space management

How space management and planning help with growth

In many ways, office environments are like their own ecosystems. Leave a group of people together for long enough and they’ll develop some sort of system, right? True as it is, those systems that spring up organically in the workplace aren’t always effective or efficient. An unplanned, unmanaged office isn’t likely to magically transform into a well-organized oasis of productivity.

And it’s now compounded by today’s hybrid work models where employee behavior and building occupancy are dynamic, so space management is more complex than it’s ever been. The shift to flexible working has made it increasingly difficult for businesses to plan, operate, and maintain workspace and assets effectively.

Our 16,000+ customers are adapting to a dynamic work environment where shared space is the new normal and what happens (or doesn’t happen) in one area affects the other.

It’s not enough anymore to manage square feet on a static floor plan. They’re magnetizing the workplace for employees by operationalizing and fusing building maintenance and flexible working together. The goal? To compete for top talent and grow the business.

Between real estate, property management, and facility management, finding cost savings and improving company culture are now dual mandates – which requires a lot of cross-department collaboration and decision making.

Think of all the different teams that make or influence the built environment today — everyone from human resources to technology teams, to physical security and reception managers, to building system maintenance and janitorial services. Plus, all the vendors that need to be managed, tracked, and coordinated – especially during office moves and space reconfigurations.

With strategic space utilization and workplace design, you can reduce overhead costs, increase employee satisfaction and productivity, and create a commute-worthy workplace experience. From smarter energy management to better utilization of your real estate, today’s space management software is powerful and built for users. But it all starts with a space management strategy.

Key components of a space management strategy

Space management is an essential component for business growth. It involves understanding and meeting the needs of a business’s space while ensuring that all resources are optimally utilized. Take time to understand your company’s goals and needs, and develop strategies to optimize space allocation effectively.

You need to identify unused or underutilized spaces, and maximize efficiency with office layout design using techniques such as ‘design thinking’ to become more agile and adaptive to user needs.

What’s design thinking? Go deeper. Read “The connection between design thinking and workspaces.”

Understanding space management and planning

Before you can make use of a space usage strategy with a floor plan, of course, you need to understand what that strategy is and how it can work for you and your departments. Space Management and Planning is a part of Facility Management (FM), which is a professional field that covers everything having to do with the physical premises a business occupies.

Facilities Management includes not only office space usage but also industrial and manufacturing spaces, including factories, laboratories, loading docks, retail space, mailrooms, outdoor test facilities, and more. FM can also encompass physical assets such as technology, office supplies, furniture, and manufacturing equipment.

While many industries and offices have dedicated FM staff, some businesses aren’t yet big enough to employ these kinds of professionals’ full time, relying instead on an office manager or human resources staff member to take on FM duties that include space management and planning.

Whether the professional carrying out space management and planning duties is an FM specialist or someone else, their focus, while performing these duties, will be on the use of the physical space in the office rather than other elements of FM.

For example, the question of where to seat a specific department within an office space is a space management duty. Conceptualizing different seating arrangements and setting them up as potential scenarios would be part of Space Planning. There’s a subtle difference between the two, which is why it’s best to lump them into the same category: Space Management and Planning.

This facility management function gives businesses the ability to control how their office environments function from a physical standpoint. While this can seem like a purely practical task at first glance, there’s actually an art to space management and planning that, if performed correctly, can result in major gains in employee satisfaction and, by extension, productivity.

Strategic space management and planning offers a business a certain amount of flexibility and collaboration while improving overall productivity. During the space management and planning process, critical decisions regarding the use, layout, appearance, filing options and standardization should all be considered.

First, determine what the space will be used for. For example, will there be meeting rooms or cubicles? Establishing the space’s primary function is the first step that a business should take concerning space management. The layout should complement the overall use of the space, and this included the functionality of the space regarding the furniture layout.

The design may be something that doesn’t seem important when looking at the overall picture, but studies have shown that a well-designed space can increase productivity and success in the workplace and can boost the employee’s overall mood. A well-designed space also has the ability to adapt and evolve with the occupants, and they will feel comfortable at ease in such an environment.

Filing and record keeping are important aspects of any business, regardless of the filing system that is being used. Some businesses may require a larger area for storage, filing, and supplies.

