Month: August 2017

10 Factors to Consider Before Implementing Activity-Based Working

Post author By stephanie_pounders
Post date August 24, 2017

This is a guest post written by Workplace Change Management Consultant Robert Garrett.

Why everyone’s talking about activity-based working

In recent years there’s been a lot of talk about activity-based working (ABW). Many organisations have discovered that the world has moved on from the boss in the corner office keeping an eye on the workers all seated in neat rows of desks busily working away. So what’s behind this shift?

Firstly, the type of work we do is rapidly changing. Computers now take care of a wide range of routine tasks, freeing up workers for more value-add, idea generation, and problem-solving type activities.

Secondly, the expectations of people entering the workforce for the first time has also changed. Throughout their time at school and university, the type of space they use has always been determined by the task or activity being undertaken. At school they went to the laboratory for science, the music room for music, the field or the gym for sports, and so on.

At university the element of choice was introduced with students having the freedom to choose whether to do small group work in the library, the café, or in the garden under a tree. Having only ever known this relationship between activity and space, the idea of joining a traditional workplace where every task must conform to an owned desk or a formal meeting room is completely foreign. Moving forward, organisations that don’t embrace 21st century ways of working, such as activity-based working, will increasingly find it difficult to attract (and retain) talented people.

However, the shift to activity-based working is not for the faint hearted. It is probably the biggest change to the way that people work since the Industrial Revolution because it decouples the relationship between individuals and an assigned or individually ‘owned’ desk.

10 things you need to consider before making the move to ABW

Before embarking on a journey to activity-based working, there are a number of key factors that should be carefully considered:

1. Implement for the right reasons
Just because lots of organisations are implementing activity-based working doesn’t mean it’s right for yours. ABW can encourage better collaboration across your business, and it provides flexibility to quickly respond to opportunities and changing needs as they arise. For example, if a new business opportunity presents itself, it’s easy to pull together a team from different parts of the organisation to work on the project when everyone is set up for working in a mobile way.

From a diversity perspective, activity-based working acknowledges we’re all different. One person requires isolation to put together a presentation whereas another needs a busy setting with visual and auditory stimulation to do the same task. Activity-based working treats people as adults and lets them choose where and how they do their best work. On the flip side, if you’re just looking to reduce your lease costs, any savings will quickly be forgotten if you damage your employee value proposition (EVP) in the process. Don’t ignore the most critical people component of the transition.

2. Ensure the C-Suite is fully on board
As the biggest change to the way people work in over a century, it’s going to require strong support and advocacy from your senior exec team. Having them lead by example, becoming visible early adopters of activity-based working, will shut down a multitude of self-important arguments that will invariably surface.

3. Equally respect the three pillars
Ensure there is equal focus on the people, technology and spatial elements of the change. There’s no point providing people with a suite of great collaboration and concentration spaces if (a) they don’t have mobility enabling technology to go and use them, and (b) their leader still equates ‘work’ with sitting at a desk.

4. There is no ‘one size fits all’ model
There are a wide variety of activity-based working models around. Explore the various options and then settle on (or indeed create) the model that best suits your organisation.

5. Invest in change management
You can have the latest and greatest technology and a beautifully designed workspace, but if your people haven’t bought in to why the organisation is changing and if they can’t see the benefits i.e. ‘what’s in it for me?’ then the shift to activity-based working will be a failure.

An effective change management program is more than a communications plan. An effective change management program will take the organisation on a journey – it will involve and engage with people through a variety of mediums and at every level of the organisation so that everyone knows what’s changing, why the organisation has chosen this strategy, what the future looks like, how we’re going to get there, and the opportunities for individuals to be involved.

6. Try before you ‘buy’
Setting up a working pilot space is a very effective change tool as it enables you to trial new technology, spaces and behaviours before committing the organisation to such a huge change. Not only will you learn a great deal from the pilot that will help tailor your chosen activity-based working model, but a pilot also provides a tangible mechanism for engaging with your employees about their future ways of working. On a change of this magnitude, this hands-on approach is far more effective than a program based only on emails and PowerPoint presentations.

7. Don’t lose your conviction
It’s inevitable that some of your people won’t be excited by the change. Learn from these people, but don’t allow small vocal minority groups to determine the agenda. After a large, highly successful activity-based working transition, one middle level manager made the observation of a handful of naysayers, “You could give everyone a bag of gold and some people would still complain that it’s too heavy.”

8. Commit culturally
For activity-based working to be successful it needs to quickly become part of ‘the way things are done around here’. A good change management plan will look for ways to embed and promote new behaviours through a broad range of channels and initiatives.

9. Get rid of paper
Few people are completely paperless, however it’s almost impossible to work in a mobile way if you’re weighed down with lots of paper. Systematically address the processes and systems within your organisation that create paper. It’s unavoidable – activity-based working requires a significant investment in electronic records management.

10. Recruit for cultural fit
Activity-based working requires a different style of leadership, one that is based on trust and is primarily focused on the delivery of outcomes. If the organisation doesn’t recruit new leaders with these skills, it could see the investment in activity-based working quickly unravel.

Download a guide to measuring workplace utilization.

Tags Smart Building Technology, Space Planning & Utilization

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Workforce Health: Is Your Workplace Helping or Hurting?

Post author By stephanie_pounders
Post date August 24, 2017

Why are companies making workforce health a priority?

A decade ago, “workforce health” was not a term that was on the radar for most corporations. Today, that’s changing rapidly. The fact is, a company’s employees are its most important asset, and more and more companies are recognizing that it pays to invest in taking care of them.

Beyond the human benefits of supporting and nurturing people and workforce health, it just makes good business sense to do everything you can to keep employees healthy. That’s because studies show time and time again that happy, healthy employees are more productive and innovative in their job performance. On the other hand, the costs of employees with poor health can be significant. These numbers were reported by the World Green Building Council:

In the US, the cost of missing work due to illness approaches $2500 per employee each year.
In Australia, absenteeism due to poor health costs companies $7 billion each year, while lost productivity due to illness (sometimes termed “presenteeism” or not functioning at full capacity at work) is estimated as high as $26 billion.

For the majority of companies, staffing is by far the largest business operating expense. In fact, according to a report by the World Green Building Council, staffing accounts for as much as 90 percent of operating costs. Since staffing is such a big ticket item, even a modest gain in productivity can have a large financial payoff for a company.

Here’s another reason companies are increasingly investing in workforce health and well-being initiatives: these programs help attract and retain talent. In many industries and parts of the world, there’s a critical shortage of labor and companies need to do everything they can to attract top job candidates. Millennials in particular are drawn to companies that demonstrate an interest in and commitment to their overall well-being.

