Cisco wanted to modernize its underutilized and outdated actual property portfolio to help new and future methods of working. By leveraging its personal, distinctive networking and collaboration applied sciences, Cisco was ready to rework its PENN 1 office area in New York Metropolis into a good, data-driven atmosphere that optimizes area utilization, improves person expertise, and serves as a mannequin for Cisco places of work worldwide.
In as we speak’s world the place many workers can work from anyplace with a secure web connection, getting workers into an workplace could be a battle. Why drive once you can sit comfortably in your individual area (and sweatpants)? This employee mentality catapulted into fruition with the pandemic. Years later, the workplace is now not the first-choice area for a lot of employees. Actually, it should “earn” the commute. So, how did we create an workplace that workers wish to and revel in going to and not using a mandate?
Rightsizing actual property in a post-pandemic world
For years, our actual property portfolio had been underutilized and outdated. We knew this even previous to the pandemic once I started main the Good Constructing enterprise at Cisco. However the pandemic introduced additional readability. With the altering insurance policies, we noticed a larger have to downsize, and discover solutions to questions we by no means had to consider akin to:
- How many individuals are utilizing a sure flooring at any given time?
- What’s the air high quality of the utilized areas?
- If an worker makes the commute to an workplace, will a workspace be out there to them?
- Will I be capable to work comfortably and effectively whereas I’m within the workplace?
We knew the information we would have liked to reply these questions and make knowledgeable selections existed on the wi-fi community. Nevertheless, it wasn’t available or simple to entry. So as a substitute of counting on inconsistent badging knowledge, we started to take a look at how we may use the community to unify the disparate elements throughout our infrastructure and visualize spatial knowledge so we may harness the total energy of the Cisco expertise in our places of work. And we had the right workplace to begin with— PENN 1 in New York Metropolis.
Divesting to take a position
Our formal design course of usually concerned our companions, together with architects and Mechanical Electrical Plumbing (MEB) corporations. Nevertheless, when that was halted as a result of pandemic, we introduced the method inside Cisco and began interested by the issue in a different way and put the tip person expertise first. We knew that the way in which we used area was ceaselessly going to alter, and the notion of “divest to take a position” was constructed inside the finance group. The objective was to spend money on key workplace places and create hubs versus a number of underutilized areas.
Because it usually goes, organizations transition portfolio by way of area each ten to fifteen years — the usual size of a company lease. As a part of this pure evolution and “divest to take a position” technique, we selected to close down seven places of work across the New York Metropolis space to spend money on the modernization of PENN 1 and our new hybrid work mannequin. The objective was to create an workplace that may be a magnet for workers and clients, a spot they may come to collaborate, meet, have fun, and extra.
To get began, we took a special strategy than typical. As a substitute of designing the expertise across the area, we constructed the area round the expertise. We introduced collectively the very best collective data of various minds and experiences from Cisco IT and Office Sources (WPR) to discover a approach to unify our expertise and create a platform that may be versatile sufficient to adapt to the longer term. We wished to make sure we may simply make adjustments and improve the expertise over time with out the necessity to rebuild an workplace.
Unlocking the information for insights and motion
To do that, we would have liked to get a greater understanding of how the area was getting used, and what sort of infrastructure we may leverage to get perception, whereas making certain the worker expertise can be the very best that it may very well be. It wasn’t simply concerning the area. It was additionally concerning the new methods of working, our sustainability and wellness targets, in addition to making the important knowledge out there to the best groups to help these initiatives. If we did it proper, we’d create a workspace that might scale for future wants and traits.
Right here’s the gorgeous factor. With our highly effective portfolio of networking, collaboration, and safety options — this knowledge already existed in our IT atmosphere, we simply wanted to unify it to bridge the hole between Operational Expertise (OT,) Info Expertise (IT,) and actual property. We have been ready to do that with Cisco Areas, which allowed us to extract and combination the information in a method that made sense and was reportable to ship outcomes for everybody.
Cisco Areas is a single scalable, dependable cloud platform that digitizes area and makes them safer, smarter, extra sustainable, whereas delivering seamless experiences.
Implementing Cisco Areas at Penn 1
Cisco Areas integrates the information from the community and collaboration gadgets and visualizes it right into a customizable dashboard to tailor to the wants of the particular groups extracting the information for his or her individualized targets. We unified knowledge throughout the complete Cisco portfolio utilizing:
- Cisco Areas: PENN 1 finish customers have a 3D floorplan enabling insights into occupancy, air high quality, CO2 ranges, temperature and humidity, and the power to view and maintain open workspaces and rooms. It runs on Webex collaboration gadgets all through the power.
