Hello amyjean-ga,
You said in your July 18 clarification that you were ?waiting to see
if the original researcher who posted the 70/30 solution would post an
additional comment.? The original citation of the 70/30 ratio of
cubicles to offices cited in the June 2, 2004 issue of Real Estate
Weekly was made by mammonite-ga, a commentor and was then confirmed by
websearcher-ga, a reseacher.
Since you expressed a hope that there would be additional information
available I continued the research. I took the explanation in your
original question stating that you wanted to use the cubicles vs.
offices figures ?to estimate market size for a business telephony
product? as the jumping off point for my research.
I found that the number of offices and cubicles is shrinking as the
way work gets done in the information economy changes the physical
workscape. Not only are working spaces moving from formal spaces like
cubicles and offices to more flexible and open spaces like shared team
offices, pods, and collaborative offices but also the trend to
telecommuting, mobile work and hotelling is taking employees out of
the home office altogether. This means that the telephone needs of all
employees are changing.
In addition to the articles I?ve found discussing the changinging
workscape, I also explored what are the trends in telephone
provisioning because of these changes. I found a number of articles
that report on trends toward VoIP networks, wireless, walkie-talkie
communications and other movement away from standard land lines. These
changes will mean the fading of old technologies and the rise of
opportunities for new. I?ve provided a collection of resources to help
you see some of these emerging trends.
I believe that I?ve provided you broader information about the current
workscape beyond the estimate of cubicles to offices. I trust that
these findings will be useful. Please let me know if you need
additional information before rating my answer as this is a quickly
changing field.
Wishing you well for your new product.
~ czh ~
========================================
OFFICE VS. CUBICLE ? CHANGING WORKSCAPES
========================================
http://www.bruck.com/art-virtwork.htm
The Virtual Workplace
e-Infrastructure for e-Business
Trends in the Workplace
Worker after worker, in business after business, is replicating my
story today. In fact, research by the Gartner group indicates that
within a year, 80% of all enterprises will have at least 50% of their
knowledge workers engaged in some form of telecommuting or other
nomadic work. In fact, Gartner Group goes so far as to suggest that
?workplace transformation is a critical management imperative for the
connected economy as a key element to attract, retain and enable
talented employees, and to reallocate financial resources between
physical and digital infrastructure, or between ?bricks and clicks.??
The office building today was designed in an earlier industrial age to
mimic the assembly lines that made Ford so successful, with individual
knowledge workers in offices (or more recently cubicles) arranged in
rows. What was a breakthrough in standardizing production was
marginally useful for the exchange of information and processing of
transactions. In the age before copiers and fax machines, there was an
advantage to centralizing workers around the information they were
processing.
However, new forces shape new ages, and the forces that affect today's
businesses shape the workplace of the 21st century. And what are those
forces?
***** This is a long paper that describes the shifting workplace
trends that are transforming how and where people work.
-------------------------------------------------
http://iwsp.human.cornell.edu/default.html
Cornell University International Workplace Studies Program
The IWSP has established itself as an international leader in the
study of what has come to be called Integrated Workplace Strategies
(IWS). Using the framework of organizational ecology, the IWSP
examines workplace strategies as a complex ecosystem in which one
simultaneously considers the cost/benefit implications of the
interplay of work processes, employee demographics, physical design,
information technology, and organizational culture as they converge in
a workplace strategy.
http://iwsp.human.cornell.edu/pubs/default.html
IWSP Publications
***** This site provides dozens of studies on the changing modern
office many of them addressing emerging new patterns in office
arrangements such as Hoteling & Non-Territorial Offices, Telework
Centers-Satellite Offices, Home-Based Telecommuting and Collaborative
Team Environments in addition to considerations of office vs. cube.
-------------------------------------------------
http://iwsp.human.cornell.edu/pubs/excerpts/odws_excerpt3.HTML
Workplace Strategies for Dynamic Organizations
Excerpt - Organizational Dilemmas and Workplace Solutions -
Workplace Cost, Density, and Effectiveness
Becker, F. (2000) Offices That Work: Balancing Cost, Flexibility, and
Communication. New York: Cornell University International Workplace
Studies Program (IWSP).
Under pressures to reduce cost, the first tactic for many
organizations is to increase density. It is fast and relatively
inexpensive, compared to leasing more space.
Density Varies Widely
Our research found tremendous variability in density across firms, and
within the same office type.
Density and Cost
Team-oriented bullpens and pods reduce costs for a simple reason; they
require less space than high-paneled cubicles and closed offices.
While these cost figures are rough, they do capture the fact that
there are significant reductions in real estate cost associated with
higher density. When that fact is coupled with the less well-accepted
one that the more open type of work environment actually enhances
communication that promotes work effectiveness, one begins to have an
answer to part of the wicked problem we posed at the beginning of this
report: How does one enhance work effectiveness while reducing costs?
The answer, our research suggests, is more team-oriented bullpens and
pods.
***** This is an interesting article that discusses the costs of
various office figurations. It provides some tables to help make sense
of their findings and points to current trends.