Determine the goal and needs of the business to determine how much space will be needed. Always taking into consideration the future growth of the company and the forecasted needs of the space. Technology and equipment requirements should be considered as well, especially since most companies utilize digital record keeping.

Finally, the business should determine how the space will look. Will they be standard cubicles or furniture that are all matching and cohesive? Should the look and design and the layout of each room remain similar or does each room require a different layout with a distinctive design to establish its use?

With the right tools and knowledge, businesses can develop successful strategies for efficient space management that will lead them towards long-term growth success.

There are many software solutions available today that focus on helping companies manage their physical spaces more effectively, such as room booking systems which allow teams to book meeting rooms quickly. Because remember: Digital experiences are driving the employee experience – and business growth is directly connected to employee satisfaction. Ease of use is a top priority and the tools you use need employee adoption.

Tools to help with space management and planning

Digital twins and 3D modelling software, such as Building Information Modelling (BIM) that allow users to visualize how different layouts would look like before actually making changes
Occupancy sensors which track how much time certain areas are being used
Smart building technology with real-time data about employee presence
Desk booking systems which enable teams to easily find available workspaces
Energy management solutions which help organizations save money by optimizing energy use across premises
Move management solutions which facilitate easier relocation processes when needed
Room usage tracking solutions which collect data on how often certain places are being used throughout the day

By leveraging these modern tools alongside manual practices such as collecting information from surveys or interviews with staff members about their experiences in different areas of the office, businesses can ensure they make informed decisions when managing their physical spaces.

Benefits of space management and planning

Space optimization is an extremely valuable process for any business aspiring to expand. By utilizing physical space, companies can reduce overhead costs, enhance employee satisfaction and productivity, and create a more pleasant work environment. Here are some of the key advantages associated with smart space management:

Cost efficiency

Companies can benefit from cost savings by recognizing underutilized or excessive spaces in their facility. With solutions such as energy management platforms, cost calculators, and strategic planning software, businesses can analyze usage data in real-time to make informed decisions when it comes to resource allocation.

Enhanced employee satisfaction

Space supervision also boosts contentment among employees by offering them flexibility in terms of how they collaborate together. This could be done through hot-desking models or having staff members work remotely, which allows the organization to design a workspace that matches their individual needs.

By planning ahead using booking systems and room usage tracking systems, teams will always have access to the right desks or meeting rooms at the right time so that everyone remains productive without feeling cramped up in a shared office setting.

Increased productivity

Through intelligent building technology, including desk booking systems and occupancy sensors, organizations are able to measure desk utilization throughout the day and make changes based on factual data instead of assumptions about what might suit employees better.

This way, they are able to optimize their office layout for maximum efficiency while still providing comfort for those present without overcrowding certain areas or leaving other sections vacant most of the time. Moreover, regular evaluations of space use enable businesses to modify plans rapidly if required, which increases productivity levels on the whole.

Superior workplace experience

Finally, proper space monitoring promotes an improved workplace experience which leads to heightened collaboration across teams while uplifting employee morale too.

By collecting information about room occupancy, such as what types of meetings take place within it, companies can customize their spaces to current trends so that workers feel comfortable no matter if they decide to work remotely or come into the office daily. Regular assessments help detect potential issues before they grow into serious problems, enhancing communication between team members as well as organizational culture overall.

Through organized planning and implementation of efficient space administration plans, businesses can ensure that all decisions regarding physical spaces are well-informed, leading them towards long-term success with expansion opportunities further down the line

We analyze our global data quarterly. See our findings based on analysis of 2.7 million desks, 37,000 buildings, and 440,000 floors across more than 8,000 companies.

How to implement an effective space management plan

Begin by evaluating the company’s total square footage, how many people it supports, and any areas of unused or underutilized space. From there, a plan can be drawn up for future space requirements that takes into account potential changes in team size or operations.

Once a comprehensive plan has been developed, businesses should look at ways to optimize their physical space, such as altering office layouts or introducing hot-desking solutions — as well as implementing room booking systems or desk booking software for more flexible working arrangements. Further cost savings can be achieved with energy management solutions and occupancy sensors that track progress in real-time.

