Chris Ross (left) of Cisco Systems is pictured with Richard Kadzis, senior contributing editor for Corporate Real Estate Leader magazine.

According to Cisco's presenter Chris Ross, Manager, Solutions & Program Development, the project was created 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, policies and procedures. This assumption was supported with studies on high-tech businesses, both by Cisco and other companies, that more work is currently accomplished by collaborative groups than by individuals.

“A team of specialists, not only in IT, HR, and Workplace Resources (WPR), but also leveraging our extensive ecosystem of external service providers, was assembled,” Ross recounts. For the first project, the participants include the Workplace Resources, an IT infrastructure team, Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG), Finance, and the HR Creative Learning Studio which represent General Administration. Total participants numbered 140 and included individual contributors as well as vice presidents, directors, and managers.”

The project is located at Cisco's headquarter campus in San Jose, CA.

Additionally, a model was developed to outline the interaction with the internal client. The Client Engagement Model was structured into the following phases: Preplanning; Planning; Design; Construction; Occupancy and Finalization.

“To assess employee workplace needs,” Ross continued, “WPR conducted focus groups, employee interviews, surveys, and observations. Change Agents representing each organization were responsible for communicating to and from the Design team. This was a very collaborative, iterative and integrated development focusing on all of the potential solutions to solve the requirements. The Change Agents were tasked with insuring their respective teams were moving through the process of change.”

Results were substantial as seen through Cisco's metrics which included rising internal customer and employee satisfaction levels along with other data:

Cost Savings: The shared workspace generates significant cost savings for Cisco:

• 37% reduction in real estate requirements (Space costs rent, operating expenses like utilities, janitorial, etc.)
• 50% reduction in furniture cost
• 60% reduction in cabling cost
• 50% reduction in equipment room space

Ross pointed out that “the cost to build this environment came to $117/sf as compared to $120/sf for our traditional environment. On a per person basis the cost of construction was reduced by 38%. Overall we were able to keep the cost per square foot about the same, but include greater levels of technology (interactive white boards and plasma screens, docking stations and flat screen monitors throughout the space), a high degree of change management and education, ergonomically user adjustable furniture components, as well as a visual communication package to support the changing mindsets necessary to benefit in the environment.