unlocking the potential of your real estate · potentially disruptive process. So why bother? The answer is simple. The potential benefits for the majority of corporate organisations,

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Optimising desk and workspace utilisation unlocking the potential of your real estate

The bottom line Why does workspace and desk optimisation matter?

Let’s not kid ourselves – optimising the utilisation of desk space, IT resources, meeting rooms and other facilities can be a demanding and potentially disruptive process. So why bother?

The answer is simple. The potential benefits for the majority of corporate organisations, in terms of both cost and operational efficiency, vastly outweigh any downside.

1. Drive down the cost of real estateReal estate represents one of the largest costs on any corporate P&L, and the relentless demand for property in the financial centres of the world means that there remains continual upwards price pressure.

City centre desk space already costs an average of £10,000 per year per unit to service (and £15,000 or more in some locations).Historically, this was an unavoidable cost – the more people you had, the more desks.

Technology and new ways of working offer a tantalizing glimpse of an alternative future – one in which reducing real estate costs can unlock annualized savings running to millions of pounds.

2. Ensure the efficient use of existing facilitiesIn an organisation where hundreds, if not thousands, of people are working in complex and flexible patterns every single day, across multiple floors, multiple buildings or even a global complex, how can you be sure that the desks, the hot desks and the meeting rooms are in the right places for efficient day-to-day operations? That there’s the right number of desks and other facilities? That the departments using the facilities are the ones paying for them?


3. Monitor the impact of changing working patternsNearly every organisation is changing the way its people work.

Hot-desking, home working and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) approaches all have the potential to create more flexible, efficient ways of working.

But if you’re left paying for empty desks and meeting rooms while everything around you has gone remote, mobile or virtual – well, those efficiencies will simply never arrive.

4. Improve future real estate planningWhether you’re reorganising, expanding or contracting, optimising change strategies requires real insight into patterns of working and facilities use.

Taking on too much new space or failing to provide sufficient facilities can both be equally damaging.

And how can you future-proof your real estate and facilities provision if you don’t know how current estate is really being used?

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Most managers and staff significantly over-estimate how much desk space is really being occupied in the working environments. While managers often imagine a desk-utilisation rate of 100% for administrative staff and around 60-70% for management and professional staff, this is usually far from the case.

In fact, desks in corporate workspaces are generally used less than 60% of the time.

Why so little? Well, there are always a few empty desks from people who are on holiday, are sick, or who have left and are yet to be replaced. Then there are likely to be full-time desks for part-time people. And the impact of working patterns is enormous – all of the people who are in meetings (often long ones), or are away working with other departments, or with external clients, or on training courses. And increasingly some are probably working from home too.

All of this means your desk and space utilisation is lower than it should be.


The information gapIn optimisation strategy, as in everything, knowledge is power. To optimise your workspaces, to develop more efficient real estate strategies and to win support for your change strategies, you are going to need some fairly fundamental information. But which of the following can you curently assess?

1. How many square feet of property are occupied?

2. How many users need desks?

3. How many desks available?

4. What is the average cost of each desk per year?

5. How efficiently is each space used? By user? By department? By floor? Nationally? Globally?

6. How are decisions made as to whether more or less space is required?

And it’s at Question 5 where real estate optimisation programmes most often fail. Incomplete, inaccurate or out-of-date data can all reduce the best intentions to mere guesswork.

The holy grail of workspace utilisation is a real-time schema of desktop utilisation. So how can you get that?



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The tools of the tradeThe secret to successfully rationalising the use of real estate is the collation and analysis of data that accurately reflects the real time ebb and flow of space utilisation around the corporate space. A variety of approaches have been developed to try to achieve this.

Survey / interviews: The most basic solution is to ask everyone to fill in a survey document, with details of how long they spent at their desk and when. The principle problem is one of accuracy – the eventual data will be based on incomplete returns, opinion and perception (most people think they spend longer at their desk than they do). It might help you make a few quick wins, but not much more.

Physical survey: Taking sample data every few hours by walking around the site with clipboards can provide more accurate average utilisation figures, but again lacks the depth required to help you really understand how the space is being used. For example, it cannot tell you the maximum and minimum occupancy levels since different desks are being recorded at different times, nor remote workers who are using a VPN to access their desktop.

Sensors: Solutions based on under-desk sensors resolve some of the problems concerning data accuracy, but still without providing the essential user and department information. Other key drawbacks include the disturbance and cost of installing networks of special equipment around the office, as well as a high level of intrusion into staff’s personal workspace. As with physical survey solutions, sensors fail to take account of remote workers who are accessing their desktop, and further inaccuracy can be introduced by a host of false and double positives, perhaps triggered by maintenance being carried out near the desk by cleaners, electricians or IT staff.