Monitoring progress is just as important as devising a plan in the first place — regularly assessing usage trends over time will help inform decisions when allocating resources or creating new workspaces. Strategic planning software is invaluable here, providing insight into which strategies are most successful in terms of cost savings and productivity improvement.

Ultimately, by following these steps, companies will be able to establish a solid foundation for success whereby they benefit from significant cost-efficiency gains while simultaneously fostering an environment where employees are satisfied and productive — setting them up for long-term growth opportunities along the way.

Today’s space planning software utilizes real-time data to offer valuable insights into how workspaces are used by teams or individuals at any given moment. This allows an organization to better optimize its premises for maximum efficiency and productivity. Similarly, move management software enables companies to handle large-scale changes like office moves or rebrands with minimal time and money investment.

Digital twins also offer organizations the chance to scenario plan and test conditions and layouts before implementation, giving them the opportunity to experiment until they find the design that works best for them without expensive revisions down the line.

Meanwhile, room booking systems enable more efficient allocation of meeting rooms — as well as providing analytics on usage rates so they can adjust bookings accordingly — while occupancy sensors can detect usage patterns in real time with minimum effort or disruption.

These tools allow businesses greater control over their physical spaces so they can reap cost savings along with increased employee satisfaction and improved productivity levels, ultimately leading to better workplace experiences overall.

The link between employee satisfaction, the office environment, and productivity

Why does it matter whether your office environment feels comfortable and inviting for employees? Their job is to show up and get the job done, right? If you’re like most modern business leaders, this line of thinking may sound a little old-fashioned and unwise, and there’s good reason for that. Employee satisfaction is becoming a major part of the way successful companies do business.

Concepts of corporate culture and attracting “talent” rather than “human resources” are replacing the old-fashioned one-size-fits-all approach to crafting a workplace.

Cubicle farms are being replaced by open, airy workspaces with communal meeting spaces, lounge areas, and ergonomic workstations. While this kind of humanity-focused approach might have sent chills down the spine of 20th-century middle managers, effective organizational leaders in this century know that treating employees as valuable team members is a smart system that reaps incredible rewards.

This isn’t just common sense. Multiple studies have shown that office environment and employee satisfaction are linked and that, in turn, employee satisfaction has a dramatic positive impact on productivity. In that sense, a cushy workplace isn’t just a good plan for attracting top talent. It’s a way to ensure that once you have that talent on your team, you get the best possible return on your investment.

Planning, too, is imperative as it allows FM staff and other management to anticipate employee satisfaction needs and curate the best workspace possible. Ultimately, Space Management and Planning is an effective means of taking control of your workspace and shaping it to fit not only the organization’s needs but also the needs of the employees.

What employee satisfaction means for growth

Space Management and Planning has an essential role to play in the cultivation of a satisfied, productive workforce. Productive employees lead to better work output, which, in turn, allows your business leadership to strategize new avenues for growth. But that’s just the short-term picture. As your growth efforts pay off, your satisfied employees will stay put and continue to provide loyal service to your organization.

They’ll grow from junior-level employees into managers who themselves can bring on a new generation of satisfied talent that continue the cycle and set your business up for long-term expansion and success.

Satisfied employees will only stay happy with their work environment if you can expand in the right ways and in a timely manner. No one likes going from having a cushy workspace to feeling cramped and distracted by an influx of new coworkers. Because space management and planning is a continuous management process, you’ll be able to avoid making growth seem like a burden to long-time team members.

Plus, it helps integrate new employees into the office in a seamless way, so the satisfaction points start racking up from the moment the new hire walks through your doors on his or her first day.

Find out how worktech from Eptura can help your space utilization need. Talk to us.

Q&A: The evolution of workplace sensors and sensor data

From our cars to our smartwatches to door monitoring systems in our homes, sensors are now part of our everyday lives. Increasingly, sensors have become part of our workplace experience too.

Think of them like a friendly ticket taker, keeping tabs on people flows and reporting metrics about buildings and systems, meeting room occupancy, temperatures, air quality, and more. Many advanced organizations are integrating data from sensors within their building automation systems and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) and lighting systems to save on energy costs and help hit corporate sustainability targets.

In the era of hybrid work, where new work patterns are emerging, sensors have an important role in separating workspace and building data facts from fiction. According to JLL’s “Future of Work” survey, occupancy sensors are among the key technology organizations plan to adopt by 2025 — along with remote working solutions, automation systems, and environmental controls.

