What CIOs Need to Know About Future-proofing Offices
Following widespread coverage of smart buildings, more and more organisations are planning corporate office space with technology in mind.
Notwithstanding their obvious ICT expertise, far too few Chief Information Officers (CIOs) are participate in the planning process which has been the preserve of real estate teams until now.
Abintra director Tony Booty believes CIOs should be guiding management towards selecting effective technology and specialist expertise to interpret data and put forward solutions.
"CIOs in large businesses are increasingly expected to play a role in real estate decisions because ICT is increasingly connected to real estate questions such as what assets do we have and how do we use them," he says, before pointing out real estate strategies are devolving from being HQ-based to hub-based, as management realises it needs to respond differently to how office spaces in different locations are used.
With IoT and smart building technology developing fast, the business could really benefit by ensuring their organisations are ready in every location.
Booty cautions corporations that don't think about the big picture will either have to scrap even relatively "new" existing technologies and reinvest or lose out to competitors.
"For most office-based businesses, real estate is their second biggest overhead after their people, so naturally they are looking at space utilisation. Rather than looking only at monitoring usage, CIOs could be thinking about going one better", he says. "It is about using components that have to be there and leveraging them," says Mr Booty, who sees a future where ultimately all office assets each have their own IP address and can identify themselves from BIM (Business Information Modelling) and FM (Facilities Management) systems that will be increasingly powerful as buildings become ever smarter.
"The benefits will be felt in energy savings, environmental efficiencies and productivity, as building become ever more comfortable to work in. Equipped with data on temperature and humidity, systems will intelligently manage air conditioning based on occupancy of particular areas of the building at any particular time and enable lighting choices for individual desks as they are used as well as ambient lighting around them.
"And understanding how space is used and being able to monitor and respond to that in real-time creates a better working environment, not just in the traditional desk space, but by freeing up space to create new areas for flexible working. That creates a competitive advantage when it comes to recruitment and retention, and since people are an even larger overhead than real estate, it is an opportunity that CIOs and the entire C suite should be seizing."