-------------------------------------------------
http://www.occupier.org/about.htm
Our contention is that we simply must understand the connection
between corporate real estate and facilities on the one hand with
organisational output and business performance on the other. The very
future of the industry is dependent on succeeding with this quest;
occupiers must, for example, be able to demonstrate value for money
and business effectiveness while the supply side needs to be able to
deliver these value-added buildings and services, both over the short
and long- term.
http://www.occupier.org/papers.htm
Working Papers
http://www.occupier.org/publications.htm
Publications
http://www.occupier.org/links.htm
Links
***** This is a UK website that offers research reports on the
changing trends in offices and corporate real estate.
-------------------------------------------------
http://www.ifma.org/
International Facility Management Association
http://www.ifma.org/what_is_fm/fm_links.cfm
FM Links
***** This site offers a terrific collection of links of every
organization or association that is involved in any aspect of office
facilities management. Many of them may be useful to you.
-------------------------------------------------
http://www.architechmag.com/
ARCHI-TECH magazine, with a circulation of 28,000 and a readership of
nearly 100,000, provides a targeted audience of architects and other
specialty designers with cutting-edge information on the latest
advances in the technology and building sectors. ARCHI-TECH focuses on
integrating emerging technologies and systems into building design and
architecture.
***** Look for articles on current trends in office design.
-------------------------------------------------
http://www.architechmag.com/Articles/detailArchitech.asp?ArticleID=2485
Rethinking Office Design
?Now that so many people are telecommuting or working part-time from
home, we find that workers don?t need their own offices or cubicles as
much as places to ?land?,? he says. ?An 8'x10' space might accommodate
three employees because it?s unlikely they?d all be there at the same
time. Instead of separate one-story offices, we?ve got a three-story
building with people in shared spaces and now the question becomes,
?What amenities can you create within the reshaped environment to make
this a rewarding place to work???
He says people need a variety of flexible spaces throughout the
building: more conference rooms, a spot you can get cup of coffee or
snack in a hurry, little break-out stations to sit alone to think or
to have a conversation, alcoves and niches inside and out. ?People
always need outdoor places to linger - sunny ones when it?s cool,
shaded ones when warm, shelter from wind or rain, even secret places
you think no one else knows about. Why does the business day have to
stop because you walk out the door??
***** This is an interesting article about the changing configurations
of today?s office space to suit new ways of working.
-------------------------------------------------
http://www.buildings.com/AboutUs/default.asp
Buildings.com is a product of Stamats Business Media and is affiliated
with Buildings magazine, ARCHI-TECH magazine and Buildings and
ARCHI-TECH Live Events. Buildings.com is a unique information resource
that provides a community for the buildings industry, with the latest
news, an articles archive, research and an extensive online Buyers'
Guide for facilities professionals.
-------------------------------------------------
http://www.officetimes.com/Feb04Newsletter.htm
February 1, 2004 CORPORATE OFFICE PERSPECTIVES
Just for the record, I do not consciously look for one biased-side of
a topic and ignore the other viewpoint. If there were any published
reports on positive trends for increased office demand in any of the
40 trade journals and newspapers that I use for source material, this
would be in our OfficeTimes newsletter. Here?s another article on
reduced corporate office demand ? The Sacramento Bee (12/1/03)
reports, ?Firms cut costs by cutting ? cubicles.? Executives at Cisco
Systems, Sun Microsystems, Hewlett-Packard and Intel say they have
reduced their building needs by hundreds of thousands of square feet ?
or expect to do so in the near future ? by eliminating offices for
many of their employees. ?This is a pretty important trend,? said
Mark Gulan, vice president of real estate and workplace resources for
San Jose-based Cisco Systems. ?We will actually be able to use
significantly less space.? ?Over the next three to five years,? he
added, ?the company could cut out 15 percent to 20 percent from its
real estate costs. Part of this is accomplished by moving employees
out of fixed cubicles and putting them into shared-space or equipping
them for totally mobile work environments.?
***** This is another article that confirms the trend toward the
reduction of both offices and cubicles.
-------------------------------------------------
http://www.mcmorrowreport.com/news/fm.asp
Facilities Management - News & Trends
Call centers move to network of home-based offices
March 2005?Due to unsuccessful attempts to move call centers abroad,
U.S. companies are shifting some of that work back to the United
States and, in some cases, right into employees? homes.
Office Depot, JetBlue Airways Corp., General Electric Co. and Staples
Inc. are among companies using stay-at-home customer service
representatives as alternatives to traditional call centers in the
United States, India and the Philippines.
***** This is another trend that points to the reduction of corporate
office space ? whether cubicles or private offices.
-------------------------------------------------
http://www.12simplesecrets.com/management.htm
Offices vs. Cubicles
Now here we have studies. IBM did the Santa Thersa study and Tom
DeMarco did a study. Both found offices providing a 2.5X productivity
improvement over cubicles. (If anyone can point me to an online copy
of these studies I can link to - I would appreciate it.)
