of Tampere before I called them in the fall of 2017, when I told them about our expertise in the field and suggested co-operation, Alakarhu describes the background of the collaboration.

Axon's management was quickly convinced by the competence of Alakarhu's team, which won its spurs in Nokia's camera technology unit. The collaboration was set up in record time, and, in early 2018, the Tampere team started to work on the product.

Before this could happen, Axon had to take care of the practical issues of launching the operations at the Finnish branch.

The R&D unit in Tampere is an independent unit, but its business is managed by Axon's headquarters in Scottsdale, Arizona.

There can be various practical challenges when a management team is based in a different country. Axon's facilities management wanted to make the leasing of the business premises as easy as possible without compromising on quality.

Axon's Arizona-based Global Facilities Manager Brad Chavez explains that when looking for an office space in a different country, the biggest challenge is finding a partner that can provide a comprehensive, high-quality solution that meets employees' requirements. Chavez contacted an agent who recommended Technopolis as an office partner.

Alakarhu called Axon in the United States for the first time in September 2017. Just two months later, in November 2017, Axon's representatives traveled from Arizona to Tampere to explore the Technopolis premises.

Despite the team arriving in Finland late one night at the weekend, Technopolis representatives still arranged a tour of the campus for the visitors. The Axon representatives also became familiar with the Technopolis service concept, where customers are provided with a comprehensive work environment with all the necessary services instead of just the floor area.

Global Facilities Manager, Chavez, has been very satisfied with Axon and Technopolis' collaboration from the start and says that Technopolis completely exceeded Axon's expectations at the outset and succeeded in convincing the company that it really appreciates the needs of its customers. Chavez also praises Technopolis' customer-orientation approach.

The main reason why Axon chose Technopolis as its partner was Technopolis' ability to deliver a high-quality turnkey solution both in terms of business premises and services. Upon leasing the office space from abroad, it was a particularly great pleasure to discover that the necessary services were effortlessly handled by one provider with the customer not being required to sign separate contracts for the various services.

According to Chavez, the leasing process was easy, especially as the design and renovation of the premises was also handled by Technopolis.

Chavez says that this was definitely one of the easiest property processes ever; the contact person kept Axon posted on the progress of the project, and the design process also went smoothly.

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Alakarhu has also been very happy with Technopolis' overall solution:

– From our point of view, this has been a really carefree and flexible solution. If we need anything, it is arranged in no time.

Axon has a 377 square-meter premises at the Yliopistonrinne campus in Tampere together with a wide range of services including cleaning, gym and conference facilities as well as visibility services and furniture rental.

– The office is just perfect for us. The spaces were customized according to our needs, and it was really important for the team to be involved in the design of the layout and the interior. That's why the office is 100% us; we have features such as a lounge area for hanging out, and images we've taken ourselves on the walls," says Alakarhu.