“Since it’s not a given that the office will be full every day, knowing the number of seats or working spaces is no longer sufficient to inform strategies,” reflects JLL in a post about early adopters. “It’s clear the future of work is more relationship oriented than ever before. Decision-makers need to know who is in the office, when, and how they are using it. So do their co-workers and collaborators.”

The challenge has always been twofold. First, how do you integrate sensors with a variety of siloed systems? And secondly, is your organization being precise enough with what it needs to know from sensors? Sensors are not the solution to every building and workplace challenge.

To help answer these challenges and better understand the evolution of sensors and sensor data today, we spoke with Eric Maxfield, Director of Product Management, who has been working in the integrated workplace management systems (IWMS) software industry for 17 years.

Eric, tell us about your background and what you do at Eptura?

I’ve been in various roles throughout the family that’s become Eptura. I have an undergraduate degree in electrical engineering with a specialty in biomedical engineering, so I did a lot of work with signals and systems.

I started with Archibus and specialized in visualization. I was familiar with computer-aided design (CAD), so I did some custom work and support for CAD integration floor plans which evolved into becoming a local expert in geographic information systems (GIS) integrations.

Then, Archibus acquired rights to a suite of environmental sustainability and risk management products, so I was tapped as a product owner for that whole suite of applications. And thus began my role in product management. It set the stage for where I am now in that there’s a whole lot of data in our space.

Tell us about your experience with sensors across your career evolution.

With Archibus, my team focused primarily on energy meters and other utility and environmental sensors, while the space management product team explored occupancy sensors. With sensors, there’s always the technical challenge of collecting and integrating data, yet the bigger challenge as a product leader was helping think through how to make useful sense of the collected data to solve meaningful problems for customers.

How do we aggregate the various energy sources in buildings? Computing greenhouse gases is complicated. There’s a lot of math going on, many disparate things that roll together that our stakeholders really wanted to see. And you want to be able to boil the variety of metrics down to one number, but there’s a lot of nuance. How do you make recommendations with this kind of complexity?

So, part of the focus was helping facilities directors make more strategic decisions. During this period, I did a lot of analytics. And along that journey, the evolution of sensors went from being strictly tactical data to becoming more strategically valuable with the use of smarter data.

After Archibus and Serraview were acquired by JMI, we had new product leadership who wanted to start a brand-new analytics framework. So, I had the huge privilege to start another ground-up product innovation in a mature company.

I ran our little skunkworks startup shop for a while using the best tools on the market. We were able to work on innovative ideas for our customers which turned into a robust and comprehensive workplace analytics solution for Serraview. Modern dashboards and self-service functions with a lot of focus on space allocation and utilization metrics.

The real crux was utilization of the workplace because, at the time, offices in busy urban hubs were just stuffed to the gills. The concern then was, ‘how many more people can we get into our space’? What is the threshold for occupancy at which deciding there’s a hard stop for fire codes?

People get frustrated if they can’t find a seat they want or a meeting room. Job demand was so high in some of these urban hubs that there was a lot of churn in employees. It wasn’t just a space thing, but it was really an HR and a productivity concern.

Any other considerations when it comes to better managing space for facilities managers vis-a-viz sensors?

Well, there’s also the cost, right? Cost per square meter is high and you want to maximize it. You don’t want to have spaces sitting idle. Clients are really pouring over their data and their metrics. Common questions we’d get included: ‘How many people should we allow to book? How many of those on average cancel? They were asking: What’s the practical threshold for functional occupancy?

Badge data gave us a solid history of how many people entered a building. In some cases, buildings occupancy flirted daily with fire code limits, but by that point, most facilities feel beyond ‘bustling’ and were crowded to a disruptive level.

Today, organizations are experimenting with different workplace policies and configurations to support the modern models of agile, flexible, hybrid work. The workplace has become more self-directed which compounds the complexity. And so, there’s a real need and hunger for analytics and accuracy in data now – and sensors are a valuable tool for gathering movement and flow data once people are inside buildings – and for helping us understand behavior in spaces of all kinds.

