Intelligent Spaces: Adapting to the Way People Work
NOVEMBER 30, 2016 • BLOG POST
Many workers now have a minimum of three devices they use throughout the day
People need space to work – whether it’s at a desk, in a conference room, or in more dynamic environments like soft seating or huddle spaces. As more organizations shift to shared spaces and employees become more mobile, finding space and set up the technology can eat away at valuable time and money. According to the U.S. General Services Administration, unused space costs companies between $10,000 and $15,000 per employee per year.
Many workers now have a minimum of three devices they use throughout the day, and they demand choice and ease of use – wherever they are, whatever they’re doing – to make them as productive as possible. So, how can employers create a better experience for employees and their guests while increasing productivity for their company?
Intelligent Spaces: The Intersection of Human and Technology
The answer: HPE Intelligent Spaces. This customized solution integrates traditional workplace productivity technologies from Microsoft with Internet of Things (IoT) and data analytics to deliver spaces that work better for employees – instead of employees fitting their work style into the space. HPE first demonstrated Intelligent Spaces in London last year, and the solution is now available globally.
By layering location data with identity and calendar information and integrating with other workplace technologies, employee and visitor experiences can be seamlessly integrated. Everyone can see the status of spaces and rooms in real time, including getting turn-by-turn navigation to where they need to go. For meetings, the room knows who is participating and can automatically connect to and launch the technology for those individuals. This efficiency allows users to focus on valuable collaboration rather than waste time fiddling with technology.
“Our solution aims to make the interaction between disparate systems and data much more seamless, to create experiences and pull together data in a more unified way,” says Jordan Whitmarsh, Worldwide Workplace and Mobility Strategist at Hewlett Packard Enterprise. “This means that employees or visitors can navigate through their day with the technology behaving as an enabler rather than something forcing you to hop between stepping-stones of systems to get your job done.”
A Better Experience for the Employee, More Productivity for the Company
Companies obviously want their employees to be as productive as possible and since meetings involve multiple peoples' time, efficiency can save considerable resources. It's also important for employees to feel comfortable and engaged to be in the state of mind to deliver and refine their most innovative ideas.
Here are three key benefits of using HPE Intelligent Spaces:
- Increased employee effectiveness and engagement. By addressing the time wasted searching for and setting up technology for meetings, Intelligent Spaces can return up to 2.5 weeks of productivity (or the equivalent of $5,300) per employee per year. In addition, according to an Economist Intelligence Unit report sponsored by Aruba – a Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company, employees who see their employer pioneering employee engagement technologies are more productive, satisfied, loyal and creative. “In a work culture where employees are increasingly voting with their feet around work style and work-life issues, there is a significant benefit in engaging employees by making their workplace more intelligent and empowering,” says Whitmarsh.
- Improved visitor experience. Modernize the visitor experience by enabling digital visitor management, from sign in, badge printing and host notification through automatic provisioning of IT services. Organizations can now have real-time visibility to visitors in the building as well as what they are authorized to do while there.
- Increased facility efficiency. Facility managers need information to make sure that each space is being effectively used, and Intelligent Spaces gives them exactly what they need – occupancy rates of both rooms and desks. Managers can then see whether certain types of rooms are overused in certain areas of the campus while others sit around the corner underused. This insight allows managers to invest in the right amount and type of space to maximize efficiency. “Imagine the amount of money a company can save because they can get a more accurate reading on how space is used based on real data. The result may even be, for example, closing floors of a Manhattan skyscraper, resulting in a significant opportunity for cost savings,” says Whitmarsh.
Internet of Things (IoT) Meets Workplaces
As IoT advances within the workplace, Intelligent Spaces will be able to use the data available to customize the environment. In the future, the spaces where we work will likely be able to identify an employee and customize the environment automatically – such as desk height, chair tilt, and overlay lighting. More and more office buildings are integrating IoT at the core – with sensors for lighting, heating, blinds, cooling and usage monitoring that collect and report data. HPE is working to identify pain points in an employee’s, administrator’s or visitor’s daily experience and address these issues with targeted technology solutions.
It’s no surprise that people get frustrated when they can’t connect with the printer, or if they are told that the conference rooms are all in use when they can see empty rooms. Kitty Chow, Worldwide Director of Workplace and Mobility Consulting at HPE, says HPE’s goal with Intelligent Spaces is to identify what makes people mad and frustrated in the workplace and then use technology to solve their problems. “At HPE, we are going to do everything we can to create the personal experience each person needs and deserves in their workplace,” says Chow.