iOFFICE + SpaceIQ

There’s more to intelligent workplaces than just saving money. Smart technology serves a bigger purpose: to enhance the employee experience and increase productivity in the process. Something as simple as walking into the workplace and being able to quickly track down that colleague with whom you need to meet, find an available workstation and conference room on an interactive map, and reserve it for the day can make all the difference.

For employers, smart buildings present an opportunity to encourage collaboration and creativity in the workplace by monitoring space utilization, how employees operate in the workplace, and much more. It’s a constant process of measuring, learning, and adjusting.

Workplaces powered by these technologies have a great potential to transform the way people work. However, many questions cloud leaders’ minds as they try to make sense of smart technology and harness its potential. The abundance of solutions in the market can also create confusion and complication, leaving organizations with more questions than answers.

This is precisely where iOFFICE + SpaceIQ organizations with resounding success. Following strategic investments by global private equity investment firms Thoma Bravo and JMI Equity and a recent merger, the company is the clear leader in space planning, employee experience, and asset management solutions with the most comprehensive product portfolio in the market.

With more than 10,000 customers worldwide, the company draws on its extensive history as innovators of workplace management systems to help organizations adapt to evolving workplace trends. The dynamic team goes beyond the traditional integrated workplace management systems (IWMS) to equip its clients with the next generation of integrated experience management solutions, known as iXMS.

“We’ve seen monumental shifts in employee expectations for workplaces, the importance of optimizing real estate portfolios, and the need to improve the performance of equipment that’s critical to business operations,” said Wain Kellum, CEO of iOFFICE + SpaceIQ. “Our solutions optimize workplace and asset performance by connecting people, places and data to give leaders the insights they need to enhance the employee experience and achieve better business outcomes.”

Building Smart Workplaces at Every Stage

Prior to the pandemic, the average organization only used about 60% of its available real estate space and aimed to achieve closer to 80-90% utilization, according to JLL’s 2019- 2020 Occupancy Benchmarking Guide.

Now, with 80% of corporate real estate leaders describing their new approach to the workplace as “hybrid-guided flexibility” in the latest CBRE report, making the most of every space requires even more active management.

Employees now expect the flexibility to choose where they work best and still see the office as an important hub for collaboration, but they will be less eager to spend time in an environment that’s overcrowded, mostly empty, or not designed to support their needs.

iOFFICE + SpaceIQ’s technology empowers enterprises to optimize workplaces at every stage, starting with the planning process.

Workplace leaders and corporate real estate executives can forecast future space needs, commission new facilities with building information modeling solutions, manage projects, plan moves, reconfigure floor plans and manage flexible seating arrangements as employees’ needs change. They can also manage accounting and chargebacks to determine the return on investment of the built environment.

Within that environment, iOFFICE + SpaceIQ’s solutions facilitate frictionless collaboration for employees. They make it easy for employees to find people and places, reserve available spaces or amenities, request service, catering and even transportation, and receive deliveries, visitors, or important announcements.

Powered by user-friendly, mobile technology, the workplace functions more like a hotel and becomes a dynamic destination of choice, rather than a static environment where employees are required to be eight hours a day, five days a week.

As employees use the workplace, they are relaying valuable information back to enterprise leaders, along with data from IoT sensors. Leaders can use these insights to create richer and more fulfilling experiences and better plan for the future. For instance, if they notice office occupancy peaks on Wednesday afternoon, they can plan social events and training opportunities during that time.

They can also use this information to make it easier for employees to find parking spaces and reduce wait times in reception areas and cafeterias during the busiest times.

The enhanced employee experience supports higher retention, greater productivity, and a better bottom line.

Consider the impact this had on one of the world’s largest healthcare companies as it relocated three different divisions into one corporate office. The CRE, facilities management, HR, and IT teams were using 58 different apps and technologies from other vendors. This created an incongruent user interface for employees and a lack of data transparency, which hindered collaboration among departments.

Despite the economic constraints and the challenge of “doing more with less,” the client sought a solution that could elevate the experience of the employees, patients, and customers.

Consolidating the company’s core workplace management functions into a single platform significantly improved the HR team’s ability to plan for employee growth, increased service request response time, and strengthened risk management regarding the company’s assets.

Today, the healthcare company has transformed its 528,000 square-foot facility into an employee-centric digital workplace.

Employees enjoy a seamless work experience where they can reserve desks when they need them and request service at their fingertips. The leadership team has full visibility into the total costs of each floor, critical occupancy metrics, and more.

Reimagining Asset Management and Capital Planning

Today’s enterprise leaders face unique challenges in forecasting long-term capital investments when it comes to both their buildings and equipment.

Almost 75% of organizations experience supply chain disruptions every year, according to the Business Continuity Institute, and the pandemic underscored the far-reaching impact unpredictable factors can have on operations and profitability.

At times of uncertainty, the best defense is a smart purchasing strategy. Operations managers and maintenance professionals need to understand the total cost of ownership of every asset and how it contributes to business outcomes so they can make more informed decisions about whether to repair or replace it. They need to extend the useful life of their facilities, heavy machinery, vehicles, and other significant investments and optimize inventory to guard against supply chain disruptions.

This is only possible if they have full transparency into equipment performance, maintenance history, and the costs of parts, labor, and downtime.

iOFFICE + SpaceIQ’s enterprise asset management solutions bring all this data into a single platform, transforming it into actionable insights.

Teams can streamline inspections, inventory, maintenance, and vendor work while equipping enterprise leaders to make smarter purchasing and planning decisions.

This collaboration has a dramatic impact on profits. For a transportation and logistics company, simply optimizing the way it scheduled oil changes for its massive fleet saved over $250,000 in a single year. The company achieved $600,000 in direct savings from smarter preventive maintenance and purchasing.

Supporting Workplace Safety And Planning Beyond The Pandemic

While the COVID-19 pandemic slowed growth for many businesses, for iOFFICE + SpaceIQ, it presented an untapped opportunity to create safer and healthier workplaces.

The company introduced a new product, Space-Right™, that has been instrumental in enabling organizations to instantly reconfigure their floor plans for physical distancing, manage assigned seats and alternating shifts, and adjust the flow of traffic in shared spaces to avoid overcrowding.

It also enhanced existing solutions, including introducing wellness checks as part of its visitor management software, and enabling employees or visitors to pre-register for touchless check-in.

iOFFICE + SpaceIQ has harnessed the power of sensor-based technologies for intelligent, demand-based cleaning and occupancy planning. Facilities managers can see which spaces have been used each day and adjust cleaning schedules accordingly. They can see sensor data directly from their floor plans to analyze average occupancy, peak occupancy, and which types of spaces are used most often to make immediate adjustments and improve long-term planning.

“Our immediate priority is to ensure our customers have the right technology in place to reopen their workplaces safely,” Kellum said. “We also want to empower them with the data and strategic planning tools they need to support ongoing growth, optimize costs, and create engaging environments that attract and retain top talent for years to come.”