There are a ton of variables because buildings and workspaces involve humans. The facility itself can be complicated, but human behaviors are much more difficult to predict, So, workplace and building analytics are exciting areas to analyze and extract value from … That was the impetus and the challenges with Serraview, but as we built it, we thought, we’re going to end up having other companies involved and other solutions. So, let’s build this for integration with other products.

Along comes Thoma Bravo and now we’ve become Eptura. Today, we have a panoply of products with customers with similar problems they’re trying to tackle with different technologies. It’s led to a revised decision on what technology should we use and standardize on so that we deliver the best-in-class analytic solution for workplace and asset management.

That’s the journey we’ve been on lately and it’s exciting to have an ever-growing and expert team with different perspectives to work with daily.

“You know sensors in isolation provide good info, but sensors connected to workplace assignments and neighborhoods, together with badge, access control, and booking data. If you’ve got that, now we start multiplying the benefits. Now we can start to see patterns, behaviors, and interactions a lot more. That helps us make smarter decisions.”

How has the role of data evolved in facility and space management in your time?

It’s evolved a lot. The general evolution has moved from specific operational functions towards higher level strategic analysis. In a traditional workplace where there was one-to-one [desk] assignments, you needed a name and the location. You needed to provide a function to a person. Data was used just to track those decisions and have a reference point.

The evolution has been from operational data to more strategic data. And its evolution and the interest has always been there. I think the evolution has been helped by the ease of sharing data today.
The technology itself has truly evolved. Certainly, the cloud has helped. It’s so much easier to get data with the advent of the modern data warehouse, for example, so much has come along, including sensors, that have made it easier to deliver data in aggregate.

We analyze our global data quarterly. See our findings based on analysis of 2.7 million desks, 37,000 buildings, and 440,000 floors across more than 8,000 companies.

Today, there is a lot going on in the entire building information ecosystem. Think about emergency management: You need to know who’s in the building. And, if you had a need for an evacuation, did everybody that was supposed to be in that day make it in? Worktech can help share this kind of data a lot easier than it used to be.

There’s also energy management today. Did we know how energy usage associated with a team’s allocated space and meeting room use rolls up to costs in the past? Typically, that was fuzzy. But with the evolution of workplace and building technology, including sensors, the integration is becoming more closely tied together than it’s ever been. So, it’s becoming less fuzzy to gain insights from data. The more metrics are tied to costs, the happier senior stakeholders are because they can trust the numbers more. Today, data allows for more predictability between costs and the effects of building utilization.

What does it cost to operate this building? What does it cost per head count in this building? How many people can we put in our workspaces before it starts tipping towards being overcrowded? How can we best adapt our strategy at a broader level to support rather than frustrate our occupants’ collaboration?

Now, everything gets poured into the same data warehouse and you can get the totals with a quick click of the button. That’s just having it available. But since it’s available now, we can do more interesting things with it, and we can see other relationships related to what was once a siloed set of data managed and used by one siloed set of the organization together with another set of data. It’s now much richer. And data is more transparent. You can have defensible relationships clearly defined, and then see how things affect one another or do not, so that you can collectively make better decisions.

So that’s evolution. Modern data analytics summaries and dashboards.

But it’s even further now that there is more sophisticated statistical analysis, and other enrichment of data. Today, you can model in algorithms in a smart way, so that we may train a machine to look for patterns and make suggestions. We can feed data insights back into the system and create feedback loops.

So, would you say we’ve been able to get to a place of more precision with data captured with sensors and other building systems as it’s evolved?

In general, yes, but not everywhere. It depends on how you define precision. We can collect data digitally and that’s a lot more reliable than anecdotal data, and it’s of higher granularity which typically corresponds with precision.

Look at headcounts in a building. I remember when people would hire teams to just walk the floors and tick off headcounts. Maybe they had a security system or a turnstile.

Now, it’s a badge swipe or card access, tied to an access-control based visitor management system, and you get an automatic log of everybody in the building. You know who’s in the building. But with sensors you can take it further to isolate a specific count of people on a given floor as people walk by different technologies.

Plus, there are more advanced ways of Wi-Fi integration or IP access where we’re identifying the person, where they’re connected, and their degree of activity. It’s more precise and concrete in that sense with less estimating which adds many more opportunities for enrichment.

Can you speak about the role sensors are playing today and in space management and utilization, and how has it evolved over the last decade?

