Didier Paardekooper is Head of Sales at ScaleHub Offices and, as of recently, a new member of the IT-Label knowledge collective, a growing group of professionals who share one conviction: digital quality in commercial real estate deserves far more transparency than it currently receives. Didier sees it every single day. Organisations choose a turn-key office because they want to hit the ground running. They expect everything to work the moment they receive the keys, not just the furniture, the coffee machine, and the reception desk, but also the digital infrastructure underneath it all. Modern workplaces are no longer defined by aesthetics, location, or hospitality alone. The digital layer increasingly determines the quality of the user experience. ScaleHub Offices has made a conscious decision to invest in that layer and to be open about it. We sat down with Didier to find out why.
Question 1: Didier, why are you joining the IT-Label knowledge collective?
"The honest answer is that I had no choice but to engage with this topic," Didier says. "IT has become a basic need for every organisation that walks through our doors. It is no longer a nice-to-have or a premium add-on. It is infrastructure, just like water or electricity. When a company moves into one of our offices, they expect the digital environment to function from day one. Not after a two-week setup period, not after a series of calls with a provider. From day one."
He continues: "What IT-Label is building, a shared framework for assessing and communicating digital quality, is exactly what the market needs. I want to contribute to that from the business centre side of things. We are the ones who sit closest to the end user. We hear the questions, the frustrations, and the expectations. That knowledge belongs in a collective like this."
Question 2: What does 'turn-key' actually mean in 2026?
"That is a question I love, because the honest answer is: it depends on who you ask," Didier says with a smile. "Traditionally, turn-key meant you hand over the keys and the tenant can start immediately. Desk, chair, internet cable, done. But we have moved far beyond that. Or at least, we should have."
He points to the gap between promise and reality. "I still see offices described as fully equipped and ready to go, where nobody can actually tell you the internet capacity, whether the WiFi is dimensioned for twenty simultaneous users or for two hundred, or whether the infrastructure is scalable if the organisation grows. That is not turn-key. That is a building with furniture."
For Didier, a genuinely plug-and-play office in 2026 requires clear answers to a specific set of questions before the lease is signed: What is the available bandwidth? Is it dedicated or shared? How is the network structured? What happens when demand peaks? Who is responsible for what when something goes wrong? "A beautifully designed office with an unclear digital foundation is not plug and play. It is a risk that the tenant carries, often without knowing it." If you are exploring office space for rent in Amsterdam or any other major city, these are exactly the questions worth raising during a viewing.
Question 3: What role does transparency play in your relationship with tenants?
"Transparency is the foundation of trust," Didier says. "And trust is what makes the business centre model work. People who choose flexible office space are often in a phase of growth or transition. They do not want surprises. They want to know what they are getting."
He describes a shift he has noticed in tenant behaviour over the past few years. "It used to be enough to say: yes, there is internet. Now tenants want to know the quality, the speed, the redundancy, the provider, and who they call if it goes down. Those are fair questions. They are not being difficult, they are being professional."
"A user no longer thinks of IT as a luxury. It is like electricity: you simply expect it to work. The difference lies in the quality and in how clearly that quality is communicated upfront."
Didier believes that operators who are willing to be specific about their digital offering will consistently outperform those who remain vague. "Vagueness creates doubt. Doubt costs you the deal." For a deeper look at what questions to ask before signing, the commercial property viewing checklist on RE-SEARCH is a useful starting point.
Question 4: Why is IT-Label specifically relevant for business centres?
"Because the business centre market is incredibly fragmented," Didier explains. "You have operators at very different levels of quality and service. A startup looking for a flexible desk for three months has different needs than a scale-up that wants to occupy an entire floor for three years. Both of those clients deserve clarity about what they are getting, just at different levels."
This is where IT-Label becomes genuinely useful as a tool. "The label creates a shared language. It does not impose a single standard on every building. It says: here is what this building offers, rated against a consistent framework. That allows tenants to compare, to set expectations, and to make informed decisions. It helps operators communicate their investment in digital quality without having to explain it from scratch every time."
He sees the label as a quality signal that benefits both sides of the transaction. "A landlord or operator who has invested in solid digital infrastructure now has a way to demonstrate that clearly. That is commercially valuable. It differentiates." For those curious about how IT infrastructure is increasingly shaping real estate decisions, the article on IT infrastructure as the new scarcity factor offers valuable context.
Question 5: What do you want to contribute to the IT-Label knowledge collective?
"I want to bring the user perspective into the conversation," Didier says. "A lot of the discussion around digital infrastructure in real estate happens at the level of building owners, developers, and technology providers. All of that is necessary. But the tenant, the person who actually sits in the building every day and tries to run their business, is sometimes underrepresented in that conversation."
He outlines what he hopes to contribute: insight into how tenants actually experience digital quality, what questions they ask before committing, where expectations break down, and what communication practices build lasting confidence. "I also want to help shape how we talk about flexible workspaces and their digital readiness. The concept of an IT-Label should be as recognisable to a business centre operator as an energy label already is."
He is clear about the broader opportunity. "IT-Label can only grow by bringing together knowledge from different disciplines: technology, real estate, operations, and the end user. That is how you build something that actually changes behaviour in the market."
The Future of Work Is Also a Question of Infrastructure
The future of commercial real estate is not only about where people work. It is about how well they can work, from the moment they arrive. Digital infrastructure is no longer a detail in the background. It is a core feature of the product, and it deserves to be treated as such.
IT-Label is working with professionals across the sector to create more transparency about digital quality and to ensure that expectations between landlords, operators, and tenants are aligned from the start. Didier Paardekooper is one of the voices helping to shape that conversation from the business centre floor.
Want to learn more about IT-Label or join the knowledge collective? Visit www.it-label.com.
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