Business opportunities Advertorial The agile revolution taking place in the enterprise workspace


Technology is the key enabler to a seismic shift in the way en- terprise workspaces are operat- ing. Under the umbrella term of ‘agile’, this movement embraces massive changes in the tradi- tional ways of working, from how office space is planned to the methods used to achieve goals. Jon Knight, Commercial Director of Ascentae, looks at the tech- nology implications of this trend.


Whilst office work varies enor- mously from person to person, job to job and even from day to day, conventional workplac- es commonly default to a desk for each person, usually with the same equipment sitting on each. But according to re- search from Kinnarps, given the choice, we would spend only a fifth of each working day at a desk.


So, what is meant by an agile working environment and is it one and the same as an agile way of working? According to Jon Knight, Commercial Direc- tor of Ascentae, the distributor sees the two elements as sep- arate trends – the workspace and the methodology: “Essentially, an agile work- space is designed to support a


cally these include:


• A desire to foster collabora- tion. This is a common objec- tive, as the benefits of cross functional teams working effec- tively


together become clear. Agile processes lend them- selves particularly to collab- orative design – whether that be design of a product or of a process.


Remote contributors


can all feed in ideas to a cen- tral point, where they are cap- tured, classified and debated. The approach removes artificial barriers that separate depart- ments and people, and instead encourages each person to con- tribute their skills and ideas. • A drive for continuous im- provement.


A move to an activity-based working environment design can either reduce the space needed to house your existing employees or allow you to increase your headcount without taking on more space.


An agile method-


The Span collaboration system takes the principle of collaborating with sticky notes and fast tracks it to the digital age. Any member of the team can type or write an idea or task on a note or say more with a text box.


way of working that empowers employees to have more choice over where, when and how they work.


It embraces concepts


such as activity-based working, which provides a range of work- ing spaces to employees, to be used depending on the individ- ual activity being undertaken at any one time. Many of the con- cepts behind planning an agile workspace are common sense. If you want people to collabo- rate across teams, don’t build walls that separate them.”


Origins


The concept is not new – it derives from the 1980s – and now the trend has matured to become a mainstream consid- eration for today’s workspaces. But what differs from those early days are the methodolo- gies being used. Knight high- lights such methods as ‘Scrum’ and ‘Kanban’, both springing originally


from the software


development industry but now evolving to be applicable across other industries.


Organisations that adopt an agile culture and its associat- ed methods will have differing identified objectives, but typi-


The Evoko solution solves the challenge of maximising working environments in modern build- ings with multi-use spaces. It helps to ensure meeting areas are being used in a truly effective and efficient way.


ology typically breaks task into small chunks, and so creates the ability to easily incorpo- rate analysis and opinion. This constant feedback loop drives people to look again and again at challenges and come up with innovative solutions. Ongoing review and amendments hap- pen as the process continues. It’s very different to a more conventional approach that devotes intensive resource up- front to research and planning, and then to testing at the end. • The development of critical soft skills. The World Economic Forum caused a stir with its Fu- ture of Jobs report, predicting changes in the skills sets need- ed to thrive in the new work landscape. The Forum identi- fied three top skills for success in the coming decade; complex problem solving, critical think- ing and creativity. Agile meth- ods foster these transferrable skills; indeed, they could be seen as essential to the suc- cessful agile workplace. • A drive to cut costs. Initially, agile methodologies can result in the need for significant in- vestment in technology.


But


many studies show that ulti- mately these capital costs can be more than offset by tangible cost savings on office space, furniture and equipment and the like. For example, a move to


an activity-based working


environment design can either reduce the space needed to house your existing employees or allow you to increase your headcount without taking on more space. And then there’s the more intangible savings of reduced absenteeism, in- creased staff loyalty and a boost in productivity.


• A desire to improve produc- tivity. Recent research from US based Stanford University reveals


that remote workers


are 13% more productive than their office-based counterparts. This is partly down to reduced traveling time, partly to in-


creased engagement. But the productivity benefits are far wider than this. If agile teams are empowered to make deci- sions, they have a keen interest in finding the best solutions. Agile working methods force a focus on a small number of challenges at a time. Teams can be kept fixed on the prior- ities and so achieve more in a shorter period of time. And the nature of agile means individu- als learn from their experiences – so improving their productivi- ty on the next project.


Technology providers


If we accept that technology is a key enabler to agile, it surely falls on the shoulders of tech- nology providers to create solu- tions that are designed for the


va’s Span collaboration and HDL300 audio conferencing systems and Evoko’s Liso space management approach, work- ing together to create real world solutions.


The Span collaboration sys-


tem takes the principle of col- laborating with sticky notes and fast tracks it to the digital age. Any member of the team can type or write an idea or task on a note or say more with a text box. They can insert images and annotate over it. All contri- butions can be made from any device and appear in real time onto the canvas. Because it is cloud based, teams can work in real or any time. And Span sup- ports the development of the three core soft skills identified by the World Economic Forum. Complementing Span is the


es. It helps to ensure meeting areas are being used in a truly effective and efficient way. With research showing up to a quarter of employees’ time is wasted on waiting for meet- ing rooms to be ready, there’s a clear productivity benefit to be gained through more effi- cient space management. Kinnarps is providing furni- ture solutions that, for exam- ple, meet the need for small- er,


more informal meeting


spaces. Their Next Office re- search has shown a clear need for more variety in the types of meeting spaces offered and a move to more sponta- neous and small gatherings, compared to


the traditional


conference room of old. Work- place House will complement the agility of Ascentae’s tech- nology by providing mobile furniture settings that offer flexibility


in how a room is


used for a meeting. And Ascentae’s sister organ- isation, Avocor will be demon- strating their interactive solu- tions, with technologies such as Huddly collaboration cam- eras and Zoom remote meet- ing capabilities.


If agile teams are empowered to make decisions, they have a keen interest in finding the best solutions.


modern workspace. Ascentae is a distributor that focuses on bringing together technologies that enable an agile approach and support the related meth- odologies in learning and work- ing.


Indeed, the company is cur- rently developing ‘Workplace House’ – a showroom based in Farringdon, but one that is structured very differently to the usual such facility. Working in partnership with Kinnarps, Europe’s largest workplace furniture supplier, Advanced Workplace Associates and Av- ocor, Workplace House will showcase eight different work- spaces, each equipped with relevant solutions that drive and support aspects of agile working.


Visitors will be able to see such products as Nure-


HDL300 advanced audio sys- tem. At the core of the system is Nureva’s unique Microphone Mist technology.


This tech-


nology fills the room with up to 16,384 virtual microphones, picking up voice contributions from anywhere in the room, or from remote team members via a VC link.


One of the UK's leading workplace change consul- tants, Advanced Workplace Associates have contributed their extensive experience and research base to the design of Workplace House. Andrew Mawson, one of AWA's found- ers has commented: “We are tremendously excited about being part of the founding group of companies involved in Workplace House, that will bring together the best tech- nologies, design and working practices to create a fantastic, frictionless workplace experi- ence.”


The technology


not only overcomes all the tra- ditional barriers of poor audio but frees up individuals to walk around the room and interact with the rest of the team, wher- ever based, unencumbered by lapel mics or loss of clarity.


Maximising the return


The Evoko solution solves the challenge of maximising work- ing


environments in modern buildings with multi-use spac- Due to open in early 2019,


Workplace House will be a fa- cility available to both integra- tors and their end users.


References ascentae.com Kinnarps.co.uk


advanced-workplace.com avocor.com


AV News September 2018 P13


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