FuseMap’s Workspace Management Solution Optimizes Real Estate Usage
Our client needed to optimize the use of their free seating office environment in order to minimize real estate costs, optimize space and reduce unnecessary energy consumption from acclimatizing and lighting unutilized areas.
Using FuseMap’s Workplace Management Solution, they gained complete oversight of usage patterns, space utilization rates (seats, floors, building) and control over seating allocations, enabling them to reduce their real estate footprint by 10 percent, and energy costs by 5 percent in just one year.
The Challenge
Our client had an agile work environment, where employees could use any available workstation. The practice was inefficiently managed, with employees wasting time scouring the office for an available workstation.
All areas of the building were acclimatized and lit to the same level throughout the day because management had no oversight of occupancy levels, locations and patterns.
With a footprint of 1000 buildings and energy expenditure across all of their properties totaling $25M per annum, they knew that by optimizing office utilization, they could benefit from significant real estate and energy related savings.
“I work in a free address workplace. Every morning I dreaded having to roam to office for a seat. Now with FuseMap I can log on, look for a seat that’s unoccupied, and request it. The dread is gone and I can get my exercise in the gym, knowing that I won’t have to walk around looking for an empty seat.”
- FuseMap Enabled Employee
The Solution
We initially installed FuseMap smart plug devices at all workplaces and seats throughout the building footprint to capture information on plug load energy use.
Using FuseMap’s AI algorithms, our workplace management module allowed the client to measure and predict seat and space utilization, usage patterns and average arrival and departure times per employee and across the entire facility.
Our Workspace Management Solution addressed the client’s needs in three key areas:
- Real time seat status that helped employees reserve available seats with ease, improving staff satisfaction
- Usage pattern recognition and prediction that helped determine the exact number of workspaces needed in an agile work environment and reduced real estate spend by enabling underutilized capacity to be sold
- Energy consumption improved the energy efficiency of HVAC systems by accurately predicting how and when the structure would be occupied, saving costs from acclimatizing unutilized space and ensuring optimal comfort levels for occupants.
“As a property manager who cares about conserving energy, FuseMap gives me the information so that I can stack the buildings efficiently and precondition them for the comfort of the employees”.
- FuseMap Enabled Property Manager
The Results
Using FuseMap, the client’s space planning group was able to right size their real estate portfolio; selling underutilized locations and space planning to ensure optimal floor utilization.
Energy consumption and associated costs were also cut by running HVAC systems only when they knew the spaces would be occupied.
By using FuseMap’s Workspace Management Solution, our client reduced their real estate size by 10 percent and benefitted from a 5 percent energy cost saving over a one year period.