RFID: The Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology that is more normally used to track production and logistics operations can also be used to track individual movements around the corporate workspace. By integrating silicon chips into existing swipe cards, a rich, accurate and real-time picture of all employee work patterns can be built up. However, this


methodology doesn’t give information around specific desk utilisation unless card readers are located at each desk. This demands a very large capital investment at the outset, as well as a level of intrusion which is often deemed unacceptable.

IP utilisation: The next generation of workspace and desktop analysis uses IP technology to quickly and accurately assess the reality of workspace usage in order to drive real, achievable and measurable real estate savings. How? Well read on.



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How it works

DeskQUERY™ is a low-intervention and unobtrusive software solution which resides on the client’s Local Area Network (LAN) and uses network data to identify whether an IP device such as a PC, laptop or tablet is in use and where it is located.

This unique solution helps the user identify:Details of all IP devices on the client’s network, whether directly connected, virtual, wirelessly connected or connected from outside the buildingHow long they are connected to the network and whether active or on standby.

By combining this network data with information from other intelligent building sub-systems and databases (such as user details, the cabling infrastructure and CAD plans), the software can quickly identify under or over-utilised work areas, floors or buildings.

This information is then communicated through easy-to-interpret graphical interfaces and bespoke reports, quickly and simply allowing clients to make informed decisions across local, national or global estates.

Only DeskQUERY™ ticks all the boxes

Questionnaire / interviews

Physical survey

Sensors RFID DeskQUERY™

Verifiable, objective and real-time accuracy

Desk users easily identifed by name, desk or department

No ‘false positives’ or ‘double positives’ recorded

Unobtrusive in the workplace

Low level of manual intervention in the workplace and at the desktop level

Low level of intrusion for end-user

Affordable solution working with existing technology and infrastructure – no major hardware installation required

Compatible with bring your own device (BYOD) strategies

Unoccupied

In Use

Occupied

Introducing DeskQUERY™ from Excel is in the vanguard of a new generation of real estate optimisation solutions, delivering unparalleled insights into desktop and workspace usage and unlocking remarkable levels of real estate efficiency and cost savings.

By accurately monitoring and highlighting real-time usage of space in a clear and concise manner, DeskQUERY™ provides an unequalled clarity of management information in support of ever-more sophisticated real estate strategies.

DeskQUERY™ operates on your existing corporate IT infrastructures, offering significant advantages over existing hardware based products such as desk sensors or card swipes

By monitoring and assessing space utilisation across a floor, a building or a group of buildings, DeskQUERY™ can support the most sophisticated levels of spatial

planning and optimisation strategies.

DeskQUERY™ can drive optimisation strategies for existing locations,

improve the accuracy of future expansion strategies or even create efficiencies through improved approaches to hot desk booking.

Your infrastructure has the answersNext-generation software solutions, such as DeskQUERY™ by Excel, reside on your existing Local Area Network (LAN) and use existing network data to identify whether an IP device such as a PC, laptop or tablet is in use, and where it is located.

The result is a quantum leap forward in terms of terms of detail, real-time accuracy and granularity of information. And because this low-intervention, unobtrusive software works on infrastructure you already have, all of these gains are delivered with no compromise on affordability.

This unique approach gives accurate monitoring and analysis of real-time campus usage by identifying:

Details of all IP devices on the client’s network, whether directly connected, virtual, wirelessly connected or connected from outside the building.

How long they are connected to the network and whether active or on standby.

By combining this network data with information from other intelligent building sub-systems and databases (such as user details, the cabling

infrastructure and CAD plans), the software can quickly identify under or over-utilised work areas, floors or buildings. And finally, to properly inform decision-making across local, national or global estates, DeskQUERY™ then communicates this information through easy-to-interpret graphical interfaces and bespoke reports. There is simply nothing more powerful or effective than seeing constantly evolving real-time usage overlaid on physical floorplans, with instant access

to figures breaking down daily, weekly or monthly averages by user, department, floor, building

or estate.


Making it happenDeskQUERY™ from Excel is in the vanguard of a new generation of real estate optimisation solutions that can unlock new levels of real estate efficiency and cost saving.

Remember:

DeskQUERY™ operates on your existing corporate IT infrastructures, offering significant advantages over existing hardware-based products such as desk sensors or card swipes.

DeskQUERY™ monitors and assesses space utilisation in real time across floors, departments, buildings or group of buildings.

DeskQUERY™ can support the most sophisticated level of spatial planning and optimisation strategies for existing locations or improve the accuracy of future expansion strategies.

To see how DeskQUERY™ could help unlock the potential of your estates, call Excel today on 01708 865855 or email [email protected]. Or visit www.excelit.com/deskquery.php for more information.



RM20 3JT

+44 (0)1708 865 855www.excelit.com

[email protected]

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Excel I.T. Ltd Trafalgar House, 712 London Road, Grays, Essex RM20 3JT

[email protected]

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unlocking the potential of your real estate · potentially disruptive process. So why bother? The answer is simple. The potential benefits for the majority of corporate organisations,