LLOYD’S OF LONDON
Lloyd’s of London were pioneers in insurance and have grown in over 325 years to become the world’s leading market for specialised insurance.
Home to the insurance institution Lloyd’s of London, the Lloyds building at 1 Lime Street was officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II on November 1986 and is one of the most iconic buildings in London. It’s striking Bowelism architecture make it an unmissable figure in the City’s skyline and we could not be more proud to have carried out such extensive work in this building.
In 2008 Lloyd’s of London went out to tender for a modern, up-to-date version of the Lloyd’s Underwriting workstation clusters – called ‘Lloyd’s Boxes’ – which would better suit the needs of increased expansion, reconfiguration and ability to cope with a diverse range of new functionality and technologies demanded in this very unique global marketplace.
These new boxes were to accommodate expansion to new Underwriting floors being established on Levels 3 and 4, and potentially in the long-term, replacement of the traditional boxes used on the existing Ground Floor, Level 1 and 2.
There were originally 31 manufacturers from the mainstream system furniture industry who expressed interest in bidding for this highly prestigious contract, including the previously incumbent supplier of the building. We proposed to utilise the adaptability of our OPTIMA trading desks to create a bespoke workstation which would prove to be the only suitable solution to Lloyds’ stringent requirements.
Why did we win?
DAS were the only company who could meet, and indeed surpass, the Lloyd’s design criteria, which included;
- A solution which fully-preserved the traditional working practices of the Lloyd’s market as it began in the 17th century Lloyd’s Coffee House, but with modern aesthetics, functionality and adaptability.
- A solution using the minimum no. of elements which allows the configuration of any size of box cluster according to the specific needs of each Underwriting company – in groups of any size and shape,
- A standard component-based system approach which both future-proofed the system, and enabled Lloyd’s in-house facilities team to easily & quickly install, re-configure, move, and support the boxes without assistance from the manufacturer. Bespoke designed, re-designed or non-standard components were specifically excluded from the tender requirements.
- A system capable of supporting the most diverse range of technology at any given BOX position, because each Underwriting company provides their own IT equipment for each BOX, whilst Lloyd’s provides and supports all the central systems and networks for them to connect to.
It is this ability to suit such specific requirements that often sets us apart from our competitors. Our in-house design team take pride in facing a challenging specification head on and producing a custom solution to meet the needs of our clients.
Since winning this prestigious project, we have supplied over 500 workstations to Lloyds of London and continue to work closely with the institution today.