How the workplace affects workforce health

It’s no secret that buildings and work environments can have a huge impact on workforce health. Those impacts come from a wide range of sources, including both the physical environment as well as working conditions. Here are a few notable examples.

ACTIVITY LEVEL

It’s well established that sitting for prolonged periods increases the risk for many chronic health problems. There’s been a lot of buzz in the media about the phrase “sitting is the new smoking,” a phrased coined by Mark Hamilton, a leading researcher on inactivity physiology, to describe the detrimental affects of too much sitting. According to the Mayo Clinic, sitting too much at work is just as harmful as couch-potato behavior at home.

Global health and care company BUPA studied the impact of sedentary activities on both employee attitudes and health, by having people wear pedometer devices that could measure the amount of time sitting, standing or walking. Employees reported feeling happier and were also healthier (shown by blood pressure levels and other measurements) when they spent less time sitting. One way to reduce sitting is to provide sit-stand workstations.

NOISE LEVEL

The stress of working in a noisy environment can cause employee dissatisfaction at a minimum and even aggravate mental health conditions. Separating quiet areas and group workspaces can increase productivity as well as improve attitudes and health.

OFFICE CONFIGURATION

Many factors about the layout of an office can impact workforce health and well-being. For example, the density of workers packed into an office space, the availability of (or lack of) space to collaborate with others, social space and break areas all affect people’s ability to concentrate and be productive.

LIGHT and DAYLIGHT

There’s a reason why everyone wants the office space with a window! Good lighting, and especially daylight, enhances mood and improves productivity. Experts are also saying that the positive impact from proximity to windows is even further enhanced by exposure to nature—when those windows provide a view of green space.

AIR QUALITY

Good indoor air quality (IAQ) in a workplace means providing well designed and maintained ventilation that ensures low levels of carbon dioxide and pollutants. There is a great body of evidence linking poor IAQ to illness, even systemic problems such as Sick Building Syndrome. However, according to research published by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, there is also evidence to suggest that improving IAQ can also lead to work performance and productivity gains in the range of 6 to 9 percent.

How modern workplaces can improve workforce health and productivity

With so many companies building modern workplaces featuring activity-based working environments, it’s the perfect opportunity to make changes to the workplace that can improve workforce health and well-being.

Encourage movement

Modern workplaces not only encourage collaboration, they also increase movement. Some companies, such as international property and infrastructure company Lendlease (a firm that has led the way in workforce health improvement and awareness), are providing alternative work spaces such as sit-to-stand desks and treadmill desks that cut down the time people spend sitting while doing office work. Lendlease estimates that their personal device initiative has reduced blood pressures by 20 percent, reduced waist measurements by 10 percent, and even increased sleep quality in their employees.

However, it’s important to think beyond the type of furniture to promote activity and workforce health. Emily Fielding of office furniture design firm Markant explains:

Encouraging movement throughout the day is about creating a dynamic working environment and educating employees on why this is important. When we sit for prolonged periods, our heart rate slows, inevitably slowing the rate at which we can provide required nutrients to our brain for optimal productivity.

To understand the brain’s need for activity, consider ‘three-thirty-itis’ (yes, it’s a thing). Our body’s energy at this time of the day is focused on digesting our lunch. We become tired, and immediately reach out for our afternoon coffee. What I find funny about this is that it’s not the coffee itself that wakes you up (in fact, caffeine restricts blood vessels in the brain and can decrease productivity), it’s really the action of standing and walking over to the office kitchen or local cafe. Think of sitting as a battery drainer and the movement as a generator; a couple of minutes of movement have effectively rebooted your brain and woken you up.

Here’s how open plan office spaces can encourage movement to improve workforce health:

Physically seeing your co-worker across the room can encourage you to walk over to talk instead of sending an email.
Centrally located bins, printers and copiers encourage getting up.
Allowing enough space around workstations helps people feel comfortable moving around.

Give staff control over their environment

An activity-based work environment allows employees to choose the type of workspace they will use each day, so they can choose a space that’s suited to the work they need to do. For example, they can choose a private, quiet space for tasks that require intense concentration, or an open and comfortable space for a team brainstorming session. This type of control improves well-being as well as increasing productivity and performance.

Offer healthier food options

According to the US Bureau of Labor and Statistics, employees spend an average of 8.9 hours working each day, and many spend a great deal more. Being trapped in an office where the only sustenance comes from coffee and vending machines can negatively impact workforce health. Lendlease studied the affect of healthy food options by replacing sweets with fresh fruit. Their employees reported feeling better about coming to work as well as improved mental health and anxiety levels.

Taking steps to improve workforce health, including making a move to an activity based work environment, is an investment that brings significant returns in the form of healthier bodies, minds, workplaces and even a healthier company culture. And ultimately, a healthier bottom line and long-term success for the company.

Technology enables the move to activity based working

If you’re considering moving to an activity based work environment, the first step in the planning process is to collect data about your current space utilization. Many companies don’t have a true picture of how much space sits empty every day, and that number can be 50 percent or more. Start with workplace management software that helps right-size office space and get occupancy levels under control.

Next, implement the right mix of sensors and other technology to track not just desks that aren’t assigned to anyone, but overall utilization of all your workspace. That data allows you to plan for the right ratios of seats-to-people and mix of space types in a non-assigned seating model.

Here are a couple of helpful resources to get you started:

5 Critical Comparison Points for Workplace Management Software
Measuring Workplace Utilization

Tags Flexible Working & Workplaces, Workforce Enablement

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Activity Based Working: How It Can Work for the Public Sector

Post author By stephanie_pounders
Post date August 24, 2017

With all the buzz about activity based working environments these days, property teams worldwide are starting to sit up and take notice. That’s especially true in Australia and New Zealand, where some of the largest organisations, such as NAB, ANZ, Commmonwealth Bank, and Westpac are leading the way in creating modern spaces with non-assigned seating.

These workplaces of the future are not only driving down the cost of real estate for these large firms, but helping to attract top talent and to create a culture of collaboration and innovation.

Large corporations are not the only forward-thinking organisations making the move to activity based working. Several Australian government departments have already implemented flexible work environments. You can read more about them in these articles:

Office for Digital Government: Activity Based Working and Adaptive Workspaces
Department of Human Services: Government agency jumps on activity-based bandwagon
Defence pilots activity based working

While we can’t name names, we also know of more Australian government departments currently exploring the option, with pilot programs in the works.

Here’s why exploring a move to activity based working is smart for the public sector.

