Scheduling Chronicles

Bentley University Selects PeopleCube’s Resource Scheduler To Manage Group Study Rooms in Renovated High-Tech Library

PeopleCube recently announced that Bentley University has chosen the Resource Scheduler intelligent workspace management solution to manage and maximize the utilization of group study rooms in its library, which recently underwent a $17 million renovation to make it one of the most high-tech libraries on any US college campus.

Bentley will use Resource Scheduler in conjunction with Steelcase’s RoomWizard display technology to enable students to view room scheduling information on line and to book rooms either on site or remotely, at any time—without having to rely on library staff to manage and monitor room scheduling and use.

“The goal of our renovation project was to create a hub of academic life that reflected Bentley’s stature in technology, research, and campus life,” said Phillip Knutel, PhD, executive director of academic technology, the library, and online learning, who headed the renovation project. “We’ll use Resource Scheduler to enhance student collaboration and to maximize room occupancy by ensuring that groups are using study rooms, rather than allowing a handful of individual students to monopolize them.”

The new scheduling system is expected to dramatically increase the use of shared study rooms, while enabling Bentley to actually reduce the energy required to heat and cool the rooms. The integrated system will also support environmental conservation by eliminating paper-based scheduling.

Bentley University Library to Host PeopleCube Café

On September 9, Bentley University Library will host a PeopleCube Café, an event that will bring PeopleCube customers, prospects, and partners together to discuss common facility-management challenges. Through a series of informative and educational presentations, demonstrations, and conversations, attendees will learn how organizations have leveraged PeopleCube solutions to increase productivity and efficiency while reducing real estate costs. For more information or to register for the PeopleCube Café, visit http://www.peoplecube.com/company-events-pccafe.htm.

PeopleCube Launches Workspace Utilization Analysis Services To Help Organizations Maximize Real-Estate Utilization

PeopleCube today announced Workplace Utilization Analysis Services, a new consulting service designed to help organizations maximize real-estate utilization and organizational efficiency by leveraging detailed analysis of workspace utilization data. This service gives companies valuable insight into how their real estate is being leveraged and enables them to make educated decisions on how to best manage their shared corporate assets so that they can reduce costs and enhance operational efficiency.

“With real estate typically being the second largest corporate expense after personnel, the importance of understanding how space is being used cannot be overstated,” said Carolyn Urban, vice president of services and support at PeopleCube. “There’s a huge difference between the actual use of space versus the planned use of space, and understanding that difference can help prevent the unnecessary acquisition or expansion of real-estate assets. Our Workplace Utilization Analysis Services arms companies with not just the data, but the analysis of that data to help them make educated decisions on future real-estate needs based on utilization trending and other valuable analysis.”

PeopleCube’s Workspace Utilization Analysis Service is a unique offering that converts real-estate utilization data into actionable information. By combining real-estate management data, business-intelligence data, and the expertise of PeopleCube’s real-estate utilization analysis professionals, customers are presented with a thorough analysis of usage trends and valuable insight into how they can enhance operational efficiency. The analysis and recommendations provided by PeopleCube’s professional services consultants, when leveraged properly, can help clients save thousands—if not millions—of dollars in real estate and other operational costs.

To learn more about Workspace Utilization Analysis Services, click here.

PeopleCube Offers Three Webinars on Real-Estate Measurement, Management, Forecasting, and Cost Savings

PeopleCube today announced that it is extending its ongoing webinar series with the addition of three programs that will run throughout the month of July. All of the webinars focus on effectively utilizing real estate and minimizing associated costs. They are free of charge.

“Given the state of the economy—and recognizing that real estate is the second-largest cost (after labor) for most organizations—it’s more important than ever for companies to gain an accurate view of current and future real-estate needs, so that they can avoid unnecessary expenditures,” said Rick Boyink, vice president of North America for PeopleCube. “Our complimentary webinars give facility managers and real-estate executives insight into determining how their space and assets are being used now and enable them to predict future needs, potentially saving thousands—even millions—of dollars in direct operating costs within their real-estate portfolio.”

The three new webinars are “Leveraging Alternative Workspace Strategies to Reduce Costs,” “How to Capture Actual Use of Space,” and “Workplace Business Intelligence: Better Real-Estate Management Begins with Better Real-Estate Measurement.” Sessions are available throughout the month, and attendees may select the dates they prefer when registering at PeopleCube’s Resource Center. Visitors to the Resource Center will also find complimentary white papers, case studies, and on-demand workshops.

Measuring, Managing, Predicting, and Saving on Real Estate
 Descriptions of the three new webinars are as follows.

