SMB Networks / Remote Offices /

Too much room at the office

By Toni Kistner
Net.Worker, 11/12/01

The destruction of millions of square feet of lower Manhattan office space has forced companies all over to rethink where they put people and why. Mobile workers and part-time teleworkers often maintain dedicated offices that are seldom used, and when full-time teleworkers visit the office, there's often no "empty" place to put them, even though the place may feel like a ghost town.

"Real estate is a company's second or third biggest expense. American businesses have spent billions of dollars re-engineering all their processes, but we still look at real estate in the same way," says Bob Onsi, director of marketing and product management for AgilQuest, an enterprise software company that helps companies more effectively manage their office space.

AgilQuest's Web-based reservation system, OnBoard, can be used part of a larger facilities management strategy. Rather than maintain a costly one-person-per-one-office ratio, AgilQuest helps companies reconfigure their space to a more cost-effective ratio, say 2-1 (50 offices for 100 workers). What's understood is that since such companies are made up primarily of mobile and part-time teleworkers, there will always be enough room for everyone on any given day. Beforehand, workers access OnBoard and reserve the type of space and location they need.

Built on the SQL 2000 database, OnBoard's central servers can reside at the corporate data center or be hosted by one of AgilQuest's partners. The system generates 30 reports that can help companies manage and utilize space, and drive good decision making, Onsi says.

Of course, you can't just kick everybody out of their offices and plunk down a reservation system. A certain amount of planning, space configuration and education that needs to happen first. But Onsi argues that once workers understand the benefits, they're an easy sell.

"If you had to configure a space to hold 100 people the traditional way, you'd need a lot of cubes," he says. "But if you had a large mobile force and a reservation system, you could offer them 50 nice offices."

Onsi says some enterprise customers are using the system to connect all their offices nationwide, as a way to engender the sense that the company is truly one firm. "If you're a New York mobile worker and need to head out to the LA office, the ability to reserve a space to work out there adds to the feeling of connectedness."

Never has the management of office space been more important to companies dislocated by the terrorist attacks. In meetings with some, AgilQuest's President John Vivadelli says companies' attitudes range from a refusal to "let these guys drive us out of the city" to "Hey, I'm just gonna go somewhere else, find some space...somewhere." What many have in common, Vivadelli finds, is that they aren't sure what space is available at their other facilities. That lack of knowledge and control is what AgilQuest hopes to remedy.

The term "network of space" - a concept that ties together the management of network systems, data and office space - has grown tremendously since Sept. 11, Vivadelli says, adding, "The facility and the technology will never be talked about separately again."