The 5 top benefits of effective space management with Archibus

“For every minute spent organizing, an hour is earned” – Benjamin Franklin

When was the last time you felt productive and peaceful when you walked into a poorly organized office…one that had workers crowded together or one where there was so much of blank space that you wanted to bring in a plant to make the place seem more occupied? Now compare this to one of those offices that seem to have a place for everything and everything in the right place? Wouldn’t your productivity soar there?
Human beings are greatly impacted by the environment around them. It is this psychology that divides a productive space from an unproductive one. Good space management assists companies and organizations to achieve their business goals while meeting their operational needs and reinforcing their brand and culture. Space management helps in attracting and retaining talent. In the post-COVID world, the prospect looms of a more location-independent and flexible workforce. This needs more agile space management practices. But most importantly space management helps organizations reduce their real estate footprint, consolidate their property portfolio, and consequently helps them manage their real estate costs well.

With growing real estate portfolios organizations have had to move beyond ‘gut-feel’ when it comes to space management. Space management tools can help organizations make optimized, data-driven decisions. And there is no better tool than Archibus for space management.

Here’s a look at some of the top benefits of space management using Archibus.

1. Clear insights into occupancy dynamics

As digital collaboration and remote working become a normal part of today’s enterprise vocabulary, the office space will also experience a shift. Most organizations are going to be looking at incorporating some element of social distancing in the workplace as the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown ends. The close-knit office space will have to incorporate greater distance between employees. Also, more people will work from home for longer periods of time but will have to come into the office for specific tasks. This will create ebbs and flows in demand for space in the office of tomorrow.

This will demand a greater understanding of the occupancy dynamics of the organizational office space. With detailed insights into the occupancy data, organizations can measure how individuals and departments are using space, if the allocated space is enough to help them fulfill their job roles, if there is any free space and if yes, then is this excess space being used efficiently?

Utilizing Archibus Space, organizations can get deep insights into these metrics by leveraging comprehensive occupancy surveys. Archibus allows organizations to gain immediate and accurate information about personnel and occupancy information. Reporting of occupancy statistics for space usage helps organizations map their office space needs accurately, ensure optimal utilization of the available space, and improve space forecasting accuracy for future needs.

2. Optimized space planning and forecasting capabilities

Organizations have to be on top of planning for their future space needs. For this, they need to conveniently test different space and occupancy scenarios before any adjustments or investments are made.

Archibus Space helps organizations align their existing space plans with their strategic space plans. Leveraging Archibus, organizations can reduce the effort needed to define specific implementation plans, plan short, medium, and long-term “what-if” scenarios and get detailed event-driven insights, including space configuration/allocation, leased/owned properties, and projects. All of these help in simplifying strategic space planning and optimizing forecasting capabilities.

3. Greater accountability towards space usage

Every inch of space in an office environment costs money. Given the occupancy costs that organizations have to shoulder, they naturally want to make sure that every inch of space is utilized efficiently. Organizations thus need to ensure that every department is optimally utilizing the space allocated to them. 

Often organizations can achieve this by billing departments internally for their space usage. Inefficient space usage, when eliminated across departments, can lead to significant savings in associated occupancy costs such as housekeeping, energy, utilities, and the like. Optimized space usage is also a bonus.

Archibus Space helps organizations improve the accuracy of departmental cost reporting and makes them more accountable for every space they use. It also gives them transparent insights into current space costs and planned future growth projections that improve decision quality on consolidations, moves, and acquisitions.

4. Ease in managing the total cost of occupancy

Every organization has different kinds of space. Having complete and detailed knowledge of how much space an organization has and how it is being used is essential to know the Total Cost of Occupancy. A lack of clarity on occupancy costs and rising costs can impact profits and performance. Clarity on the same can increase profitability as each dollar saved contributes to the bottom line.

Organizations need to expedite self-service access to space inventory and usage reports. This will help decision-makers improve space efficiency by co-locating departments or identifying avenues for consolidation. Archibus Space helps organizations gain these insights with minimal effort. It also helps them evaluate building performance to enable accurate benchmarking as well as enhance space utilization by improving their design/planning capabilities.

5. Improve cost of efficiencies with hoteling

Most organizations invest in more than required real estate since they do not have accurate insights into usage patterns. A lot of office space is frequently underutilized. Along with space waste, organizations also end up losing money in utilities, operations, and energy bills. The avoidable carbon footprint is crucial as well.

Using Hot Desking or Hoteling services organizations can better utilize existing space. Temporary allocation of on-site workspace to dynamic project-based teams, implementing shared space chargebacks, accommodating a mobile workforce by enabling desk to staff ratio improves desk utilization. This allows different teams to work under one roof, reduces the carbon footprint, and ensures responsible and effective use of space. It also makes the office environment more collaborative. This is a crucial advantage in a future scenario where more workers will be remote.

Why we need space management now more than ever before

We have become accustomed to the new office space now – the one that has an open plan and supports agile working and collaboration. This plan has resulted in a reduction in the amount of space per person without compromising on people-centricity, and collaboration.

As more people work remotely the reliance on office space is reducing while the reliance on technology is increasing. Space management will assume greater importance as we try to make sure that organizations are using their resources and their assets most optimally. Archibus’ robust capabilities in this space could offer the most complete set of capabilities for organizations to be effective.