“Leveraging Alternative Workspace Strategies to Reduce Costs”—Participants will learn how to reduce real-estate costs using alternative workspace (office hoteling) software. Examples will be given of customers who are using resource scheduling software to reduce real-estate overhead, improve utilization of shared workspace, lessen energy consumption and costs, and implement or support green initiatives. The webinar will also describe how customers can promote a telecommuting environment and accommodate a mobile workforce, two examples of flexible work programs that increase employee satisfaction and enhance an organization’s ability to acquire and retain talent.

“How to Capture Actual Use of Space”—Designed for facility management and real-estate mangers and executives, this webinar will present different ways that organizations can capture actual usage of space and report on the information that is captured. Determining actual usage of space enables companies to make meaningful real-estate decisions that can lead to significant cost savings.

“Workplace Business Intelligence: Better Real-Estate Management Begins with Better Real-Estate Measurement”—Real estate is typically the second largest expense after labor, and yet it is often one of the most overlooked assets within an organization’s portfolio. Knowing how real-estate space and related assets are being used today—and how they will be used tomorrow—can save organizations thousands, even millions, of dollars. This session will present how workplace business intelligence (BI) can be leveraged by organizations to maximize real-estate space and asset utilization.

PeopleCube Launches Workplace BI

Today PeopleCube announced Workplace BI, the industry’s first business intelligence tool that enables organizations to effectively monitor, measure, and manage utilization of real estate to maximize value and reduce overhead. Workplace BI enables organizations to gain an accurate view of both current and future real-estate needs, potentially enabling corporations to save millions of dollars in direct operating costs within their real-estate portfolio.

“Real estate is the second largest cost for most organizations, so companies are looking to make the best use of the space they have and to divest under-performing real-estate assets,” said Jeffrey R. Roof, vice president of product management for PeopleCube. “PeopleCube’s Workplace BI enables everyone from top management to hands-on project managers to gain insight into actual real-estate utilization and to predict future needs. This helps customers attain their space-related goals, whether that means divesting unneeded space, implementing alternative workspace programs to promote efficient utilization of office space, or accommodating growth without expanding their real-estate footprint.”

Look to the Future, Not Just the Past
Traditional reporting tracks only events that have already happened, whereas the PeopleCube Workplace BI solution enables companies to understand how their space and assets are being used currently and in the future. It provides the trending information management needs to make adjustments based on projections of usage and requirements in order to defray unnecessary expenses down the road.

Measure to Manage
Facility management systems track data on space usage (for example, assigned or vacant), maintenance utilities, and cost allocation. Data about alternative workspace, meeting rooms, and videoconferencing services resides in the resource management system. Yet another system contains data on actual utilization (e.g., visitors, presence detection, and energy usage).

Only when data is extracted from these various systems and transformed into useful information can it be used for tracking, measuring, problem detection, analysis, and planning. As the information is evaluated, trends emerge, and management can refine processes based on organizational needs or external impacts on the company facilities.

PeopleCube’s Workplace BI aggregates data from various enterprise systems and transform it into information that enables customers to measure actual utilization against plan, institute continuous process improvement, and achieve effective utilization of space.

Accurate Utilization of Space
“When an organization has the right amount of space to meet the needs of the user community, we call this accurate utilization of space,” said Roof. “As more organizations deploy alternative workspace programs, such as hoteling, accurate utilization of space is more difficult to determine.”

In the past, most real estate was assigned and allocated to a department within the organization based on industry standards. Today, a large percentage of space is available on a first come, first served basis for use by multiple departments. In this type of environment, getting an accurate picture of how space is being utilized can be difficult. When an organization looks at planned use via reservations, and not actual use (taking into consideration drop-ins, no-shows, etc.) the result is a false view of the actual utilization of space. This leads to inaccurate planning when developing new alternative workspace at other locations. By combining data from multiple systems, such as reservations, building access, and network access within Workplace BI, a more accurate view of actual utilization can be seen, resulting in more precise future planning.

The Right Information for Each Role
People filling various roles within an organization have to look at the same data in different ways to carry out their own particular mission. PeopleCube’s Workplace BI provides a variety of views of information and makes it possible for those who require more granularity to easily drill down into details—without having to run multiple reports to narrow in on what they need.

For example, CEOs take a high-level, forward-looking enterprisewide view. They look for trends in performance, compare the performance of one corporate facility with another, and benchmark the entire company against others in the industry.

A corporate real-estate vice president for a large organization, who might be in charge of managing millions of square feet of space, would look for opportunities to reduce square footage: even as little as a two-percent reduction would mean dropping hundreds of thousands of square feet of space. In locations such as New York or Chicago, that would add up to major cost savings.

Facility managers, in contrast, need a more granular view. They might look at enterprisewide usage of conference rooms, then drill down by division and location to see how efficiently conference-room space is actually being used at specific locations.

Project managers are focused on their own particular mission. Someone in charge of an alternative workspace initiative might use Workplace BI to review a flexible work program at one location and analyze its effectiveness before rolling it out to other divisions. To see how the initiative is executing compared to plan, they would review user adoption trends, check-in and check-out procedures, workspace preferences, utilization by department and time of day, and similar information.