Why activity based working is a win for government departments

It’s true that government agencies do face certain challenges in making the move to activity based working, above and beyond the ones faced by private enterprise, such as overcoming employee anxiety and resistance to change. For government departments, older buildings and lack of budget to refurbish can also hinder plans to change to an activity based working environment. In addition, government departments face restrictions from Enterprise Bargaining Agreements and mandated business practices.

However, the benefits to be gained from activity based working are so compelling that some government pioneers are pushing the envelope in spite of these challenges. Here’s why:

Huge cost savings.
Real estate represents one of the highest costs faced by organisations, second only to the cost of labour. Most property teams are facing pressure to reduce the cost of workspace, but Australian government departments face an even greater challenge. They are mandated by law to reduce costs every year, in the form of the yearly efficiency dividend.

Since activity based working allows organisations to accommodate more people in fewer square meters, it’s an attractive option for helping to meet occupational density and vacancy targets, as well as reducing overall real estate spend without any reduction in headcount.

According to a report by global property services firm JLL, Australian government agencies can reduce their property footprint by as much as 40 percent by adopting activity based working environments.

Workplace productivity.
While many organisations initially face objections to activity based working, once they demonstrate the benefits for workers and ease their anxieties, these modern environments help workers to be more engaged and productive.

After all, in exchange for the desk they lose, employees stand to gain spaces that are better suited for the work they are doing, more collaborative spaces where they can connect with co-workers, and fun features like employee lounges, kitchens are areas for relaxation. It’s a proven fact: happy workers produce better results.

Innovation.
With constant pressure to reduce cost and meet the challenges of changing government initiatives, the public sector must be constantly looking for ways to improve. When you need ideas and innovation, fostering a collaborative culture within your organization is a good place to start. When teams have spaces that encourage them to work together, as activity based working spaces do, there’s a significant increase in creative thinking.

More agility.
There’s a reason activity based working is sometimes referred to as “agile working.” These environments are more conducive to changing business conditions and implementing new initiatives quickly. These are challenges that government agencies face regularly. Whenever a new regime takes over with new priorities and new laws are enacted, public sector departments need to be able to turn on a dime. Agile spaces can more easily accommodate fluctuations in numbers of workers and reorganizations due to new plans.

Attracting and retaining talent.
It’s no secret that there’s a shortage of skilled and talented workers in many industries and regions. Government agencies are competing for talent with private companies out there providing comfortable and even fun work environments. Millennials in particular are drawn to the cool new features found in activity based working environments.

Technology can ease the transition to activity based working

If you’re considering a move to activity based working, even if that move might be years down the road, now is the time to implement technology that can help you on the journey to right-sizing your office space.

Any plan to move to a non-assigned seating model must begin with understanding and taking control of your current utilisation of space. Workplace management software helps you build reliable data about your work space and how it is being used, stating with business unit allocation and down to the seat level. When you have this accurate information, you can use it to gain the trust of your business units, drive conversations about strategic changes, and even build a business case for a move to activity based working.

Technology also provides the data you’ll need to design and implement the activity based working environment that’s right for you. For example, to decide on people-to-seats ratios for each business unit, you must have a deep understanding of space utilisation, not just who sits where. That’s where utilisation tracking technologies come into play, such as RFID tags, badge swipes or speed gates, lighting and desk sensors and network capture tools. Besides giving you the data to make good decisions, the data from these technologies can also power wayfinding tools for employees to find work spaces and each other in the new environment.

To learn more about the different technologies for collecting utilisation data, take a look at this helpful resource: Measuring Workplace Utilization.

Tags Flexible Working & Workplaces, Smart Building Technology, Space Planning & Utilization

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Serraview Partners with Current, powered by GE to Enable Smarter Buildings

Post author By stephanie_pounders
Post date August 24, 2017

SUMMARY: Serraview, leading workplace management solutions provider, and Current, powered by GE, announce a technology partnership and will demonstrate their new integration this week at the 2016 LIGHTFAIR International conference in San Diego, CA.

NEW YORK, NY—April 26, 2016—Serraview, a leading provider of workplace management and utilization solutions, today announced a partnership with GE’s energy startup, Current, powered by GE, to enable smarter buildings.

As part of the collaboration, near real-time occupancy data from Current’s lighting sensors and intelligent LEDs are paired with data from Serraview’s cloud-based workplace management platform to help businesses better visualize their space utilization and make smarter decisions on real estate needs. The collaboration also saves employees time navigating a building by turning on real-time wayfinding tools.

How It Works

Sensors in Current’s intelligent LEDs scan building spaces and send real-time insights on what rooms and offices are being used to the Serraview workplace management system. Serraview’s kiosk and mobile apps then use this data to provide just-in-time wayfinding tools for employees, helping them find available desks and conference rooms.

The same data pairing and analytics will be used to help real estate departments understand and visualize space utilization to make better space-management decisions.

Serraview’s business analytics tools, including high-quality visualization tools such as charts and heat-map floor plans, allow corporate property teams to compare space allocations to measured workplace utilization. Interactive workplace management tools allow for quick right-sizing of space allocations and detailed relocation plans to support space optimization as well as the move to agile working environments.

Today, intelligent LED infrastructure can be a gateway to tremendous energy savings and the conduit to better space utilization. This collaboration solidifies that, allowing businesses to make intelligent, data-informed decisions on their real estate needs and enhancing employee productivity at the same time.

John Gordon, Chief Digital Officer, Current powered by GE – LinkedIn

Serraview’s mission is making buildings work for people. Integrating with the technology from Current, powered by GE, supports that mission by enhancing our ability to accurately measure space utilization. Lighting technology from Current combined with Serraview’s interactive workplace management tools, becomes the built-in toolkit for saving real estate spend, providing a modern employee experience and supporting an agile work environment that leverages best-of-breed technology.

Ian Morley, Chief Evangelist, Serraview

The two companies will demonstrate their new integration for the first time at 2016 LIGHTFAIR International, the world’s largest architectural and commercial lighting trade show and conference, April 26 – 28 in San Diego, CA.

About GE
GE (NYSE:GE) is the world’s Digital Industrial Company, transforming industry with software-defined machines and solutions that are connected, responsive and predictive. GE is organized around a global exchange of knowledge, the “GE Store,” through which each business shares and accesses the same technology, markets, structure and intellect. Each invention further fuels innovation and application across our industrial sectors. With people, services, technology and scale, GE delivers better outcomes for customers by speaking the language of industry. www.ge.com

Interested in becoming a partner? Learn more.

