PeopleCube today announced the availability of “A Better Alternative: An Improved Approach to Facilities Management,” a webcast that focuses on the economic and environmental benefits of implementing alternative workspace programs, maximizing real-estate utilization, and leveraging business intelligence reporting and trending data. The webcast features presentations by Jack Heine, Research Vice President in IT Asset Management group of leading analyst firm Gartner; John T. Anderson, President and CEO of PeopleCube; and Judd Cain, Vice President of Managed Services for York Telecom.
In the webcast, featured Gartner analyst Heine explains how implementing alternative workspace programs can significantly reduce costs and have a positive impact on sustainability efforts. He cites increased transportation costs, greater workforce mobility, and efforts to reduce carbon emissions as driving factors for implementing new technologies to support flexible work environments.
“The value of efficient workspace management cannot be understated, both from a cost and environmental standpoint, because it presents organizations with a vital opportunity to simultaneously reduce real-estate costs and their carbon footprint,” said Jack Heine of Gartner. “Further, economic pressures dictate that organizations measure their space utilization to improve their cost management going forward. By reporting and analyzing trending data on actual space utilization, organizations are able to manage costs significantly better in the short and long term.”
Reducing Costs Through Alternative Workspace Is a Collaborative Effort
Flexible work environments are becoming more prevalent because they help organizations reduce real-estate costs, lower energy consumption and carbon emissions, and increase talent acquisition and retention. In order for flexible work programs to be effective, however, there must be a thorough understanding of how space is actually being used in order to maximize utilization and collaboration among mobile employees.
“Successful implementation of cost-efficient flexible work environments requires that organizations understand the dynamics of their workforce and their workplace,” said PeopleCube’s John T. Anderson. “The keys are to identify the types of employees you have, track space-utilization patterns using reporting analytics and trending data, establish company policies to support this type of environment, and, ultimately, manage the roll out by starting with pilot programs in smaller departments with an eye toward maximizing future corporate-wide implementations.”
One Approach: Videoconferencing
York Telecom, a PeopleCube partner, is a provider of visual communication services and solutions that government, education, medical, and corporate enterprises use to facilitate collaboration while reducing travel costs and associated carbon emissions. York’s Judd Cain believes that the ROI a business can gain from videoconferencing is inexorably tied to how well the related equipment is used and managed.
“Videoconferencing is one of the most effective ways to reduce costs and carbon emissions without sacrificing collaborative productivity,” said Cain. “But, as with any resource used to support flexible work programs, the payoff in terms of ROI is dependent on an organization’s ability to maximize equipment utilization through efficient scheduling and management.”
Webcast Now Available
The “A Better Alternative: An Improved Approach to Facilities Management” webcast is available immediately. To listen, go to http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/peoplecube/0/50310882/.
A framework of potential costs and benefits is presented and illustrated by data from cost analyses and post-occupancy evaluations of new offices. The author advocates the creation of an integral framework of costs and benefits, structured according to the principles of the balanced score card. This may help decision makers to set priorities in objectives and to anticipate on effects of interventions in office accommodation. Empirical data on costs and benefits of innovative workplace design are scarce.
Posted by: accessories | December 17, 2009 at 04:26 AM