About Workplace BI
Workplace BI is the first business intelligence tool for real-estate executives and other space-management personnel looking to maximize real-estate space and asset utilization throughout the organization. Designed to integrate with other enterprise data repository applications, Workplace BI provides valuable data analysis and trending information that enables organizations to actively manage current and future real-estate utilization to reduce costly overhead. For more information about Workplace BI, visit www.peoplecube.com/products-workplacebi.htm.

PeopleCube, York Telecom and Featured Leading Analyst Firm Outline Cost Reduction Benefits of Alternative Workspace

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/.

Drawbase Software Enhances Workplace Management Solutions with PeopleCube’s Resource Scheduler

Drawbase Software, a leading worldwide supplier of building design and facilities management information systems, and PeopleCube, provider of intelligent workplace and resource management technology, today announced they have entered into a strategic partnership to provide customers with more robust and flexible facilities management and scheduling solutions. PeopleCube provides powerful, easy-to-use web-based enterprise scheduling solutions and Drawbase software is a powerful, easy-to-use, user-configurable workplace management application suite. Together they provide a compelling total workplace management solution for enterprise facilities that offers an outstanding ROI.

“We are very excited about the partnership between Drawbase and PeopleCube,” said Evan Kontos, president of Drawbase Software. “We see PeopleCube's extensive resource management solution set as a natural compliment to Drawbase’s traditional facility management capabilities.  This added functionality will allow us to provide our customers with additional tools to drive down real estate operating costs and optimize available resources across the workplace environment.”

Resource Scheduler allows users to quickly and easily schedule alternative workspace, shared resources, and manage energy consumption.  “Given the rising energy costs as well as the social and economic pressures to go green, energy conservation is no longer a choice for organizations but rather a mandate,” said PeopleCube president and CEO John T. Anderson. “Our relationship with Drawbase and the integration between Resource Scheduler and the Drawbase workplace management suite allow business customers large and small to maximize their space and resource utilization while minimizing energy consumption.”

Alternative workspace, data reporting, integrated workspace management, and SaaS to lead growth trends in 2009

PeopleCube recently issued a report indicating several predictions of 2009 business trends. The company identified the increased use of alternative workspace, more sophisticated analytics and reporting, the convergence of corporate real estate and facilities management functions, and the continued strength of the software-as-a-service (SaaS) delivery model as cost-saving trends that will be manifested throughout the corporate world, and beyond, in the coming year.

Creating and Leveraging Flexible Work Places
Organizations are implementing alternative workspace because it presents a number of cost-reduction and efficiency-inducing benefits. A common form of alternative workspace is office hoteling, whereby mobile workers can book temporary office space on an as-needed basis, eliminating the need for dedicated workspaces for employees who are only sometimes in the office.

Implementing alternative workspace enables organizations to reduce real-estate overhead while improving the utilization of shared workspace. Further, managing alternative workspace more efficiently can lessen energy consumption and related costs. This supports organizations’ green initiatives, while simultaneously promoting telecommuting, supporting a mobile workforce, and increasing employee satisfaction by offering a flexible work environment—all of which can lead to improved talent acquisition and retention.

“Particularly in tough economic times, companies are seeking innovative ways to cut costs while maintaining productivity,” said John T. Anderson, president and CEO of PeopleCube. “Better management of an organization’s workspace improves the bottom line by reducing overall costs, but it also pays off in terms of employee satisfaction by fostering flexible work environments. That, in turn, helps with recruitment and retention.”

Analytics & Reporting—Making the Most of Your Data
Real estate is typically a company’s second largest expense after labor; thus, maximizing the utilization of space enhances an organization’s financial investment. As a result, organizations are looking to leverage a variety of reporting tools to ensure they are getting the highest value out of their real estate investment.

“As real estate costs continue to rise, it is essential that organizations look for ways to maximize the space and assets they already have,” said PeopleCube’s Anderson. “Oftentimes, the data is already there; it’s just a matter of using it the right way. Companies need to take a closer look at the information they have on space utilization to ensure that they are truly getting the most value out of these assets—particularly when considering expansion at existing or new locations.”

Detailed reporting capabilities provide critical information to help management make educated decisions for controlling costs. For example, a company might review its flexible work program at one location to analyze how shared workspace is being utilized. This allows the company to measure the value of this type of work arrangement from a productivity standpoint as well as an economic one.

Integrated Workplace Management Expansion
Another trend stemming from the need for increased efficiency is the convergence of facilities management and corporate real estate management. This shift is, in part, due to the increasing value of real estate portfolios, a renewed focus on realigning the workforce, and an emphasis on sustainable practices. As a result, many organizations are turning to integrated workspace management systems (IWMS) as a way to streamline collaboration among disparate divisions and to defray growing operational costs while still maximizing productivity.