Tags Company News

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Case Study: Automation Helps Optimise Workplace Space Utilisation

Post author By stephanie_pounders
Post date August 24, 2017

Are you under the gun to improve workplace space utilisation and reduce your footprint? Just about every large organisation is facing this challenge today. If you are looking for solutions to this problem, you might be surprised to hear that you can learn a thing or two from the Australian government.

In 2009, the Australian government began reviewing its property footprint with the goal of saving money by reducing space. The result was a new process called PRODAC, which requires departments to report their space utilisation every year, and to work toward meeting progressively shrinking targets for vacancy and occupational density. They must also meet a yearly efficiency dividend by reducing operational costs.

If you think you’re under a lot of pressure to reduce your space utilisation, imagine being mandated by law to do so! That’s the burden on the Australian public sector. Let us tell you a story about one department, which we can’t name for security reasons, and how they have made significant strides in reducing the space they hold. At one point they reduced vacancy from 18% down to 10% in a short period, even with severe restrictions due to security and employee conditions.

How did they do it? By automating space utilisation management, and learning some important lessons about managing change along the way.

What can you do when you’re mandated to reduce space utilisation?

When the PRODAC regulations were announced, Australian public sector departments and agencies were suddenly faced with a huge burden: carrying out a time-consuming reporting process each year, and figuring out how to go about reducing their space utilisation.

One government department, who became a Serraview client, realized early on that this was their opportunity to explore automating their space management processes. Their property team consisted of a group of smart individuals who had seen what technology could accomplish, and they had a vision of how they could do better with space utilisation.

Challenges to automating space utilisation management

Now, as you’re probably aware, implementing new technology can pose challenges, even when everyone’s on board about the need for the change. However, the public sector face even more difficult hurdles to implementing new technology than most:

Strict security requirements. Any new software must treat data with the same level of security as the government does. Although the data being stored is classified at the lower end of the risk spectrum (as it doesn’t include any financial data, health data information about the public, or top secret classified data), it still requires stringent controls to be put in place to protect personal data about employees and their locations. Any new system would need to pass extensive, time-consuming security accreditation in line with the Australian Government Information Security Manual (ISM) published by the Department of Defence.
Enterprise Bargaining Agreements. Due to strict employment conditions negotiated for government employees, the property team had restrictions on their ability to transition people to best-practice workplaces, such as agile working. Any changes would have to be negotiated and implemented slowly.

The property team realized that getting security clearance to put detailed data into the system, as well as the IT support to implement advanced utilisation technologies like Serraview Live, was going to take some time. However, they knew they couldn’t wait that long to get started taking control of their space utilisation. So they devised an implementation plan in stages to help them reap the benefits as quickly as possible.

Implementing space utilisation technology in 3 stages

STAGE ONE: Taking control of business space allocation

When the property team first implemented Serraview’s space utilisation management technology, the only data they were allowed to put into the system was information about business units and their space assignments. So that’s where the team started. Serraview took care of importing all their floor plans, then they were able to overlay allocation data and easily view color-coded plans showing where teams were located.

While the team couldn’t yet track seat assignments and employee data at this stage, having those graphical floor plans helped the team to drive conversations with business units about space requests and even relocations. The ability to create scenario plans and show a group their new space went a long way toward easing people’s concerns about moving.

STAGE TWO: Adding employee data

Additional security hurdles were cleared when Serraview achieved ISM certification, allowing the team to begin tracking employee data in the system. Now they were ready to get a better handle on occupancy and achieve their space utilisation targets. When business units submitted requests for additional space, having those graphical floor plans that showed exactly who sits where really changed the conversation. Groups could no longer “hide” space that they didn’t really need.

At this stage, the property team could actually see the pockets of available space and fill them when new requests came in, rather than having to increase footprint. They could also easily restack and consolidate available space, and reduce their footprint by subleasing that space out to another government department. That new strategy saved significant cost instead of waiting out a 10 year lease with under-utilised space.

STAGE THREE: Implementing utilisation tracking technology

Today, this government department is in the process of implementing utilisation tracking technologies, such as badge swipe/speed gate data, and moving toward collecting utilization data through their IP network using Serraview Live. With that system in place, utilisation information will be automatically maintained with no need for staff intervention.

Tracking utilisation tells you how and when space is actually being used, not just who it’s assigned to. As a starting point, the property team is finding the data useful as proof to gain approval for their strategic plans, and they continue to find more ways that data can help drive down space utilisation.

One idea in the planning stages is a move to an agile working environment, as opposed to the current assigned-seating model. One successful pilot has already been completed and a second is slated to begin later this year. These modern workspaces not only reduce footprint significantly, but also help attract top talent and even promote a culture of collaboration and innovation within an organisation.

What results can you expect from automating space utilisation planning?

Here’s what this Australian government department has achieved and some of the lessons they learned along the way:

Space utilisation targets achieved: twice!
It takes resiliency along with the right automated tools to reduce space utilisation and achieve the aggressive targets required from the Australian public sector. This particular team had to do it twice! They managed to reduce their vacancy rate from 18 percent down to 10 percent, and they were also able to meet their density target (at that time) of 16 square meters per person. Then in 2014, the government imposed significant staffing reductions, which shot their vacancy back up to 23 percent! At the same time their density target was reduced as well.

Talk about taking the wind out of your sails! It was back to the drawing board for the property team, but now they knew they had the tools and the skills to accomplish their goals. Within a year, they managed to get their vacancy back down, reduce their total real estate footprint by 25%, and are on target to meet the new density requirements.

Proactively managing change
This Australian government property team have learned more than they bargained for in the process of automating their space utilisation management. Not just about how to best use the new tools to reduce their footprint, but about managing change and how others react to that change.

The team found that the visual nature of their new system was a great help in changing people’s mindsets and reducing conflict. For example, previously their business units were focused on their own interests and not very concerned about impacts of change on other groups. As a result, it was difficult for them to accept a scenario that was best overall. That all changed when they were able to see visual move scenarios and the impact their “wants” would have on other groups. Seeing is believing!

The accommodation staff also benefited from being able to see both the current state of their space utilisation and the potential results of their strategic plans. It helped settle differences between team members about how to tackle space planning issues.

Furthermore, the data also allowed the property team to make excess space available to other government departments and agencies. Thus they could decrease their own space holding and apply the cost savings to their efficiency dividend, the annual reduction in operational expenses imposed on the Australian public sector.

What space utilisation challenges are you facing?

Today’s large organisations, whether public or private sector, are facing the need to reduce their space footprint. Organisations are waking up to the fact that as much as 50 percent or more of their space sits vacant each day due to increasingly mobile workforces, and those wasted costs can be reduced.

