Developing a Global Smart Workplace Strategy
Our scope encompassed the identification of key performance indicators (KPIs) to evaluate strategy success, financial analysis to illustrate implementation benefits, and evaluation of vendor solutions. Our smart workplace team included subject matter experts from our building technology systems, lighting design, sustainability/ built ecology, advisory services, MEP, and commissioning services teams. The strategy that was developed will be applied to all new construction projects across the company’s real estate portfolio.
In the early stage of the project, we worked with stakeholders that represented most aspects of the client’s business operations – from management and real estate to HR, IT and sustainability. Our goal was to explore with them and discover the potential benefits that smart solutions could offer to their business, as well as agree which internal business groups would maintain and operate which aspect of the strategy.
We gathered input on a range of topics including current business and operational practices, workplace standards, and representative real estate costs and contracts, then built a consensus, establishing a strategy they felt they could implement.
Next, we identified KPIs and measurement methods related to human experience, space, and energy efficiency. The goal was to use the KPIs to understand how proposed solutions were going to save energy, optimise space usage, and improve staff experience, satisfaction and ultimately productivity. The KPIs were designed to illustrate the financial benefits and to provide measurable feedback on the success of implementation.
A key facet of our involvement was developing a rigorous financial model, with assistance from our strategic advisory team, that demonstrated a clear and realistic return on investment for various aspects of the strategy.
Our strategy has demonstrated that there were numerous benefits for the company in procuring certain solutions globally. The benefits included ensuring consistency across their real estate portfolio and obtaining the better commercial value that could be provided by more standardised solutions.
Our client has seen value in establishing clear objectives around how they build space, and the roadmap to realise those objectives. The framework now established will help inform decisions on individual projects across the company so they fit with the overall strategy.
This included many sub-strategies that ranged from high-performance initiatives and healthy environments, to smart building solutions including software, data analytics, to mobile apps. The proposed smart solutions were designed to enable the company to make improvements in three primary categories – energy usage, real estate portfolio, and staff productivity and happiness.
We helped define a roadmap that encompassed foundational elements that would need to be included in the client’s future workplace projects on the path to the full implementation of the strategy. We also helped identify which of these foundational elements were truly transformative to our client’s business and would require change management to assist with the move from the way they currently operated. These elements would involve the stakeholders, so they would need to implement appropriate changes in their own plans and strategies in order to adapt.