- Cisco Catalyst 9000 switches and entry factors: 43 Cisco Catalyst 9166 Wi-Fi 6E APs are deployed in a high-density design to offer wonderful protection and seamless roaming and maximize location-detection capabilities to permit Cisco Areas to observe occupancy in numerous areas of the ground. They’re additionally geared up with built-in temperature, humidity, and air high quality (VoC) sensors to offer knowledge on environmental efficiency.
- Cisco Collaboration Gadgets The PENN 1 workplace is provided with 92 Cisco collaboration gadgets (Desk Professionals, Desk Cameras, Precision Cameras, Room Bars, Room Kits, and Board Professionals) to make sure each area is video enabled for an inclusive hybrid work expertise. Cisco Room Navigators allow seamless room reserving, calendar view, assembly data, and assembly extension with real-time occupancy visualization.
- Cisco Meraki good cameras: The 27 Meraki MV12 cameras deliver bodily safety and superior analytics and insights.
- PoE (Energy over Ethernet): We energy every thing from lighting and shades to environmental circumstances over the community and gather sensor knowledge to feed into Cisco Areas and energy the Good Workspaces utility.
By combining these Cisco merchandise and options, it allowed us to create wonderful worker experiences that ship a sustainable, but optimistic working atmosphere, conducive to each collaboration and particular person work.
Delivering outcomes throughout the enterprise
With the brand new hybrid work design, we diminished the ground plan of PENN 1 by 25% by area optimization. Each room was constructed with goal to amplify the intersection of individuals and area, whatever the office anybody is bodily in. We used the information from our total expertise stack to energy quite a few outcomes and advantages together with:
- Blended presence enablement: 100% of areas within the new workplace are actually video enabled, and we elevated the variety of collaboration areas by 40%. We’re connecting individuals in new methods once they’re within the workplace, whereas nonetheless being inclusive of distant contributors, as 98% of conferences may have not less than one distant participant.
- House optimization: We enabled 2X the variety of individuals to be seated in half the area, with quite a lot of totally different room designs tailor-made to cater to quite a lot of totally different working kinds and wishes, with out compromising person expertise.
- Wellness and person expertise: With 20% of the world’s inhabitants being neurodiverse, we designed the workplace to cater to various sensory and area wants with acoustics and customized gentle and temperature controls.
- Vitality effectivity and sustainability: Vitality decreased by 36% purely from the change in design, with out taking into consideration the ground plan discount. We turned all linked endpoints into an vitality networking micro-power grid that’s absolutely tracked, managed, and monitored and eradicated the necessity for 3,000 lbs (about 1360.78 kg). of metal and 1,000 lbs. of copper wiring materials by deploying PoE infrastructure.
- Value effectivity: We skilled a 5% discount in CapEx, and saved $250k in development prices.
1 is now a real testomony to the distinctive energy of our portfolio, and the outcomes enabled by the unification of networking with collaboration and safety. With wonderful experiences turning into the norm for our workforce and quick access to data-driven insights for knowledgeable enterprise choice making, the office is absolutely geared up to face the check of time and ship outcomes for workers, clients, IT, and everybody throughout the enterprise.
Paving the trail towards chance
The PENN 1 workplace in New York Metropolis proudly stands for example of what the way forward for workplaces can appear to be, and the mannequin we use as we develop different places of work world wide. The platform we constructed with PENN 1 is similar mannequin deployed at our places of work in ATL, Washington DC, Milan, London, Paris, and shortly to be Austin. What’s most fun, is the convenience with which we can assist our clients obtain comparable outcomes.
With Cisco Areas, every thing turns into a sensor. For the primary time, we’ve digitized actual property with the information units from present Cisco expertise that enable us to optimize area like by no means earlier than. This units the stage for wayfinding, asset monitoring, utilization, and extra. With Cisco networking in place, there’s highly effective knowledge we can assist you leverage. When you’ve got Cisco networking and collaboration gadgets, that set expands. The pliability permits us to satisfy our clients the place they’re and layer on prime of what they have already got.
Our workplaces give individuals a cause to come back to the workplace, enabling higher collaboration in every single place. We’ve already confirmed that we will do our particular person work from anyplace. However we’ve amplified the expertise with expertise as an asset that may present insights to not solely IT, however different influencers and patrons within the market whether or not it’s actual property or the top of retail operations.
We’re altering the conversations we will have with our clients round what’s doable and shaping the way forward for good constructing expertise with the facility of unified knowledge.
To study extra, try this video, learn the PENN 1 case examine, and discover Cisco Areas
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