Smart Office: creating a new experience in your workspaces

47% of office workers consider that their workspace no longer meets their needs (according to a study by Chaire Workplace Management ESSEC, May 2020). This is because of poor organization of the premises, absence of certain services, waste of time, lack of flexibility etc. The reasons for this disenchantment are becoming more and more numerous.

For the human resources department and the working environment department, it is not enough to try and satisfy employees; it is also necessary to comply with new regulations and to manage spaces more and more carefully in order to optimize costs.

It may seem overwhelming, but it isn’t: technology is available to help you. The smart office of tomorrow is at hand right now, and it will have to go the digital way.

A smart office to remove the frustrations of everyday life

At a time when teleworking is required to take an increasingly important role in the organization of work, we must rethink the office as a place of meetings and efficiency. The intelligent office therefore integrates many services to facilitate the daily life of employees and improve their daily well-being:

• Occupation and reservation of workspaces – no more wasting time to book a room or a space.
• Paper-free badge management – no more queuing at the security PC to get a temporary pass.
• Reporting of incidents – no more email reminders to get the heating repaired or to change a light bulb.
• Real-time information on access to the service – no more blocked access once you arrive at the door, or finding the sports class is cancelled when you turn up at the gym.
• Internal messaging to manage the reception of visitors or parcels – no more waiting at reception or unnecessary trips.

The Smart Office heralds the end of everyday annoyances for employees. It means a single, simple and transparent access to buildings, resources and people. All this comes via a secure interface serving the needs of your staff.

A connected office to broadcast the employers’ brand

Making your premises, and also your business, more attractive is one of the benefits of the connected office. Over and above centralizing and implementing new services, it makes it possible to increase the number of opportunities for discussion: sharing of internal events, dissemination of the latest company information, messaging, having a discussion forum, etc. The connected office is the essential extension of the iconic place of your employer brand, your premises, your campus and your head office.

It is the sign of your digital transformation, of your ability to adapt to new ways of working, and to the provision of services expected by employees moving into the area. This is why Hospitality management is going to play an increasingly important role in the design and management of working areas. The standard of services offered will be rising.

A communicating building for optimal resource management

Being at the heart of the daily demands and needs of employees, the Smart Office can be the source of many lessons.

Supplied with external data (temperature, traffic, etc.) and internal to the company (real-time occupancy rate, assessment of services, incidents, etc.), it enables the best “employee-centric” decisions to be made and to manage more efficient workspaces.

Thanks to the analysis of the data collected, the Smart Office is the essential solution for:

• managing space occupancy in real time – transformation of uses according to the rate of use of services;
• optimizing energy resources – trigger shutters based on natural light;
• resolving incidents – identify malfunctions remotely using declarative and predictive data;
• creating new services or areas – clear employee feedback to guide your future developments;
• reinforcing security arrangements – a clear and live view of entrances and exits to the premises;
• IoT (Internet Of Things), a dashboard of in-depth statistics. The increased knowledge of the building, its services and its occupants, also makes it possible to refine decisions and create predictive models. In short, it makes your offices more and more intelligent and able to meet the wishes of your employees.

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A flexible office to reinvent the occupation of your spaces

According to the SBA, more than 50% of workspaces are constantly unoccupied. This applies to meeting rooms, but also open spaces or individual offices: employees are on the move!

During an office day, they will have several work phases for which they expect to find suitable workspaces: a cubicle for concentration, a creative room for brainstorming, a lounge for break times, etc. These moments follow one another while the spaces themselves remain inactive.

With the information collected by Smart Office solutions, the entire building is in motion: a meeting room is transformed into a break room, an open space has its occupancy rate regulated, etc.

Technology is made available to the teams by reinventing the occupation of spaces. This is a key factor in attracting and retaining talent in the company.

The smart office puts employees at the heart of the building

Switching to Smart Office means understanding the new challenges of the world of work and the expectations of your employees. It also means opting for more responsible management of your office spaces, from an economic and environmental point of view.

Switching to Smart Office means putting your teams back at the heart of your buildings, at the heart of your decisions. This amounts to transposing the codes of the hotel industry to the office, so that the workplace is the ideal place to create, discuss, invent and brainstorm.

Switching to Smart Office is an evolving process, a “learning device” that is long-term. This is why choosing a flexible, robust and scalable solution is the key to success.

Which solution should we choose to switch to the Smart Office?
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Today, the Smart Office is an expectation of employees such as HR or Work Environment departments. But how do you create the best solution for your office?
• Should we opt for the creation of dedicated software, developed specifically by an agency, with the risk of investing money and time in a solution that is not very scalable?
• Should we choose an SaaS solution with, a turnkey platform but which is not very customisable?
The promise made by Witco is to offer you the flexibility and scalability of SaaS platforms while having a high level of customisation of your platforms, in terms of functionalities and visuals. Everything will be available to your teams.