The real question should be - companies spend close to $150,000/year
on programmers counting salary, equipment, hiring, training, etc. and
then they save $200/month using cubicles instead of offices. Let's see
- hire twice as many programmers at 150K/year because of the cubicle
productivity hit to save 2.4K/year per programmer. Even the
accountants should see the problem with that.
***** This article refers to a selection of studies over the past 20
years on the question of cubicles vs. offices.
-------------------------------------------------
http://www.realestatejournal.com/propertyreport/office/20041210-frangos.html
December 10, 2004
Employees Test Drive
New Office Layouts
By ALEX FRANGOS
Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
From The Wall Street Journal Online
Behind a gray door in an abandoned shopping mall in Fort Worth, Texas,
RadioShack Corp. has launched an ambitious experiment -- with its
workers as human subjects.
The company turned a defunct retail computer store into a freshly
decorated office, fitted with open-plan cubicles, low file cabinets
with cushions on them for informal chats, and wireless Internet
access. Then it had a group of employees work there for months. Video
cameras recorded their every move.
Experts trained in workplace anthropology conducted interviews and
focus groups. The workers kept journals about what they liked and
disliked about the office.
The point? To determine whether this special office setup -- dubbed
the Idealab -- was a success before rolling the prototype out across a
new four-building RadioShack campus on the grassy banks of the Trinity
River here.
***** This is another article that shows that there is a trend away
from both standard offices and cubes to more innovative open and
flexible office arrangements.
===============================================
BUSINESS TELEPHONY FACILITIES MANAGEMENT TRENDS
===============================================
http://www.autoblog.com/entry/1234000210028782/
Ford going to walkie-talkie style wireless phones
Posted Jan 24, 2005, 5:51 PM ET by David Thomas
Related entries: Gadgets
8,000 employees at Ford Motor Co. are giving up those old landline
phones for Sprint?s Ready Link service. Ford?s product development
unit will be the first to use the walkie-talkie style communication
before the system is integrated into other divisions. As an abstract
it sounds like a great way for engineers and other product folks to
communicate. In the real world the story also says that the service
will give more administrative capabilities to Ford to manage their
company directory and includes a web portal for changes.
-------------------------------------------------
http://www.facilitycity.com/tfm/tfm_04_07_news4.asp
Wireless Trends
The Snowballing Growth Of Wireless Technologies .
By Matt Stansberry
Today's industry trends and buzzwords?mobility, the knowledge work
force, e-business, near shoring?are based in part (or entirely) on the
development of wireless technology. The evolution of this technology
will allow workers to communicate ideas, access databases, and search
the Internet in thin air.
The current mood of "corporate anorexia" is causing companies to look
for aggressive ways to slim down processes and costs. Therefore,
transient workers such as consultants, mobile sales people, and
outsourced positions will become more prevalent, and these workers
will expect to stay connected wherever they are conducting business.
***** There is a clear trend to reduction of office space and having
employees work from home, from mobile locations and from hub offices.
-------------------------------------------------
http://www.todaysfacilitymanager.com/
Today?s Facility Manager
***** This trade publication offers lots of resources and up-to-date
articles about office space design and configuration and the changing
picture in telephone provisioning.
-------------------------------------------------
http://www.todaysfacilitymanager.com/tfm_05_06_factech.asp
June 2005
Full Speed Ahead
Facility management trends are increasingly driven by technology.
Taking into account the information gathered at The TFM Show® and
other trends I have been tracking, I've compiled a list of some
important developments in facility technologies today.
2.) ?Old fashioned? facility systems are evolving and a new utility is
coming. Today, even time tested facility systems are becoming
technology intensive. Traditional telephone systems are migrating to
Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP).
Even the concept of utilities is changing. Building owners and
organizations are starting to realize that network and Internet
connectivity are so important that they have become the newest
utility. ? One real estate developer on the west coast, Sentre, is
already doing this at One America Plaza in San Diego. Tenants can
access the Internet for free from anywhere in the building on a
wireless network.
3.) Technology is changing the way organizations use the facility. A
good example of this is hotelling, which is becoming more common and
may soon be the norm rather than the exception for many facilities.
Cisco systems, a leader in networking and VoIP, is testing a 100%
hotelling concept, where employees have no dedicated desk or office.
They simply use any space that is available, and the technology and
their communications follow. This is possible because of Cisco's VoIP
and wireless technologies, and because all computer systems are
available over the Internet. When employees log into a desk space,
their calls, e-mail, and other computer programs are automatically
directed to them through the network. The big advantage of this
approach is in better space utilization.
Cisco studied employee habits, and found that, between travel and time
off, many office spaces were vastly underutilized. Through 100%
hotelling, the company was able to increase the number of employees in
its test office from 80 to 120 without adding any square footage.
Today, employees do not even need to be at their desks to work. Here
in Chicago, Verizon wireless offers wide area Internet connectivity
for about $70 per month. This service allows users to connect to the
Internet from any place in the Chicago area where their cell phones
operate. This is a tremendous advantage for organizations with field
service employees, freeing them from having to come into the office to
exchange data or paperwork.
***** Be sure to read the whole article to get the complete picture
about these emerging trends.
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