Dive Brief:
- Workplace management technology has become commonplace, but the majority of commercial real estate and facilities management professionals aren’t able to use the data to make confident space planning decisions, surveys show.
- More than 80% of building operators say they have technology in place to analyze and manage space and book rooms and desks, according to a survey by Johnson Controls. But only 19% use the data they generate to make space-planning decisions, a separate survey by Butlr found. The findings from Johnson Controls suggest incomplete integration of the system prevents full use of the data.
- “Once they fill the spatial intelligence data gap, they can make tremendous strides in transforming the built environment to be more responsive to the needs of the people in it,” Honghao Deng, CEO and co-founder of Butlr, said in a statement.
Dive Insight:
Despite growing demand for spatial occupancy data to inform workplace strategies, most decision makers are unclear how their offices are being used for focused work and team collaboration, according to Butlr, which commissioned Wakefield Research to interview 400 building decision makers in the U.S.
Nearly all respondents, 99%, believe more efficient workspaces will improve employee experience, boost productivity, sharpen employee focus and lead to greater collaboration and employee retention. Workspaces could be more efficiently cleaned, too, they said.
One consequence of the data challenge is poorer planning when building repairs or upgrades need to be done. Because of the uncertainty over how space is being used, almost all building managers say they’ve faced disruptions in renovation and construction-related business plans over the past five years, according to Butlr.
Almost 48% say they’ve had to delay or cancel renovations or reconstruction, 44% say they’ve put consolidation plans on hold and 47% say they’ve postponed or canceled investments aimed at improving energy management. In addition, almost a quarter say unused or underused space continues to be heated and cooled, and 82% say cleaning schedules are not based on occupancy data for individual spaces.
Almost two-thirds say better utilization insights could deliver measurable savings in energy costs, and 60% say better data could yield cleaning savings.
Incomplete integration of these workplace management tools with other systems is part of the reason data isn’t being used better, according to Johnson Controls’ report. When asked what they would most change about their workplace management technology, 51% either cited ease of integration with other software and solutions or ease of use, the report says. Additional pain points include cost (16%), reliability (14%), scalability (12%) and ease of maintenance (7%).
The Butlr survey found something similar: 55% of decision makers report challenges finding a system that can scale as needs grow. Nearly half, or 48%, had difficulty integrating technology with existing systems, while 90% cited concerns about the time required to install and begin collecting usable data, per the report.
