The Challenge A premier federal agency provides a leadership role in improving the health of the nation’s population and funding cutting-edge research. The central office coordinates a broad portfolio of mission-based programs and provides leadership policies for the research programs to achieve their desired objectives. Although the management operation encompasses over 6,000 employees and over 3,500 work locations, there was no central space and reservations system. Each location used spreadsheets to track who was coming into the facilities to work, when they were coming, and what desk they would sit at. There was no enterprise view of space and reservations, and therefore it was difficult to efficiently use facilities and reduce costs. Enterprise facility planning became a primary need with the onset of Covid-19. It became imperative to have accurate and timely information on the facility work environments and offices, so that teams could implement social distancing requirements. While telework has reduced the total number of people coming into the offices, various groups of employees still need to work onsite. At times, there are entire floors that are populated at a location. There was a secondary need to find out whether people are using their spaces. The agency wanted to know if they were paying for space that was not used daily. The agency assembled a senior team and performed an analysis of over 20 industry solutions to find a comprehensive space and reservation system. They needed a solution that could track information at an enterprise-wide level and provide flexibility to over 50 facility space managers, so they could manage their work groups at each location. The solution also needed to scale with increased workload and be cost effective. The outcome? They selected Nuvolo Connected Workplace and an implementation services partner to meet their business needs. The Solution Nuvolo was chosen as the preferred solution for a space and reservations system, as it runs on the ServiceNow platform already in use within the agency. There is an extensive set of features and functionality to give the facility space managers the full view of what is in each facility, down to standard amenities in an office. The functionality to read a CAD file and create floor plans in the system was another high-level requirement met by Nuvolo. The central office has an enterprise view of all facilities, while the local space managers have a detailed workgroup view. People now understand the locations, how they are allocated, how they are mapped, and the standards for office designations. The team knows exactly what is in each of the implemented floor plans. They can now link a group and a user to a location. The system has enhanced communication among space managers, the facilities team that updates the floor plan, and the executive responsible for the locations. There is an additional initiative to implement a full integrated workplace management system (IWMS) encompassing work orders, scheduling, preventative maintenance, and facilities management. Support The contribution of the Nuvolo team was recognized for their early understanding of the organization’s operations and the agency’s space needs. The system is in operation and support is provided locally and with a 24/7 support center. Nuvolo has also been proactive in providing support to meet tight schedules. Improved Operations The agency is identifying opportunities to drive more efficiencies, and they are proactive in measuring success from space and reservations data. The data is more than just information on 3,500 locations—it also includes the attributes of each location, the names associated with specific offices, and who is paying the rent. The data insights will continue to generate ideas for operational improvements and facility cost reductions. The agency had not previously had this capability. These insights have led to an organizational change program, and the team is reviewing the internal business processes in managing space and reservations to identify areas for efficiencies and effective communications. The agency also has a visual view of space utilization, which gives them a new capability to control facilities expenses. Visibility of all assets, types of assets, and other statistics has led interest in expanding Nuvolo to assist other organizations within the agency going forward. Learn more about Nuvolo Connected Workplace. Share