To do so, you need to improve space utilisation using the right automated tools. The trick is choosing the one that will bring the best and fastest results.

Here’s a helpful resource that can help jump-start your search for the right workplace management software: 5 Critical Comparison Points for Workplace Management Software.

Tags Flexible Working & Workplaces, Space Planning & Utilization, Workforce Enablement

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4 Steps to Easier PRODAC Compliance

Post author By stephanie_pounders
Post date August 24, 2017

What’s your least favorite month of the year? If you’re part of a property team for an Australian government agency or department, it’s probably September. That’s PRODAC reporting time.

How much time and expense could you save if you had an automated system that contained accurate data about all your workpoints, including actual occupancy information? And you could use that system to collect data and output your PRODAC report every year?

Did you know you can have that system today?

PRODAC reporting the old way

Everyone on your team probably dreads the last week of September, when you have to produce the time consuming and labor-intensive manual report about all your agency’s leased and owned workspace. You’d better get your trainers ready because you’ll be spending days walking the floors. And while you’re busy doing that, nothing else gets done. So once you’re finished with the exhaustive PRODAC process, you’ll have to work even longer hours to catch up on the pile of work you had to put off. Guess you won’t be seeing much of your family for a couple of weeks.

Here’s how the PRODAC process typically goes. First of all, you need to know exactly how many workpoints you have in your space. And then you need to figure out which ones are really being used.

Sounds simple in theory. After all, HR should have all that information, right? Not exactly. While they know who is employed, they may not know about contractors. And they certainly don’t know where all those people are. How many work off-site? How many spend most of their time traveling and don’t need office space? Are there part time workers sharing space? It’s unlikely that anyone can give you the answers to those questions.

As things stand now, the only way for you to count your workpoints, and determine which ones are occupied, is to walk around with a clipboard and physically count them. Presumably, that’s why the PRODAC process requires you to do a walk through. While time consuming, it’s easy enough to count workpoints, defined as “a desk, enclosed office or a counter where it would be reasonable to expect a person to carry out office work on an ongoing basis.”

On the other hand, figuring out which work points are actually occupied can be a challenge. The PRODAC regulations tell you to look for “signs of life” including name plates, papers or folders on desks, or even personal items that mean you can’t reallocate the space. But what if someone who’s off traveling, and likes to leave her desk neat? It may look like the space is not occupied. Or, what if a team is trying to hold onto vacant space, and someone goes around leaving coffee cups and files on unused desks? How will you be the wiser?

Once your team has done their best to count all those workpoints and figure out which ones are occupied, you have another tedious task to complete: the actual PRODAC report. Since you have captured all your data manually, now you need to compile and aggregate all that data into a single spreadsheet. That process can take just as long as walking the floors!

Especially for large departments, the expense of all that work is the most unfortunate part. You can probably think of many ways you could put that part of your budget to better use. How about applying it to strategic planning activities to identify ways right-size your portfolio and achieve your yearly efficiency dividend?

The good news is, there is a faster and easier way to complete your PRODAC reporting.

Here’s how it works.

STEP 1: Automate occupancy data gathering

The right workplace management software serves as a repository of accurate, trusted data about your work spaces, including floor plans showing allocations to different teams and exactly who sits where. You can be sure the data is accurate when your teams have the ability to update and validate their data monthly. You can also automatically capture accurate utilisation information from badge swipe data, network data, or other types of occupancy sensors.

Want to learn more about technologies for collecting utilisation data? Grab a copy of this free resource that explains the pros and cons of each: Measuring Workplace Utilization.

Although the PRODAC regulations still require you to walk the floor to verify your occupancy data, that exercise is faster and easier when you only need to validate the information you already have in your automated system. Perhaps the day is not too far off when the regulations will allow you to use the data in your system and skip the manual audit altogether.

STEP 2: Access your floor plans to facilitate PRODAC auditing

How much easier is to do your walk-through when you can reference accurate floor plans showing all your workpoints (and who sits where) on a tablet, confirming occupancy data as you go?

STEP 3: Enter your audit data

Get ready to retire your trusty clipboard. With an automated system, you can use a tablet to enter data as you walk the floor.

STEP 4: Run the report

As of now, here’s the part where you save the most time and effort. With an automated system capturing your PRODAC audit information, you no longer need to compile all that data manually. Simply export your data into a report that’s already in the required PRODAC format. Couldn’t be easier!

Are you ready to move to a simpler process for PRODAC compliance? The good news is, you can have Serraview’s workplace management software up and running in a few months, so there’s still time to get everything in place before the next PRODAC reporting period. Get started by scheduling a demo now!

Download a guide to measuring workplace utilization.

Tags Space Planning & Utilization, Workforce Enablement

Blog

5 Ways to Smooth Relocation After Machinery of Government Changes

Post author By stephanie_pounders
Post date August 24, 2017

For public sector employees, machinery of government changes can be a source of a great deal of anxiety about changes in job responsibilities, reporting structure, and (possibly worst of all) having to relocate to a new workspace.

For property teams within government departments, machinery of government changes can be even more stressful. That’s because you not only have to worry about your own job, but you’re suddenly facing a great deal more work: managing relocations of the shifting workforce and finding new space for any new departments and agencies. It’s a monumental task, and one that needs to be accomplished at lightning speed.

In large corporations, churn is also a way of life and property teams are tasked with moving them around while minimising work disruption. But in the public sector, you regularly face an even more difficult challenge: moving large numbers of people at the drop of a hat. With machinery of government changes, you often won’t know what’s coming until the change is publicly announced.

In addition to moves resulting from machinery of government, public sector departments are expected to help each other out with their space needs, such as subleasing available space to each other. It’s not unheard of for departments to swap space when one is growing and the other getting smaller. That means even more relocations.

In the process of working with Australian government departments for a decade, Serraview has learned a thing or two about making these transitions faster and easier. Here’s some advice we think will help, as well as specific steps for smoothing and speeding the process of relocating groups after a machinery of government change.

Technology is the key to smoothing churn after machinery of government changes

This advice is probably not a surprise to you: technology always seems to be the way to make things faster and easier. For government agencies in particular, getting new technology implemented can be a challenge. We’re here to tell you—not just because we develop this technology, but because we’ve seen the results time and time again—that it’s well worth the effort. Here’s how to make it happen.

STEP 1: Implement technology to get your house in order

You’ve probably heard the old adage: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Whomever coined that phrase probably never imagined it would be used to describe technology. But it’s true: implementing the right technology helps you be prepared for machinery of government changes. And that preparation can make a world of difference in speeding and managing the process when you have to implement those massive relocations.

