Cisco wanted to modernize its underutilized and outdated actual property portfolio to assist new and future methods of working. By leveraging its personal, distinctive networking and collaboration applied sciences, Cisco was in a position to remodel its PENN 1 office area in New York Metropolis into a good, data-driven setting that optimizes area utilization, improves person expertise, and serves as a mannequin for Cisco places of work worldwide.
In at this time’s world the place many staff can work from wherever with a secure web connection, getting staff into an workplace will be a battle. Why drive if you can sit comfortably in your personal 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 staff. Actually, it should “earn” the commute. So, how did we create an workplace that staff wish to and revel in going to with no 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For years, our actual property portfolio had been underutilized and outdated.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 must downsize, and discover solutions to questions we by no means had to consider corresponding 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. Nonetheless, it wasn’t available or simple to entry. So as an alternative of counting on inconsistent badging knowledge, we started to have a look at how we might use the community to unify the disparate parts throughout our infrastructure and visualize spatial knowledge so we might harness the complete energy of the Cisco expertise in our places of work. And we had the right workplace to start out with— PENN 1 in New York Metropolis.
Divesting to speculate
Our formal design course of usually concerned our companions, together with architects and Mechanical Electrical Plumbing (MEB) companies. Nonetheless, when that was halted as a result of pandemic, we introduced the method within Cisco and began interested by the issue otherwise and put the top person expertise first. We knew that the best way we used area was eternally going to vary, and the notion of “divest to speculate” was constructed within the finance group. The objective was to put money into key workplace areas 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 speculate” technique, we selected to close down seven places of work across the New York Metropolis space to put money into the modernization of PENN 1 and our new hybrid work mannequin. The objective was to create an workplace that will be a magnet for workers and prospects, a spot they may come to collaborate, meet, have a good time, and extra.
To get began, we took a unique method than typical. As a substitute of designing the expertise across the area, we constructed the area round the expertise. We introduced collectively the most effective collective information of various minds and experiences from Cisco IT and Office Assets (WPR) to discover a solution to unify our expertise and create a platform that will be versatile sufficient to adapt to the longer term. We wished to make sure we might 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 how much infrastructure we might leverage to get perception, whereas guaranteeing the worker expertise can be the most effective that it could possibly be. It wasn’t simply in regards to the area. It was additionally in regards to the new methods of working, our sustainability and wellness targets, in addition to making the vital knowledge out there to the fitting groups to assist these initiatives. If we did it proper, we’d create a workspace that would scale for future wants and tendencies.
Right here’s the attractive factor. With our highly effective portfolio of networking, collaboration, and safety options — this knowledge already existed in our IT setting, we simply wanted to unify it to bridge the hole between Operational Expertise (OT,) Data Expertise (IT,) and actual property. We have been in a position to do that with Cisco Areas, which allowed us to extract and mixture the information in a approach 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 units 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 all the 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 units 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 supplied with 92 Cisco collaboration units (Desk Execs, Desk Cameras, Precision Cameras, Room Bars, Room Kits, and Board Execs) 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 convey bodily safety and superior analytics and insights.
- PoE (Energy over Ethernet): We energy the whole lot from lighting and shades to environmental circumstances over the community and gather sensor knowledge to feed into Cisco Areas and energy the Good Workspaces software.
By combining these Cisco merchandise and options, it allowed us to create superb worker experiences that ship a sustainable, but constructive working setting, conducive to each collaboration and particular person work.
Delivering outcomes throughout the enterprise
With the brand new hybrid work design, we lowered the ground plan of PENN 1 by 25% by way of area optimization. Each room was constructed with objective 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 after they’re within the workplace, whereas nonetheless being inclusive of distant individuals, as 98% of conferences can have at the very least one distant participant.
- Area optimization: We enabled 2X the variety of individuals to be seated in half the area, with quite a lot of completely different room designs tailor-made to cater to quite a lot of completely different working kinds and desires, 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 related 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 way of the unification of networking with collaboration and safety. With superb experiences changing into the norm for our workforce and easy accessibility to data-driven insights for knowledgeable enterprise resolution making, the office is absolutely geared up to face the check of time and ship outcomes for workers, prospects, IT, and everybody throughout the enterprise.
Paving the trail towards risk
The PENN 1 workplace in New York Metropolis proudly stands for example of what the way forward for workplaces can appear like, and the mannequin we use as we develop different places of work all over the world. 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 benefit with which we can assist our prospects obtain related outcomes.
With Cisco Areas, the whole lot turns into a sensor. For the primary time, we’ve digitized actual property with the information units from present Cisco expertise that permit 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. You probably have Cisco networking and collaboration units, that set expands. The flexibleness permits us to fulfill our prospects the place they’re and layer on prime of what they have already got.
Our workplaces give individuals a cause to return to the workplace, enabling higher collaboration in all places. We’ve already confirmed that we are able to do our particular person work from wherever. However we’ve amplified the expertise with expertise as an asset that may present insights to not solely IT, however different influencers and consumers within the market whether or not it’s actual property or the top of retail operations.
We’re altering the conversations we are able to have with our prospects round what’s potential and shaping the way forward for good constructing expertise with the facility of unified knowledge.
To be taught extra, take a look at this video, learn the PENN 1 case research, and discover Cisco Areas
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