Dive Brief:
- Over 50% of businesses have implemented or are working towards implementing an integrated workplace platform, according to Eptura, which surveyed 200 organizations worldwide.
- The top three technologies most businesses want to deploy in the next 12 months include data analytics, integrated workplace solutions and collaboration software that can enhance the ability of employees to work together in an office, Eptura says in its 2024 Workplace Index report released Tuesday. Operational leaders surveyed cited expectations of an average of 3% to 8% in increased incremental revenue resulting from effective use of the office for hybrid work.
- However, businesses are not looking to digitally connect their workplaces in “one go,” the report says, noting that a sizable percentage of companies are still digitizing manual processes and working through change management barriers. More than 60% of operational leaders said implementing a change management program and measuring the impact of these changes are their biggest impediments to managing change, Eptura says in the report.
Dive Insight:
The report explores four stages involved in the journey toward a digitally connected workplace, with progression taking place between non-digital, single digital, multiple digital, platform and ecosystem. The first stage involves moving from manual tasks to a single point digital solution, while the second stage consists of bundling multiple solutions from one vendor, Eptura says. The third stage requires moving from multiple digital solutions to a platform that can create integrations for individual use cases through digital workplace mapping and access to cross-functional data, for example.
The final stage involves deploying an integrated ecosystem that can provide a single data view through an interactive portal. These systems often utilize the Internet-of-Things and digital twins to provide real-time predictive analysis and sophisticated modeling that can predict future outcomes for buildings, assets and employee experience, Eptura says.
A majority of the building and facilities leaders Eptura surveyed are in the first three stages, with 24% saying they have implemented multiple digital solutions and 31% deploying an integrated platform. Another 41% of respondents reported still using a single digital point solution, compared with just 4% that utilize an ecosystem approach.
In the next 12 months, 17% of building and facilities operational leaders expressed their intent to implement data analytics, while 15% cited plans to utilize an integrated workplace platform. Thirteen percent of these operators said they would like to integrate facility requests in workplace solutions, ahead of the 11% that listed artificial intelligence and visitor management integrations as their plans for the next twelve months.
As organizations move through these stages, they view the return on investment for a digitally connected workplace differently, Eptura notes. For example, while 34% of respondents in the single digital stage predominantly use manual operating costs to measure value, 30% of businesses at the multiple digital stage mostly use system costs to measure value.
Businesses entering the integrated stage tend to turn to “revenue by building” as a measure of value, with 26% of respondents in this stage reporting that they adopt this approach. “This suggests they are at the stage of having more sophisticated data to pull metrics from,” the report says.
“Businesses at the ecosystem stage use mostly ‘labor costs’ to measure value, but don't use ‘manual operating costs,”’ Eptura says, underscoring this pattern as a reflection of movement towards automation and “significant” labor reduction efforts.
When it comes to implementing new workplace transformation programs, 37% of respondents said measuring the success and impact of changes is their biggest challenge, while 25% said they struggle to implement a workplace change management program. For building and facilities leaders in the single digital stage, “implementing workplace change is almost as challenging as measuring success,” while those in the multiple digital stage struggle to implement change and integrated platform users face challenges with measuring change impacts, according to the report.
“The first step in effectively measuring the impact of change is knowing what to measure. When armed with real data, businesses are better equipped to understand the relevant technology required to move from one stage of the digitally connected journey to the next,” Eptura says.
Based on the company’s data, gathered across 16.3 million users globally, Eptura also sees visitor numbers rising. “By integrating visitor management systems with access control, and by using visitor types, operational leaders can get a clearer picture about who is entering their buildings, where they’re going, and when they leave,” the report says.