Since you’re not likely get much warning about machinery of government changes, the key to reacting quickly is having an accurate picture of your current occupancy. If you don’t have this information today, it will take you much longer to figure out how to accommodate potentially thousands of new people. Now is the time to get your house in order with a workplace management tool that provides you with a trustworthy source of record for occupancy data. You’ll be in the best position to handle whatever comes when you know where your people are and how much vacancy currently exists.

Here are some tips about features to look for:

Self-service portal: Speed data collection by providing an easy way for departments to enter, update and validate their data. They will WANT to do it when they see the reports you can provide them in return.

Utilisation tracking: If you’re facing restrictions on getting some teams to enter data, you can import badge swipe data or implement computer network monitoring software to collect utilisation data automatically.

Scenario modeling: If you’re getting wind that changes are coming, you want access to tools that help you prepare multiple possible scenarios for accommodating machinery of government changes.

STEP 2: Gather new data

When the word comes down about changes impacting your department, you won’t have to panic since you have your workplace management system and your occupancy data in place. So what comes next?

Now is the time to gather new information: both the digital kind and the human kind. If you’re lucky, your workplace management software company might help you with the digital part (gathering and importing the data about the new teams you need to accommodate). That’s how you’ll find out about the numbers of people and how their teams are currently structured.

Here’s some important advice: don’t stop there. Get in touch with leaders, representatives and space champions for the new teams affected by the machinery of government changes. That often means EAs and PAs, who you want to make your new best friends. They can tell you about important things to know about the teams being moved, such as which teams would benefit from being aligned, which can’t sit together, and what important goals and initiatives they are working on that might impact the relocation.

STEP 3: Create a relocation plan

Once you know for certain how much vacancy you have, as well as the numbers and needs of those you need to accommodate, it’s time to create a plan for the relocation.

Spend some time (but not too much time, you’ll be under pressure to get started) modeling a few scenarios to see which option provides the best balance of cost effectiveness and time to implement. You will be able to see where your existing vacancy can accommodate the new changes. Your workplace management software will come in handy now, when you can easily restack your floors to create a contiguous space for the new group. Don’t forget to take into account the intelligence info you learned from your space champions when creating seating plans and move schedules.

Another option to consider when working through possible solutions for machinery of government changes, especially when it looks like you don’t have enough space, is a move to agile working. Moving from an assigned seating model to a free address space might be the solution you need to accommodate a new department without adding footprint.

To learn more about moving to agile working, read this related article:
10 Keys to Success with the Agile Work Environment

For more tips about creating relocation plans, read this related article:
Office Relocation Planning: Keeping Your Move On Track, Part 1

STEP 4: Communicate

Moving makes employees anxious, and machinery of government changes make the whole situation even more stressful. When entire departments are moving and restructuring, there’s a great deal of change management that needs to take place. Communication can smooth the transition by helping people be prepared for what’s coming and easing their fears.

You really can’t communicate too much in preparation for a relocation. There are give and take aspects to this communication: listening and gathering intelligence, and proactively providing helpful information to affected employees. We previously mentioned the “take” part: making friends with representatives of the new departments to learn about their needs. Now it’s time for giving back. One of the most efficient and effective ways to do this is by setting up automated email communications for everyone involved in the relocation.

Technology can make this task vastly simpler. Just set up different templates providing need-to-know information for each affected group, and schedule them to go out at the right time according to the relocation plan.

You’ll also need to communicate information to other parties involved in implementing the relocation, such as removalists. Technology can make this step simple as well, when you can easily generate reports with all the information they need.

STEP 5: Provide move day support

Even with the best relocation plan, you’re bound to hit a few snags on move day. This is especially true for moves caused by machinery of government changes, since you’re moving so many with so little time to get ready. Once again, the trick is to be prepared and provide support for dealing with issues.

Establish support points-of-contact for different types of issues in advance, such as IT issues or finding lost items. Then communicate that information to everyone (using one of your email templates!) prior to move day. On the day itself, people may not have comm set up so you’ll need support staff walking the floors to help people out.

Your goal should be to minimise work disruption as much as possible. Postpone problems that are not business-critical, and focus on getting people back to work.

Implementing workplace technology: How long does it take?

Here’s the good news: you still have time to be ready for the next general election and the resulting machinery of government changes. Today’s best in class workplace management software can be up and running in months, rather than years like some older IWMS systems you might be considering.

Time to implement and achieve value is just one of the critical features you must consider when evaluating workplace management tools.

Learn more about what you might be missing from our informative guide to 5 Critical Comparison Points for Workplace Management Software.

Tags Flexible Working & Workplaces, Space Planning & Utilization

Video

VIDEO: How To Create a Stacking Plan to Right-Size Office Space

Post author By stephanie_pounders
Post date August 23, 2017

If you are a corporate space planner, figuring out how to right-size your office space can seem overwhelming. How can you create a new stacking plan that takes advantage of your existing vacancy? You may need room for a new team or just want to consolidate so you can sublease space that’s not needed.

Just figuring out where you have empty seats can take weeks all by itself. And while you are collecting that data, it’s already becoming outdated as people move around. The good news is, there’s a much easier way to create a new stacking plan that consolidates your vacant seats. Watch this video to see Serraview’s Ian Morley demonstrate how to do it in a couple of minutes.

And don’t forget, if you’ve got questions, send us a message on Twitter and use the hashtag #AskSerraview.

Hello, and welcome to Serraview’s first Space Planning Video Blog!

My name is Ian Morley, and I’m here to answer your most pressing questions about corporate space management.To get the ball rolling, let’s start with one of the most commonly asked questions we get from clients.

The question is: What is the best way to right-size my office space?It’s a great question. Let me show you how we can use our Scenario Planning Tools to quickly answer it.First up, I’m going to open up Serraview’s Block & Stack tool and take a look at the extent of the problem.

We’re going to take a look at the stacking plan for our building at 100 Broadway.

Here you can see our current stacking plan for the building, including how many seats are assigned to each business unit.

If you look here at the top right, you can see some key metrics about the building.

The key number I’m looking for is this one here in gray… it’s showing that we currently have 429 vacant seats in the building.

If you look at the floors you can see that they average about 128 seats per floor. In other words, if we create a new stacking plan to right-size the space allocations, we should be able to free up over 3 floors of space.

Putting that into perspective, in most major cities, that’s the equivalent of over $3 million in wasted real estate space.

