Search Results for: transformation

April 29, 2015

‘Time to bin SLAs’ as IT buyers focus on costs over benefits ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • News, Products, Technology

More than half of the UK’s technology buyers claim that their main focus when procuring IT services is on keeping down costs rather than achieving specific benefits for their business, according to a report from technology company MooD International. The report, based on a study of just 160 IT directors and managers, also claims that revenue generation and growth are named as the most important initiatives by the remaining 48 percent. Over three quarters (76 percent) of respondents said that their firm’s expectations are not aligned with what suppliers believe they are contracted to deliver. The report claims this mismatch can be traced back to service level agreements (SLAs). While 77 per cent of suppliers focus on business benefits to a great or reasonable extent, 64 per cent of contracts are either entirely or mainly measured on transaction based SLAs.

April 24, 2015

Are these this year’s ten most sustainable buildings in North America? ⁰

by Mark Eltringham • Architecture, Environment, Facilities management, News

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) and its Committee on the Environment (COTE) have selected what they claim are the nation’s top ten examples of sustainable architecture and ecological design projects. The COTE Top Ten Awards program, now in its 19th year, claims to be the profession’s most rigorous recognition program for sustainable buildings. The program highlights projects that are the result of an “integrated approach to architecture, natural systems and technology … which make a positive contribution to their communities, improve comfort for building occupants and reduce environmental impacts through strategies such as reuse of existing structures, connection to transit systems, low-impact and regenerative site development, energy and water conservation, use of sustainable or renewable construction materials, and design that improves indoor air quality.”

April 14, 2015

The workplace as a strategic resource: a real life CEO’s perspective

by Jim Ware • Facilities management, Furniture, Workplace design

Raise your hand if you agree: “The workplace is obviously a strategic resource.” We facilities management professionals know that to be true. But if you often feel like a voice in the wilderness when speaking to anyone other than a fellow workplace professional, you are not alone. For many if not most senior executives, their facilities are a necessary evil that always cost too much. That reality frustrates me as much as it does you. So my colleague Paul Carder and I conducted two extensive research projects in 2012 and 2013 aimed at making the case (mostly to FM professionals themselves) that facilities and workplaces are incredibly strategic – and very poorly understood. And while we’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback about the work, we haven’t seen much change in mindsets, management practices or outcomes.

March 25, 2015

HSBC to relocate its UK headquarters building to Birmingham

by Mark Eltringham • Cities, News, Property

Banking giant HSBC has announced the relocation of its core banking business for personal and business customers to the Arena Central development in Birmingham. The move will see the bank take a long term lease on a 210,000 sq. ft. office and relocate around a thousand employees to the new headquarters building from London over the next four years. The choice of location follows a review into the bank’s operations and its ability to service the needs of some 16 million customers in the UK. The West Midlands is the UK’s second largest financial centre after London, with some 220,000 employees across the region. Two years ago, Deutsche Bank completed a deal for 200,000 sq. ft. of new space at Brindleyplace and earlier this year, the local council announced plans for the Snow Hill area in an attempt to create an alternative to London’s Docklands.

February 24, 2015

Disengaged staff plan to switch employer over the next three months

by Sara Bean • News, Workplace

Just under a third of employees are planning to switch employer soon, with Gen Y most likely to leave, finds a new report, “Finders Keepers? Exploring How to Source, Hire and Retain the Best Talent”. The research from recruitment firm Quarsh claims that 10 percent of employees are searching for a new opportunity at the moment, and a further 20 percent will be looking for a new role within the next three months. Because one third (35 percent) of those currently looking expect to still be working for their current employer in 12 months’ time, the report warns that management need to focus not just on hiring, but also employee engagement. The report claims that organisations seeking to engage and retain their current workforce need to focus on offering an ’employment experience’ that stretches beyond the ‘tangible’ elements of the job, such as salary.

November 13, 2014

Case Study: AutoTrader motors into its new Manchester digital playground

by Mark Eltringham • Case studies, Facilities management, Technology, Workplace design

Even in the context of a rapidly declining print market, the decision to end AutoTrader’s 37-year history as a printed magazine was not an easy one to take. At its height, Auto Trader had a circulation of 368,000, but in June 2013 the final printed copy rolled off the presses and the business began its new incarnation as a purely digital platform. Of course, this transformation was a long time in the making and had actually begun ten years earlier. By the time the print room lights went out, all of Auto Trader’s revenues had not only migrated online, but experienced significant growth too. It is Auto Trader’s growth during this process of transformation that is considered so unique in the publishing world and is proof that the business’ aspiration to be at the forefront of the digital marketplace is not just a wide-eyed intention. The website boasts 11.5million unique users, carrying out more than 140 million searches across mobile, table and desktop devices and the business is set to launch an extensive TV advertising campaign on boxing day.

