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Set your personal options in Office Communicator 2007. Choose how long before your status changes, save your instant message conversations, and more. Office Design Case Study: How Cisco Designed the Collaborative Connected Workplace Environment - Cisco on Cisco.

Office Design Case Study: How Cisco Designed the Collaborative Connected Workplace Environment - Cisco on Cisco. BUSINESS CHALLENGECisco Systems. An increasingly global workforce and customer base makes it more likely that employees need to work at nontraditional hours, such as 6: 0. More complex business and technology issues increase the need for collaboration with team members in the same building or at various sites worldwide.

Employees are often away from their desks, in meetings or workgroup discussions. Like most companies, however, Cisco designed its office space under the traditional assumption that employees would work in their own cubicles during regular work hours and would need assigned work spaces with their own desks, PCs, and phones. The result was that meeting rooms were often in short supply, while offices and cubicles remained vacant 6.

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Most employees had cubicles; only those managers with eight or more employees (direct reports) have private offices. We realized that assigning resources based on utilization would significantly reduce Cisco real estate costs. We had the same vision for Cisco. Employees would have the freedom to choose their environment based on the requirements of their current task. Scope Of Work For Cctv Installation Diagram. EARLIER SUCCESS WITH SHARED WORKSPACECisco had previous success with the concept of shared workspace: . In the Stockley Park, London location, for example, the ratio of employees to workstations was six to one.

And in most of its sales offices worldwide, Cisco IT retained the same physical cubicles but did not assign them to specific employees. In any cubicle employees could log on to an IP phone as their own using the Extension Mobility feature of Cisco Call. Manager servers. Buoyed by the success of shared workspace in Cisco sales offices, WPR wanted to extend it to other Cisco facilities. The goals were to increase the number of employees in the office without increasing real estate costs, and to create a more productive and pleasant environment than that afforded by traditional cubicles.

WPR decided to create a proof of concept in San Jose's Building 1. REQUIREMENTS FOR A CONNECTED WORKPLACE SOLUTIONCisco employees are increasingly mobile- and less and less working at a particular desk. Therefore, WPR's vision was to support the new mobility of employees with technologies such as wireless and the mobility features of Cisco IP Communications technology. The new environment would enable them to choose any workspace for as long as they needed it, less than an hour or all day. For its proof of concept, WPR drafted the following requirements: Encouraging collaboration.

The floor plan would provide spaces for both planned and spontaneous meetings (see Figure 1) and for small and large groups. Technologies that encourage collaboration over distance include Cisco VT Advantage for video telephony, Cisco Meeting Place for audio- and videoconferencing, interactive white boards, instant messaging, e- mail, and voice mail.

Other technologies that encourage collaboration within an onsite meeting room include portable or mobile videoconferencing units. Reducing real estate costs. By designing a space without assigned seating, two- thirds of which is vacant at any given time, Cisco could comfortably assign more people to the same size building. The building used for the proof of concept could accommodate 1. Can I Play Pirates Of The Caribbean Online With Windows 8. Cisco building. Real estate costs would drop by 3. Reducing infrastructure costs.

A wireless environment requires less cabling, one of the most expensive infrastructure components, and fewer wall jacks, which cost $2. In addition, the resulting reduction in the number of switch ports would free up space for other switch resources, such as blades for security, content serving, or additional infrastructure applications. Accommodating different work styles. WPR would design a workspace with a variety of seating options instead of a single assigned seat for each employee.

Throughout the day, employees would select an appropriate environment to accomplish the task at hand: meeting in a group, participating in a conference call, or working alone on a spreadsheet or project plan. Enabling technologies for the various workspaces include wireless LAN and Cisco IP Communications (most notably Extension Mobility), Cisco IP Communicator, and Cisco Unity. Using Bluetooth Headsets, Cisco IP Communicator, and Wireless LAN Connectivity to Attend a Conference Call from the Break Room. Click on Image to Enlarge.

WORKPLACE EFFECTIVENESS PROOF OF CONCEPTPreplanning. WPR created the Workspace Effectiveness project with the assumption that each of four categories of workers at Cisco- engineering, sales, call center, and general administration- has a distinct set of needs for space, services, technology, support, and policies and procedures. WPR supported its assumption with studies by Cisco and other technology companies concluding that collaborative groups accomplish more than individuals. Specifically, WPR designed the proof of concept to test the hypothesis that a flexible, collaborative workspace could improve productivity and increase employee satisfaction while reducing real estate space and costs by increasing user density. WPR assembled a team of specialists not only in IT, human resources (HR), and workplace resources, but also cultural anthropology, architecture, design, psychology, and sociology. Metrics for success would include cost savings, improved productivity, and increased employee satisfaction.

Cisco IT's role would be to provide the tools to enable mobility and enhance collaboration among global teams. Cisco and WPR regarded the proof of concept as an experiment to determine the. The plan was for continual improvement as the team learned more. Volunteer Recruitment.

WPR began by recruiting general administration workgroups to volunteer to relocate to the proof- of- concept building, Cisco's Building 1. Volunteers included the WPR group itself, the Cisco on Cisco IT infrastructure team, part of the Cisco Internet Business Services Group (IBSG), and the HR Creative Learning Studio. Total participants numbered 1. Planning. To assess employee workspace needs, WPR conducted focus groups, employee interviews, surveys, and observations. Another was personal lockers for belongings like purses or lunches, and larger filing cabinets for employees whose jobs required them to store forms or records (see Figure 3). Employees also helped formulate the etiquette associated with each type of workspace.

For example, focus group participants agreed that if they had to meet with just one other person about a nonprivate matter, they could do it in an open area instead of an enclosed conference room. Design. A central design principle for the general administration workgroups was a completely wireless environment, to enable mobility. IT added wired jacks, as well- although 6.

Cisco building- for high- speed communications needs. PC backups and video streaming. Only administrative assistants were assigned a permanent workspace, so that their teams would know where to find them without using the location tools they would use to locate others. The Connected Workspace floor plan was inspired by a university theme, with open spaces called quads, plazas where employees can meet informally, a commons area for breaks, and enclosed offices called colleges (see Figure 4). The absence of cubicle walls lets in more natural light and creates a more open and spacious atmosphere.

The designers included different types of work spaces to accommodate different work styles and business needs. Individual workstations, equipped with: Docking station, which enables quick connection to desktop accessories such as flat- screen monitors, keyboard, and mouse (see Figure 5)Cisco IP 7. Phone, which employees personalize with their phone number and preferences with a login, using Extension Mobility or Cisco IP Communicator, a software IP phone that runs on a laptop and sends voice over the wireless network.