Ok, so how do we go about creating a new stacking plan to right-size the building?

The best way to do that is to create a what-if scenario plan.

We’ll go to the FILE menu and choose NEW PROJECT.

I’ll add a PROJECT NAME and enter my building.

To right-size my team allocations, I select all the teams, then choose TOOLS, Set to occupants.

You can see that the system has now compressed all of the teams’ allocations, and freed up all this vacancy here in the white.

Now, we may be able to stop here, but I do want to go a step further and quickly restack the building by dragging and dropping our groups around. That way, we can consolidate all our available space into a couple of floors, so that we can hopefully sublet or repurpose for another project team that’s about to enter the building.

An there we have it! In the space of a couple of minutes, we’ve just created a new stacking plan to right-sized the building, and we’ve freed up over three floors of vacant space.

Thank you for joining us for Serraview’s first Space Planning Video Blog!

If you have a pressing question that you’d like us to answer, please send us a message over Twitter, using the hashtag #AskSerraview.

I look forward to it, and see you next time.

To learn more about corporate space planning issues, read these related topics:

Fast-Track Corporate Space Planning: Technology Can Shorten Your Day
10 Steps That Drive Better Space Efficiency in the Workplace

If you’re just beginning a search for the right corporate space planning tool, you’ll quickly discover that comparing the available options is no easy task. There’s a wide range of features and functionality, and it can be tricky to figure out what will deliver the results you’re after. Hone in on the search criteria that help companies get faster results and better ROI with this helpful guide to 5 Critical Comparison Points for Workplace Management Software.

Tags Flexible Working & Workplaces, Space Planning & Utilization

Blog

The 8 Superpowers You Need for Office Space Management

Post author By stephanie_pounders
Post date August 23, 2017

It’s amazing the kind of super powers people expect from corporate space planners when it comes to office space management. Here are some examples:

TELEPATHY so you’ll know if that space champion is telling the truth when they say they have no vacant space.
INVISIBILITY to catch sneaky teams leaving coats and coffee cups on vacant desks in an effort to fool you into thinking their space is fully occupied.
OMNISCIENCE about who’s moving around without going through official channels.
OMNIPRESENCE so you can be anywhere and everywhere simultaneously, capturing occupancy data in dozens of buildings and countless floors of office space.
TELESCOPIC VISION to look across multiple floors of a building to find vacant pockets of space.
PRECOGNITION so you can predict how your company’s need for space will change over time.
TELEKINETIC POWER so you can move a bunch of desks three floors down overnight.
PROBABILITY MANIPULATION so you can cause unlikely things to happen (such as 20 vacancies to suddenly materialize when you need them) and likely things to NOT happen (requests for a bunch of new seats right after you consolidated space).

You can probably think of a few more! Bet you never considered putting “superhero” in your job description or on your resume, but in many ways you are.

The point is, office space management is a tough job, and you can’t do it alone. Or to be more accurate, you could do a much better job if you had some help from the people who are actually using the space you’re managing.

Here’s some advice about how to get it.

Get Help With Office Space Management by Knowing How to Sell It

Your business units probably don’t know it yet, but it’s actually in their best interest to take ownership of their occupancy data and to keep it accurate. If you want help from them with collecting data for office space management, it’s your job to demonstrate what’s in it for them.

1. Get your timing right

Like getting so many other things we want, knowing when to ask can significantly increase the likelihood of success. (Case in point: how likely are you to donate to a charity that calls you at 8 am on a Sunday?)

For example, when a building has a major restack coming up, there’s a built-in incentive for business units to give you the occupancy information you need: to make sure everyone in the group is accounted for in the relocation plan. So this is your opportunity to collect not only who sits where, but other information you’ll need for the move: equipment, phones, storage needs and more.

Surprisingly, though, immediately after a move has been completed can also be a good time to ask for the data you need for office space management. This is when you can get people to confirm that your data is correct. Position the request as a way to catch small changes that happened during the move process, so your baseline is correct moving forward. This is a great opportunity for the business units to take advantage of your validated data, so they’ll have their house in order with updated floor plans and who-sits-where readily available.

Related article: 8 Tips for Optimizing Churn Management

2. Aim for top-down buy in

Knowing WHO to ask can be just as important as knowing WHEN to ask. Seek an audience with those who stand to gain the most from what you’re trying to accomplish with your office space management plans: the financial community. Explain the big-picture story about how you use the data you’re collecting, how it drives workplace strategy and ultimately impacts broader company goals. Don’t forget to mention exactly how much cost savings can be realized with the successful completion of your office space management plans.

While it’s always important to talk about cost, remember that company leaders have more than the bottom line on their minds. They are often tasked with moving the corporate culture in a new direction to secure the future of the business, and they’re trying to figure out how to make that happen. Let those leaders know how your office space management initiatives can co-locate teams for better collaboration and provide new types of work spaces that support innovation.

3. Avoid “set and forget” for property costs

When you’re approaching business unit leaders, be sure to point out the financial incentive of potentially reducing chargeback costs for their space. Collecting and providing the data you need for office space management gives business units the ability to avoid being charged for space they don’t have or no longer need. Encourage them to keep you up to date with more frequent reconciliation as their space usage changes.

4. Make it easy

You need to make it as easy as humanly (even super-humanly!) possible for your business units to keep their occupancy information updated.

Once you have a process established and a baseline of data, all the business units should have to do is confirm the accuracy of your information regularly, ideally once a month. If you keep going back to them time and time again asking for the same raw data, you lose their trust and willingness to participate. If it’s time consuming and cumbersome to enter data in your system, they will never do it reliably. And forget about manual methods of providing data.

Instead, it’s essential to provide an office space management tool that makes things easy for them AND shows off how much useful information you really have. When you have a smart system that’s integrated with your company’s HR data, you’ll automatically have the information about new hires and terminations. When the business units see that, you gain a whole lot of credibility since you can show that you know much more about them than they realized.

5. Give something back

Like any other negotiation, you’ve got to give something for everything you get. When you’re using the right office space management technology, you have a lot to offer the business units in return for their help.

Reports are a great way to gain cooperation. Create reports with floor plans and occupancy overlays that are useful to the business units and include their data, then make them readily available to save them the trouble of producing reports manually.

Another option is to use the data the business units provide to power wayfinding tools that are useful to everyone. Would they benefit from having a mobile app at their fingertips that can help them find a meeting room or a co-worker’s location in seconds? Let them know that this is only possible with the accurate and reliable data they provide.

