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SAN FRANCISCO — Before the pandemic, Envoy, a San Francisco startup, sold visitor recording software for the office. Its system checked in guests and kept track of who entered the building.

When Covid-19 The envoy warned and forced people to work from home. It began monitoring employees rather than just visitors, with a screening system asking employees about potential Covid symptoms and exposures.

As companies begin to reopen offices and provide more flexibility for employees, Envoy is changing its strategy again. Its newest product, Ambassador Desks, allows employees to book a table for their company when they go to work. assigned compartments and in the office five days a week It is in the past.

The Ambassador is part of a wave of startups trying to take advantage of it. America’s transition to hybrid work. The companies are selling more flexible office layouts, new video calling software and tools for digital connectivity within teams, and are trying to argue that their offerings will bridge the gaps between in-person and remote workforces.

New companies are vying for the position as more companies announce hybrid work schedules where employees have to come in only part of the week and work from home the rest of the time. one in May survey Nine out of 100 companies run by McKinsey found that even after it was safe to return to the office, nine out of 10 organizations plan to combine remote and onsite work.

Providing tools for remote work is potentially lucrative. According to research firm Gartner, companies spent $317 billion on information technology for remote work last year. Gartner forecasts spending to rise to $333 billion this year.

Kate Lister, head of consulting firm Global Workplace Analytics, said hybrid and remote working has the potential to benefit employees for whom office environments are never appropriate. This includes women, racial minorities, people with caring responsibilities and disabilities, introverts, and people who only prefer to work at odd hours or alone.

But he and others also warned that the transition to hybrid work could make remote workers “second-class citizens.” Workers who miss the camaraderie of face-to-face meetings or the spontaneity of hallway conversations can be ignored for raises and promotions, they said.

Start-up founders argue that this is where their products come into play.

Rajiv Ayyangar, CEO and co-founder of Tandem, leads one of the few software initiatives that creates desktop applications that help teams better collaborate with each other and recreate the feeling of being in an office. He said Tandem’s product seeks to help with “being” – the ability to know what one’s teammates are doing in real time, even when the worker isn’t with colleagues in the office.

Tandem’s $10-per-month desktop program shows teammates what they’re working on so they know if they’re available for an instant video call within the app. The list of user statuses is automatically updated to let people know if their coworkers are in search, typing in Google Docs, or doing some other task.

Pragli and Tribe, two software startups operating since 2019, also offer similar products. People can use Pragli’s product to create audio or video calls that others can join. It is free, although the company plans to offer a paid product. Tribe’s software uses busy and available states to facilitate in-platform video calls; currently only accessible with an invitation.

Owl Labs, a start-up founded in 2017, is also trying to tackle “presence”. It makes a 360-degree video camera, microphone, and speaker that automatically zooms in on the person sitting in the middle of the conference table and speaking.

The company, which says its customers have quadrupled to more than 75,000 organizations over the pandemic, said the $999 camera is a way for remote employees to attend office meetings. single laptop camera.

Other start-ups like Kumospace and Mmhmm, work on improving video communication for hybrid operation. Kumospace, a video call startup, configures calls for users to enter a virtual room. They then navigate around the room using the arrow keys and can talk to people when they are close to them.

The design is to replicate face-to-face socialization, where people can wander around the same room and have multiple conversations. This contrast is Service like Zoom, here everyone is on the same conversation by default as soon as they enter the video call.

Created by Phil Libin, founder of note-taking and productivity app Evernote, Mmhmm ​​offers a variety of interactive video backgrounds, tools for sharing slideshows, and other features for live chats and asynchronous presentations. It has a free version and a premium version that costs $8.33 per employee per month.

Some companies said their products can help businesses understand their use of space, as fewer workers arrive who need desks. Density, a San Francisco start-up, is making a product that uses special depth sensors to measure how many people are entering or using an open space. Companies can then analyze this data to understand how much of their office space they actually use and downsize as needed.

Density also plans to offer other tools for hybrid working. Last month, it acquired a software startup that provides a system for table and place reservation.

Elçi said the new Desks product has attracted the interest of 400 companies, including clothing retailer Patagonia and film company Lionsgate.

“Companies using us are getting much more accurate data standardized across all their offices globally,” said Larry Gadea, Elçi’s CEO. “And then it’s about using that data to inform space planning stuff. Do we need more floors? Do we need more meeting rooms? Do we need more tables? Do we need more tables for this one team?”

Lionsgate said it has been using Envoy’s products since before the pandemic. When the coronavirus arrived, she turned to Envoy’s employee screening software to provide health checks for those entering the office.

Now, as more employees turn to face-to-face work, the company is using Envoy to manage everyone’s seat and monitor who’s arriving. Lionsgate said the information could help determine how often teams should be in the office. .

“We’ll be able to know how much space we really need,” said Heather Somaini, Lionsgate’s chief administrative officer. “So I think it would be really helpful.”