26 Jul the new way of working

The New Way of Working

#smartworkplace

Workplace Strategy aligns your office environment with your business to continuously evolve remaining competitive in an ever-changing marketplace. As leading workplace strategist nationally, Hubb is progressively improving and seeking new innovative ways to make organisations work smarter.

The swift evolution of office spaces in response to rapid developments in technology has created many fantastic breakthroughs within the workplace. The Edge building in Amsterdam is a recent testament of het nieuwe werken (the new way of working). Earning the world’s highest BREEAM rating, the Edge creates a radically new working environment that is enabled by sustainable technologies. The infrastructure identifies the type of workspace you’ll need based on your daily schedule and even stores your preferences for light and temperature!

The Edge, Amsterdam

The Business Insider cites the Edge building’s super cool features:

•  A smartphone app connects every worker from the moment they wake up. It checks your schedule for the day and finds you a desk. Because at the Edge, you don’t have one. No one does.

•  When you pull into the garage, a camera analyses a photo of your licence plate to make sure it’s really you and then raises the gate. The app guides you to an available parking spot.

•  Once you arrive at your workspace, the app adjusts the light and temperature settings based on your preferences, which it remembers.

•  The building is designed to feel just like the outdoors, through variations in heat and air currents. Every workspace is within 23 feet of a window. But you won’t get distracted by the sounds of the nearby highway and trains since the specially designed roof mutes the noise.

•  When it’s time for a break, you can head to one of the coffee bars, equipped with espresso machines that remember how you take your coffee.

•  If you’re staying late at night, you’ll notice a small robot patrolling the grounds. If an alarm goes off, the robot’s camera can identify the intruder or alert security that it was a false alarm.

Smart Sensors

Hosting no less than 28,000 sensors, these devices monitor motion, light, temperature, humidity and infrared.  It uses Power-Other-Ethernet (PoE) cables with each luminaire is directly connected to the building’s IT network and becomes a point of intelligence to share data on environment, occupancy and activity pattern. These sensors are an IoT (Internet of Things) technology.

What is IoT (Internet of Things)

The Internet of Things (IoT) is just at the beginning of its lifecycle, connecting data, objects, processes and people.  As we embrace the consumer market of smart devices linked together on a single network, it will soon become the new normal in the workplace as our buildings and work environments become smarter, constantly adapting to employee’s needs. – SWG Australia

The Value of Sensors

Across many industries, the collection of more data on processes and outcomes has driven efficiencies and positive outcomes. This same trend now enables office space to be more productive through embedded sensors.

Sophisticated sensors gathering rich data for actionable information

In addition, sensors address different use cases across all aspects in a commercial building such as:

• Space utilisation — Hot desking, coordination of meeting rooms, space planning
• Energy saving — Harvesting light energy (using the image sensor photosensitivity), demand-controlled ventilation for HVAC (by counting the number of occupants in a given space)
• Safety and security — Assisting in emergency building evacuation, detecting tailgating events
• Retail analytics — Buyers’ traffic, heat maps, queue management, display attention and dwell time
• Healthcare — Detection of fall accidents, monitoring if patients are in bed

With sensors immense benefits offices become #smartworkplaces rather than static workplaces. IoT reduces cost through more efficient space usage and employee productivity. It also serves to attract and retain talent – keeping a business competitive.

Undeniably sensors play a key role in driving the IoT revolution as they transform workplace performance, employee engagement and workspace management.

Unlock your organisation’s hidden potential today. Talk to Hubb!