Organizations adopt workplace management and smart building solutions for a variety of reasons. For example, 43% of respondents to our implemented the technology to improve efficiency. Others embrace these solutions to enhance security, reduce costs or support sustainability initiatives. For one of the world's largest investment management and servicing companies, the impetus for partnering with พรพรสำฦต was to facilitate the return of employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. But what this and many other organizations have found is that the initial use case for embracing OpenBlue technology is just the first step in discovering all the benefits these solutions have to offer.
During the recent Building Insights conference, we sat down with one of the company’s managing directors to discuss the impact OpenBlue products have had on her organization and some valuable tips for those considering workplace management and smart building solutions.
What OpenBlue products do you use, and what challenges have they helped you overcome?
We use OpenBlue Employee and the OpenBlue Employee mobile app. We rolled out the mobile app during COVID to help with welcoming employees back to the office. Our seating was unassigned, so we used OpenBlue Employee to make it easy for people to identify where they could sit and reserve a workspace.
Over the past couple of years, we’ve also introduced sensors to identify the types of seating that people prefer. In our UK offices, for example, we use these little cubby areas, individual spots that people sit in, and the employees there say they love it. We introduced some of these at our headquarters, and the seats are not being used. The sensors saved us a lot of time, money and effort that we might have otherwise wasted in rolling them out to other offices in the U.S. That data was very insightful.
And then we've also used OpenBlue Employee in a different way with reservations. One of our locations in Poland has limited parking, so we use reservations to help employees identify available spaces and reserve them.
What do you love most about OpenBlue Employee?
The touch panels are great because they make it easy to see who has reserved a room. Some people like to squat in meeting rooms, and that can give others the impression the room is unavailable or make it awkward for colleagues who need to kick someone out of the room so they can use it for its intended purpose. When you can see clearly that someone’s reserved the room, you can't squat.
The flip side to that are people who book a room for a whole day but never use it. With the auto checkout feature, the reservation is cancelled automatically after 15 minutes if the sensors don’t detect someone in the room. So, if you don't show up or check in, you're going to lose the room. These have allowed us to optimize the utilization of these meeting rooms.
What advice do you have for organizations that might be thinking about adopting a workplace management or smart building solution?
Figure out what you're trying to solve in advance. We were trying to solve so much at one time, and I was trying to find that one solution that covered it all. The OpenBlue team helped me approach it from the perspective of, “Hey, let me look at this and see what I can build upon it.” So, we used the desk scheduling tool for conference rooms. And then we learned we could use it for desks, then for parking. And we just keep on expanding on that. Finding a platform with flexibility is key, but also not biting off more than you can chew when you’re first starting out. And I think that's what we're learning across all of our systems. Trying to roll out too many things at once just creates a lot of chaos, versus really doing one thing well and then building upon it.
Also, I would say, don’t be afraid to speak up. A lot of solutions came through talking and collaborating with the OpenBlue team, our sales, customer success, even product leads and even attending this conference and asking, “What are your thoughts on X, Y and Z?” Being able to have those conversations and consider other options from that perspective is key. That’s why it’s essential, when you're starting to think of the solution, to have a strong partnership with the provider.