A two-part informative presentation, first up on Tuesday, 15th September, after a night of networking and fun, brought the delegates back into information mode The two presenters examined a new model of the workplace - the Distributed Workplace- that reflects the impact of globalization and the second part provides a practical example and explores the "Distribution Workplace" now being adopted by global telecommunications company, NOKIA.

SANE - Sustainable Accommodation for the New Economy

Despina Katsikakis, Group Chairman, DEGW (and based in U.K) has been developing a model for the European Community (EC). This is the first time ever that 5,500,000 euro has been expended on a research project of this type. It will be delivered at the end of 2002.

The starting point for SANE was that globalization and new mobile communication technologies call for new models of workplace, work processes and property management. Further, traditional approaches to workspace will not serve the needs of global networked organizations.

The project's goal is to provide a 'unified' framework integrating people, process and place creation of sustainable, collaborative workplaces for European knowledge workers.

In undertaking the research, due recognition was given to three contemporary economic revolutions:

• technological revolution based on information technologies
  
• formation of an integrated world economy (globalization)
  
• new forms of economic production and management (information economy)
  

Incorporated within this framework were two different sets of requirements -business and spatial- which take into consideration organizations' need to differentiate, whilst enhancing the quality of space.

The research findings to date are bearing out a greater emphasis on expression and therefore setting new benchmarks.

"There is a clear shift in the social values of buildings" advised Ms Katsikakis. In 'symbolic' terms that shift is from power to culture. In 'functional' terms, it is moving from control to community.

In the past the Brief was delivered by the RE area, however now more than ever it is being received via the HR department, therefore highlighting the shift in emphasis.

A real time example of this radical workplace solution for the age of information and knowledge working is British Petroleum (BP). Lord Brown wanted to create an environment where the organization supports the individual, to foster a sense of corporate belonging rather than locational belonging, and which supports the organizational evolution. Quite visionary!

In responding to the many questions from the floor, Despina commented that "expression of design means our buildings need to work harder at meeting the cultural values and sense of community".

"A company's assets are 'know how' not physical assets".

To clarify this comment, Despina sighted an example in the Netherlands where Shell's Global Management has an arrangement with a developer and with the Holiday Inn chain. The arrangement entails Shell utilizing the venue Monday-Friday, and it is branded as its own. On weekends, it becomes part of Holiday Inn. The Shell training and engagement area is transformed on weekends into a successful cabaret style entertainment venue for Holiday Inn. This is an experiment that is successful and can be emulated to reflect that you do not have to 'own the assets' for the workspace to reflect the values of the organization.

This was a perfect lead-on for the second presentation by Bethany Davis, Global Workplace Strategy Manager, NOKIA on

The Mobile Workplace Strategy at Nokia

The future for NOKIA is "Productivity generation rather than real estate revenue generation" according to Bethany Davis.

For those who do not know about it's operations, NOKIA occupies 1.8 million square metres of space globally. Forty-five percent of real estate is located in Finland where most of the R&D is carried out.

The desire to learn by doing is part of Nokia's philosophy, which is why it agreed to become part of the research study.

The portfolio focus is to make the asset work better. "Innovation and management of the workplace is more important than extracting more out of the real estate"

This aligned very well with the strategic intent of the "Mobile Workplace Program" which is -

• Provide mobile workplace solutions and the opportunity to work
  in new ways, enhancing employees' work lives and increasing
  Nokia's flexibility and business performance.
  

The mobile workplace site options involved:

Main sites - the major locations and primary market presence;

Support sites - where major clients were based and needed support or for the body of talent within the NOKIA family;

Drop-in centres - located near densely populated areas or near the customer. Supplements the environment for those who cannot work from home;

Home-Working - decided on a case-by-case basis;

On-the-road sites - enabling work 'between activities'

This integrated model now translates into value for all levels of the corporation and sees the individual worker becoming the centre of the model.

Research outcomes will continue to monitor the value proposition across the corporation, the team and the individual.