November 11, 2014

Current issue of Work&Place explores intersecting worlds of people, place and tech

by Mark Eltringham • Architecture, Cities, Facilities management, Technology, Work&Place, Workplace design

As we prepare the upcoming issue of Work&Place (don’t forget to subscribe on our homepage), a reminder that the September issue of Work&Place is available to download or view as a PDF or now in an online edition. Amongst this issue’s highlights are: Ian Ellison’s retrospective of last Summer’s Workplace Strategy Summit; Jim Ware offers up a case study of workplace transformation at NEF from the perspective of the firm’s CEO; Agustin Chavez and Laurie Aznavoorian consider how the workplace can help firms to manage knowledge; David Karpook meanwhile characterises the role of the facilities manager as akin to that of a stage manager; Wim Pullen explores the multi-generational workplace using empirical evidence; Erik Jaspers looks at how workers are colonising the world’s cities; Pawel Lenart and Dominika Kowalska report on how one specific country – Poland – has seen a transformation in the way it creates and uses workplaces over the past twenty years; and, on related themes Nancy Sanquist explains how IFMA is driving the agenda on urban FM and Charles Marks looks at how the UK’s regions are looking to capitalise on the Smart Cities movement.

October 29, 2014

The business case for green building widens to cover wellness and productivity

by Alison Kitchingman • Comment, Environment, Facilities management, Workplace design

The debate about the economic, commercial and social benefits of green building design continues to evolve rapidly. Where once it was primarily focussed on environmental issues and related cost savings, the world’s major champions of eco-building are now making the case for sophisticated building design that has a broader range of benefits for organisations and individuals. The most significant report in this regard for some years has just been published by the World Green Building Council (WorldGBC). Its study Health, Wellbeing and Productivity in Offices: The Next Chapter for Green Building offers “overwhelming evidence” for the ways in which office design significantly impacts the health, happiness, wellbeing and productivity of people.The report covers a wide range of that influence the wellness, job satisfaction and performance of office workers. It identifies the ways in which these undoubted benefits add a new layer of sophistication to the case for organisations to invest in better, healthier and greener buildings.

October 17, 2014

Google and Deloitte set out blueprint for collaborative work in Australia

by Mark Eltringham • Flexible working, News, Technology, Workplace design

Deloitte Digital has launched the final version of its report into the collaborative economy carried out on behalf of Google Australia. An interim report, published in July, estimated that the benefits of collaboration to the Australian economy is already $46 billion and could rise to $56 billion. The report also claims that collaboration could help to address specific structural problems including falling productivity and a comparative lack of innovation. The study claims that the average Australian worker spends just under half of a typical working day interacting with other people but that there remains considerable room for improvement in the way those interactions take place. The final version of the report also includes a toolkit to help individuals and organisations to gauge their level and success of their collaborative work. Tellingly, the test is weighted one-third to workplace design, one-third to technology and one-third to culture and governance.

October 10, 2014

Case study: A public sector building that lights the way ahead for others

by Mark Eltringham • Case studies, Facilities management, Public Sector, Workplace design

The new offices of Wiltshire County Council, Trowbridge

Last year, I had the pleasure of producing a case study of the new offices of Wiltshire County Council for Mix Interiors magazine. Given that the building was this week shortlisted for the Prime Minister’s Better Public Buildings Award and had already won an award from the BCO, we thought this seemed a good time to retread its corridors of power…. The recession has led the UK government to develop a number of new approaches to public sector buildings. But some of the UK’s local authorities are way ahead of the new thinking. Even so, there was a time, not so long ago, when nobody worried too much about the shape of the rooms that led off the corridors of power. But the pressure on UK public finances has politicised the design of the UK’s public buildings, with the government launching a wide range of initiatives to improve the efficiency of the way public sector acquires, designs and runs the places it calls home.

October 9, 2014

BCO announces winners of national awards for Britain’s best workplaces

by Mark Eltringham • Facilities management, News, Property, Workplace design

The BCO has announced the winners of its prestigious annual National Awards to honour what it considers Britain’s best workplaces. The overall winner was Number One Riverside in Rochdale (above). The office, home to Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council, was also recognised as the Best Corporate Workplace in the UK, and topped a list of six other award winners recognised for excellence in office space. Number One Riverside was singled out by the judges for its consolidation of the Council’s estate from 33 buildings into one. The project is also the centrepiece for the first phase of a major regeneration in the borough of Rochdale, ‘providing a new civic office that promotes new ways of working and creates a sense of community, engagement and social transparency.’ The building was commended by the judges for its incorporation of a range of public space alongside the workplace, including a library and cafe and customer service facilities.

September 26, 2014

RICS Scotland officially opens its new Edinburgh offices

by Sara Bean • Facilities management, News, Property

RICS new Scottish headquarters were officially opened this week at Edinburgh’s iconic Princes Street by Minister for Local Government and Planning, Derek Mackay, MSP. The new, state of the art offices, located at 125 Princes Street, will also host Planning Aid Scotland, Built Environment Forum Scotland and the Scottish Arbitration Centre, with the idea being to create collaborative built environment hub in the heart of Scotland’s capital city. Explained Sarah Speirs, Director RICS Scotland: “Throughout this process we have been very keen to recognise and utilise the professional skills and expertise of our members, including the talents of our building surveying members, who we have now been working on the design and fit out of our transformational space at 125 Princes Street for the past couple of months.” The new open plan offices, which benefit from views of Princes Street Gardens and Edinburgh Castle were designed using BIM technology as a best practice example for the sector. More →