It’s grown in adoption. The cost of the hardware and implementation has reduced dramatically. The ease of integrating the outputs is also better. It was a novel thing and there were certain high-tech workplaces that would have it. But there’s also been an evolution of expectations. Most organizations want to have a wired up modern workplace. There’s a value in and of itself, you know, it attracts people, it’s cool, and you can be a frontrunner in a lot of ways.

It’s becoming more of a commodity, so organizations are asking what’s the value we’re trying to achieve with our buildings and workspaces. What’s the cost benefit?

It’s easy to overpromise with sensors too though … Putting in sensors won’t tell you everything. There are a lot of positive values you can derive from sensors, and many workplaces are finding it. I think we’ve seen more maturity and understanding on the priority of different use cases. So, if we want to do strict headcount that might be useful.

But is it as valuable to have a sensor on every specific desk, especially where we have flexible seating? Is that as useful as sensors in the meeting room to provide headcount where it’s a shared space and it’s a little bit more premium aspect of our facility. Will it be more costly to reconfigure our space? Deploy sensors to help find answers to gaps in your knowledge, especially in areas that are harder to figure out.

It’s significant. And I think another evolution goes with the overall data world: You know sensors in isolation provide good info, but sensors connected to workplace assignments and neighborhoods, together with badge, access control, and booking data. If you’ve got that, now we start multiplying the benefits. Now we can start to see patterns, behaviors, and interactions a lot more. That helps us make smarter decisions. With sensors, we’re able to see more than just static desks, meeting rooms, static auditoriums, static badge data.

You see which spaces are getting the most use: Look at this type of breakout space versus that type of breakout space configuration. Everybody loves this one and nobody seems to show up at the other one. Well, let’s ditch that config and go to the other one.

“Sensors can help you make more confident decisions which may be well worth the investment. A one floor reconfiguration or non-reconfiguration could be well worth the cost of deploying sensors for cost avoidance or appropriate cost investment.”

What are some of the best practices in implementing and using sensors?

I would recommend that a client look at the high-level data first and decide which locations or areas to deploy sensors. Decide what question they want answered. Prioritize.

For example, let’s say we have a few buildings that are jammed full. You don’t know how best to reconfigure them, or you have only one office building which is high intensity, or this is the building where everybody loves to work. What is it about that building? What can we learn about? So, you want to study it more. Perhaps you have two different kinds of teams, sales on one floor, accounting on another, and developers on another.

How are they using their space generally? What are the occupancy patterns? Perhaps you’ve heard anecdotal complaints, how no one can even book a meeting room. Is that really the case or are they just not looking that hard or is the space is too small?

Do we or do we not have enough information to right size? That’s a common question and one of the first ones to go after. Questions to start:

Look at the high-level data and ask: Where do I have gaps in your knowledge?
Where do I want to plug in those gaps?
Use sensors in these areas

The other thing to know is what sensors can’t tell you. They’re not going to tell you ‘Who’. If somebody’s running really fast down the hallway and tripping a bunch of sensors off, is it five people or is it just one person who ran past? The main thing is anonymity. You have to make some inferences about who’s using a space or bring in other data sets.

Start with the question and the value, and then look at what sensors can’t answer and go from there. If you see success, that is great. Let’s roll them out elsewhere and keep evolving the strategy rather than biting off sensors across the entire globe from the outset and invest in a major project.

Do you think artificial intelligence (AI) will play a role in the evolution of sensors in the larger context of space planning and the future?

Yes. I mean there’s a lot we know to look at already. We get a lot of interest. We’re planning to employ it in a variety of ways, especially with space planning and sensors. We’re looking at its potential to help recognize patterns and find unexpected correlations.

There are some things that we know to look for already and we do them. We write algorithms to dig into those efficiently. But it’s using AI to find unexpected things that might percolate amid the many different optimizations.

The goal is to use AI and machine learning (ML) to isolate and declutter insights because everyone is drowning in data. That’s another evolution right. Used to be, ‘Oh, I can’t get data.’ Well, then it turned into I have too much. And so now we need to make sense of it and find what is meaningful.

It’s not magic. AI and ML can be effective tools to help us sift through the piles of data that come at us. But we still need to be smart about things and provide real intelligence to it. But it can augment our overall solution and other sources too.