According to a recent survey conducted by integrated workplace management systems provider Tririga, nearly 71 percent of participants indicate that the “real estate and facilities management function has grown in stature and importance within the C-Suite” and, as a result, the IWMS market has grown 10 to 15 percent on average per year over the past five years.

“Integrated workplace management systems are enabling companies to increase efficiency without sacrificing performance,” said Anderson. “By consolidating the facilities management and real estate divisions and the systems they use to manage their respective areas, organizations are able to maximize operational effectiveness while reducing their overall operating costs both in the short and long-term.”

On Demand Remains In Demand
On-demand software—also known as software-as-a-service (SaaS) and subscription software—has become the delivery method of choice for software applications, and PeopleCube only sees that continuing in 2009. This approach accelerates a customer’s adoption of the application, which helps provide a quick return on investment. It offers a very affordable total cost of ownership, as well as the ability to increase—or decrease—usage as needs change.

Customers also benefit from SaaS applications because no capital expense or software purchase is required; rather, they are charged a monthly service fee and perhaps a small setup fee. This lowers the risks inherent in new software acquisition and keeps software costs predictable. It costs nothing to keep the software up-to-date, and there are no hidden costs such as hardware, annual maintenance fees, or internal support personnel. Furthermore, SaaS applications place little or no burden on the customer’s IT department, eliminating the need to increase headcount, as is often required when managing new software packages.

From a software company’s perspective, SaaS increases a vendor’s ability to penetrate the marketplace. “The characteristics of SaaS made it possible for PeopleCube to adopt the popular delivery model by leveraging our existing technology—there was no need to develop an entirely new product,” said Anderson. “SaaS reduces our support costs, since it gives us better control over what versions of our software companies are using, and it offers us greater flexibility to add new product capabilities that customers request. This not only reduces support requirements, but enhances development and quality-assurance efforts over the life of the product.”

The benefits of SaaS to both customers and vendors is so compelling that PeopleCube believes the SaaS trend will only grow in force throughout 2009. And research firm Gartner agrees, with a recent report claiming that 90 percent of enterprise companies are expected to maintain or increase their investments in SaaS in 2009. Vendors are now in the process of adjusting to the change in revenue stream from one large upfront payment to an ongoing stream of much smaller payments over the long term. Once the transition is complete, the SaaS model helps vendors by ensuring a steady stream of cash throughout the year, rather than the vendor relying on big cash infusions at quarter- or year-end.

PeopleCube Bolsters Executive Team with Hiring of New Vice President of North American Sales

Today PeopleCube announced the hiring of Sean Mulvey as the new vice president of North American sales. The addition of Mulvey expands PeopleCube’s ability to penetrate new and existing markets by leveraging his expertise in delivering mission-critical scheduling solutions to SMB and enterprise organizations. His focus will primarily be to drive sustained revenue growth of the company’s Resource Scheduler alternative workspace, resource, and energy management scheduling software in North America.

Mulvey brings to PeopleCube more than 15 years of sales expertise in the software industry. Prior to joining PeopleCube, he served as director of sales at Dean Evans and Associates (EMS Software), a scheduling software company, where he revamped the entire sales team to help drive record revenue growth for the company. Previously, Mulvey held the position of market manager at Microsoft and vice president of sales and marketing at WebFamilies before joining ServiceMagic, Inc., as national sales director, where he led a team that consistently outperformed targeted sales quota by more than 130 percent. Sean received his BBA in Marketing at University of Notre Dame and his Masters of Business Administration at the University of Colorado.

Learn more about the addition of Sean Mulvey to the PeopleCube team here.

New Functionality in PeopleCube's Exclusive Customer Care Center Extends Usability and Customer Communication

PeopleCube, the leader in workspace management and resource management technology, today announced that it has delivered new features that enable users of its on-line Customer Care Center to participate in user forums, access product documentation and downloads more easily, and quickly submit and track new cases. These enhancements are designed to make it easier to access information in the Customer Care Center and more intuitive to use.

As Carolyn Urban, PeopleCube's vice president of services and support states, "PeopleCube prides itself on providing industry-leading customer care, and our one-of-a-kind Customer Care Center is a wonderful example of that mission.  The customer forums, which were designed based on feedback from thousands of Care Center users, are just one example of the mechanisms we use to ensure the free exchange of information with and among customers."

The PeopleCube on-line Customer Care Center is designed to provide self-service product support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It serves as the central repository for all PeopleCube product documentation and new product releases, as well as informative Knowledge Base articles containing product-related tips, tricks, and shortcuts.

Customers can use the Care Center to submit cases and feature requests, and then track the status of the cases by simply logging into the Care Center.

To learn more about the Customer Care Center, PeopleCube's Maintenance Advantage program, or its other customer care and services offerings, visit www.peoplecube.com.