Get More Help By Implementing the Right Office Space Management Tools

Using the right technology can help as much and even much more than gaining the assistance of your business teams for office space management. You don’t even have to tell anyone that this technology is the source of many of your super powers!

If you’re in the process of trying to evaluate software for office space management, check out this free resource that can help you ensure that you’re covering all the important bases: 5 Critical Comparison Points for Workplace Management Software.

Tags Flexible Working & Workplaces, Space Planning & Utilization, Workforce Enablement

Blog

You Should Be Getting More ROI From Your Office Space Planning Tool

Post author By stephanie_pounders
Post date August 23, 2017

Evaluating office space planning tools can be a tricky business. Whether you’re looking at implementing a full-blown IWMS or a more modern cloud-based tool that’s focused on workplace management, there are many options to consider with a wide range of features. And a wide range of price tags. That makes it complicated when you’re trying to build your business case for the purchase.

Or you may be in an even trickier situation: trying to replace an office space planning tool or augment an IWMS that’s not meeting your needs or delivering the promised return. In that case, it can be even harder to get approval and you need to build every benefit you can into your business case. The good news is, today’s best-in-class office space planning tools provide cost-saving benefits that you may not have considered in your ROI calculations. It’s a matter of knowing which features provide the most ROI, and understanding how these features reduce costs so you can build those numbers into your business case.

Office space planning software features that maximize ROI

Quick implementation
Modern office space planning systems built on a SaaS model can be drastically faster to implement than a big, cumbersome IWMS. We’re talking a few months instead of years. If getting the most for your money and getting it fast is important to you, the cloud is the way to go.

Related article: 6 Ways Your IWMS Software Is Failing You

When it comes to speeding implementation, also look for a company that will do the integration with your internal systems. That minimizes the burden on your IT group, which can also reduce complexity and get you going much quicker.

Automated collection of occupancy data
Speaking of integrating with your systems, you want an office space planning tool that pulls employee and company structure data directly from your HR and Finance systems, then provides automation for collecting occupancy data. You’ll get the most cost-saving benefits from a system portal that allows business units to access, update and validate their own occupancy data.

Easy scenario planning
Technology for office space planning needs to be simple, intuitive and engaging. Otherwise, people just don’t use it and you won’t get the value you’re expecting from the tool. Look for a visual user interface that makes it quick and easy to complete tasks and get information. That’s especially important when your business space champions will be using it as well as the property team. Here’s one example: what if you could see a visual representation of a building and its floors, showing the business units and teams occupying each floor? And then create move scenario plans in minutes by dragging and dropping? That interface just saved you days of work.

Integration with multiple sources of utilization data
When your goal is to maximize space usage, you need to use every source of utilization information you have, such as data from badge swipes, sensors, wired and WiFi networks and more. Look for an office space planning tool that pulls in data intelligently from various utilization tracking technologies, allowing you to see how your space is used down to the day, hour or even minute.

Dashboards, analytics and business intelligence
Everyone has reports, but you need more than a bunch of canned spreadsheet reports to get the best return on your investment in an office space planning system. Visual dashboards and analytics let you drill down to see data at the level of detail you need. For example, get information sliced and diced by geography or by business unit, and even down to the team level. Even better: look for a custom report builder that lets you create the exact reports you want using your own terminology.

If you’re not getting these features with the tools you’re currently looking at, it may be worth rethinking your evaluation criteria. Here’s a resource that can help: 5 Critical Comparison Points for Workplace Management Software.

How these office space planning features impact your ROI

Occupancy savings
When 50 percent of your workpoints sit vacant on any given day, and each workpoint costs you $10,000 per year, it’s easy to see how optimizing your space can add up to massive savings. Focus on the features that help you get the data to reduce wasted space.

Time is money
How much money are you wasting when you have to wait a couple of years to reap the benefits of your office space planning tool? And remember that those benefits build year-upon year, so the longer you wait, the more money you waste.

Reduce audit costs
How much does it cost you to do manual audits for collecting occupancy data? Not only is it extremely time consuming (and therefore expensive) but the data you get is not accurate. Teams have been known to “game” the system by leaving coffee cups and other signs of life on vacant desks. Also, people move around more frequently than you can possibly keep up with. That means the information is out of date almost as soon as you’re done. In the end, nobody trusts the data and you just end up arguing over it.

The cost of collecting data is drastically reduced with the right office space planning tool, especially when you get a portal that lets you “crowd-source” your occupancy data from the people who know the space best (the business themselves) and you can pull in data automatically from utilization technology.

Reduce cost of relocations
The cost of manually collecting data for relocations is even higher, since there are so many more details to capture (and the stakes are even higher for getting it wrong). When your office space planning tool automates collection of this data, it not only reduces cost, but also speeds the process and provides for a smoother move experience for your employees.

Minimize asset leasing losses
There’s a fringe benefit to keeping all the equipment data that you collect to prepare for a relocation, including PCs, laptops, tablets, phones and more. Once that information is collected and stored in your office space planning database, you then know where all your key assets are located and who has what, helping you keep your asset leasing and write-off costs under control.

Productivity is a benefit that keeps on giving
When your property team no longer needs to spend so much time collecting and manipulating data, they can use some of that reclaimed time to plan new scenarios that improve space utilization. What could you accomplish if your planning time dropped by 90% to 95%? If you could create a half dozen alternative plans in a few hours? Imagine how much could you save by preventing unplanned leases, and even subleasing space you no longer need.

Reduce dependency on business continuity cold sites
Instead of maintaining expensive, vacant cold sites for disaster recovery purposes, the right office space planning tool can identify where there is existing vacancy within your portfolio that would meet your DR needs.

The most efficient building is the one you no longer need
The most effective way to reduce energy costs and environmental impact is by reducing your real estate footprint.

Looking above and beyond ROI

All that being said, don’t forget to consider the benefits of a modern office space planning tool that are harder to quantify (for your own sake and for your employees’ if not for the business case).

Co-location productivity benefits
With an office space planning tool that makes it easy to do scenario planning, you can quickly visualize where your lines of business are located, and collocate them together to take advantage of business synergies.

Making your job easier and making you look good!
Have you imagined how your career prospects (and even your life!) could change with the right office space planning tool? You can impress your superiors by providing them with professional quality reports, and by pro-actively modeling scenarios that save the company millions. Best of all? You get out from under a pile of spreadsheets and accomplish more in far less time.

Want some help working out your ROI numbers? Call Serraview and we can walk you through our ROI calculator that can help pull it all together.

Download 5 Critical Comparison Points for Workplace Management Software.

Tags Flexible Working & Workplaces, Smart Building Technology, Space Planning & Utilization