“Sensors can help you make more confident decisions which may be well worth the investment. A one floor reconfiguration or non-reconfiguration could be well worth the cost of deploying sensors for cost avoidance or appropriate cost investment.”

For example, what do outside factors influence the workplace? What are occupancy patterns by different personalities? For example, could the weather affect occupancy rates? Does good weather mean people call in sick and tend to not be in the office? Or does good weather mean they feel good about coming in? Will they go to work on a nice day as opposed to a rainy day? Nothing new to do around the house. I might just go to the office and see some people that’ll cheer me up.

ML could help identify behavioral patterns which then could have many applications for space planning and human resources programs.

On the asset side, AI and ML could help with patterns for preventive maintenance schedules. How often do things break and wear out or need to be serviced based on occupancy? Since the occupancy loads are hard to predict, how often are we fixing specific systems? How much cleaning services do we need? Are we better off renovating space?

Any specific skills that facility managers or workplace strategists need to learn to become more proficient in interpreting data from sensors?

It’s about understanding what they do and do not tell you. Plus, you’ll need to understand a bit of statistics and math. You’ll want to know what’s anomalous activity and what’s high variance from the norm.

And you need to have some awareness of how different dashboards and metrics tools work, and the different kinds of sensors that you are using and how they capture information. If your organization has its own business intelligence tool, do you want to integrate it with sensor data and dashboards?

Also, being aware of what the human response will be to using this technology is important. Because it’s not that you want data, but you’re serving these people, so the technology of the workplace needs to be non-intrusive, non-threatening, and supportive. There’s change management here with something like sensors.

You need to communicate the benefits to the occupants. Say there was feedback about the lack of sufficient meeting rooms. You’d want to explain what you were doing in a sensor study and share the results.

On the data side, we’re hoping to make it easy. Eptura is in contact with so many practicing experts. We keep conversations going with our customers, their facilities managers and space planners, because we’re always learning new questions and new ways. Our goal is to give you data recommendations so that you don’t have to think about it so much. The end goal is to provide decision support and decision recommendations, so you don’t have to be a statistical analyst or data scientist to get value out of the product.

Is there anything else on the horizon for data and sensors you think worthy of pointing out or keeping an eye on?

Well, one of the areas specific to Eptura is Serraview Live (SV Live). It provides some special benefits over and above ordinary sensors in that it’s personally identifiable, still anonymized, so you can know that a specific person is there using the network.

It’s a different kind of integration. From a data standpoint, it’s a very useful data set in that it tells who’s there and their activity level. Is somebody at the desk? Are they plugged in? A sensor will tell you if somebody’s actively there, but it’s not going to say they’re still plugged in, that they went to go meet with somebody somewhere else, or if their desk is available.

There are a lot of different behavioral things you can pick up from having the personal info. A sensor provides a hard count. It tells you if someone’s there or if someone’s not there.

If you’re using Wi-Fi to detect person presence, there’s somewhere within the signal range that’s reasonably accurate at times. But you know, you might be standing and leaning on the wall outside the conference room sipping coffee, having a chat with somebody. Whether or not they are in the room, that that gets harder to pinpoint sometimes. A sensor can be very definitive in that sense.

Again, it depends on the issues customers are having. We’re still at an emerging time in terms of the new workplace and occupancy levels. So, the questions I’m seeing aren’t as much about how many more people customers can put into buildings and workspaces.

Sensors’ role might be a little different in this landscape. In the short term, the meeting room use case is an interesting one. Because one of the reasons to come into the building now versus staying at home and working from home is to meet with people. Meeting room usage is a good indicator of that kind of collaboration. Sensors, when connected with space planning systems, allow you to make interpretations from it.

Eric Maxfield, Director of Product Management, Eptura

Eric has 17 years of experience in technical and product management capacities with leading integrated workplace management systems (IWMS) software companies, to deliver solutions for facilities and asset management, space planning, and risk management and environmental sustainability to customers in a wide variety of industries.  He draws on his degrees in electrical engineering and graduate research in humanities disciplines as he leads teams focused on data analytics and visualization to support stakeholders’ strategic decisions and workplace optimization.  He currently lives in western Michigan in the US.

Tag: space management