When Big Data first became a thing, everyone talked about the potential. With all that knowledge you could advertise smartly, design better products, optimize machinery.
Well it’s true, big data has the potential to change industries; and the corporate real estate industry is no different. Workspace utilization data has become a necessary part of workspace strategy and future real estate portfolio development. When 61% of information workers work outside the home and the average desk utilization in the US is 35%, understanding utilization data & how to maximize workspace can help save a lot of money.
The average desk utilization in the US is only 35%
So what is that? What is utilization data and what do we do with it? It’s possible to get data out of many different places. The usual suspects come to mind, IT networks, Badges and Bed-checks
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But data is only as good as what it is used for. Badge data can tell you how many people go into a building and out of a building, it cannot tell you how an office space or building is occupied on a daily basis. For example, a big governmental agency with a multi-building campus realized this fact when, according to badge data, they exceeded the number of people allowed on campus under their liability insurance.
Badge data indicated they were exceeding capacity, but were they? This question led the head of real estate to realize he needed a more accurate measurement of occupancy and to possibly re-evaluate his insurance policy.
When you have the right data measuring actual workspace occupancy you can start to gain insight that will help you develop a workplace strategy for the future.