Office Space Advice
Are You Paying Too Much for Office Space, Part 2
Published December 25th, 2009 by Jennifer LeClaire
If you were paying too much for office space, would you even know it? John Vivadelli isn’t so sure. That’s because there’s more to wasted office space than meets the eye.
Vivadelli, founder and CEO of Agilquest, Inc., a Richmond, Virginia-based company that provides software and service solutions that help companies manage workplace operations, measure asset use, and make informed workplace decisions, is helping companies figure out where they are wasting money on office space.
Vivadelli has a broad-ranging experience in the technology field as both a market visionary and product developer. He is a well respected, industry expert in the fields of alternative office environments, real estate metrics and cost management, and business continuity.
Vivadelli has presented or lectured to organizations such as the International Facility Management Association, Corenet Global, DoD Executive Management Course, Carnegie Mellon University’s Advanced Building Systems Consortium, Asia’s Facility Media conference, the MIT Enterprise Forum, the American Management Association and many others.
aBetterOffice.com sat down with Vivadelli to discuss what’s driving the transformation in office space usage, how technology is enabling the transformation, and why companies should fire their workspace before they fire their employees.
How can companies measure the actualization of their office space?
The construction industry has adopted the Building Information Model (BIM), which is the process of generating and managing building data – spatial relationships, properties of components, and so on – during its life cycle and uses three-dimensional, real-time, building modeling software to support the process.
AgilQuest has developed the Usage Information Model (UIM), which is the process of generating and managing workplace usage data – space use by person, use of each space – during the occupancy life cycle. AgilQuest provides a real-time, presence collection and transaction management platform to support the UIM. The platform produces business intelligence customized to the specific metrics needed to manage and measure all aspects of the workplace as a support infrastructure for a workforce.
AgilQuest’s UIM acts very much like an organization’s financial system, tracking daily workplace transactions and then rolling them up over time to give management a picture of the performance of their second largest expense and largest balance sheet item – real estate and related workplace assets.
How is collaboration affecting office space usage?
In a word, dramatically. In this day and age, work styles have shifted from independent or siloed models to team-based work. Independent work is now done primarily outside of the traditional office. Think about it, where is the best place to concentrate on a “heads down” task?
It is certainly not the office where constant interruptions abound. People who have the choice will tend to come into the office to socialize, to see other people and to work in teams. Therefore, organizations are setting up more and varied types of work areas that foster and encourage collaboration. Whether it’s around a water cooler – or an espresso machine – people tend to come to the office to congregate, meet each other, sit in groups and collaborate on what they are working on.
What are the environmental aspects of this?
Market forces have caused work styles to evolve, but the workplace has not kept pace with the change. Simply walk around any office during business hours and observe the occupancy of 20 desks. I guarantee you that you will not find more than 10 actually used. Underutilization is easily converted to dramatic cost and energy savings and carbon reduction.
This is an issue that must be addressed by executive management and at the board of director level – it cannot be pushed off to middle level management – because the scale and scope of this phenomenon is measured in hundreds of millions of dollars annually, thousands of tons of CO2, the health, safety and productivity of the workforce, and the hiring and retention rates of top young talent. If this is not the purview of the CEO, then what is?
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Elizabeth Sanchez December 29th, 2009 at 10:15 am
This really hits the nail on the head. I am sure there are many in the serviced office industry that would love to pow wow with Mr. Vivadelli. His company’s web site has tons of good info on how to best utilize office space as well. Thanks for another great article!
Bill Brookshire December 29th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
I like the part about how collaboration is changing the way people use office space. This is insightful. Work is what you do, not where you go. That’s evident in the Gen Y group that’s coming up now. They want flexibility and virtual offices, coworking and day offices give them the flexibility and mobility they need to get the job done.