As hybrid work fashions proceed to evolve, organizations are navigating advanced challenges, from optimizing house utilization and enhancing worker expertise to effectively sustaining amenities and assembly regulatory objectives. Eptura’s Flex/24 occasions supplied a useful platform for leaders throughout numerous industries, together with banking, tech, and authorities, to share finest practices and talk about upcoming traits and improvements.
Held in 9 main cities — Atlanta, Chicago, New York, Mountain View, London, Singapore, Canberra, Melbourne, and Washington, DC — from March via July 2024, the occasions introduced collectively over 400 professionals from world enterprises. Attendees gained actionable insights and sensible steerage on leveraging worktech to drive success and handle amenities extra effectively, fostering significant connections and exchanging concepts to empower change and innovation of their workplaces.
Core traits supported by Eptura analysis
The 2024 Office Index report, a compass for navigating the altering world of labor based mostly on knowledge from Eptura’s worktech platform, fueled the inspiring discussions at Flex/24.
The index findings, which confirmed operational leaders prioritizing worktech investments in knowledge analytics and platform integration to create collaborative, sustainable, and environment friendly workplaces, have been strengthened by audio system and attendees.
Many attendees shared challenges in efficiently bringing their groups again to the workplace, and insights from Eptura’s analysis and finest practices from audio system empowered them with new methods to “magnetize” their workplaces utilizing built-in worktech options.
Connecting knowledge by unifying operational expertise
One other key theme of Flex/24 was exploring methods to handle knowledge gaps throughout the constructing life cycle. By a strategic alliance, Eptura and Autodesk are enabling organizations to simply leverage wealthy datasets from the design section immediately inside constructing operations programs. Autodesk audio system throughout the Flex/24 occasions globally shared how companies are seamlessly integrating constructing info modeling (BIM) knowledge into facility administration programs to optimize how their buildings function.
Expertise continues to play a key position in revolutionizing the office. At Flex/24 New York, Citrin Cooperman Director of Info Expertise Jed Balido coated the important thing influences to trace, together with generative AI, cloud computing, info safety, automation, and grasp knowledge administration.
Andrew Lim, Analysis Director at JLL, highlighted {that a} staggering 92% of corporations see worktech as a key driver of aggressive benefit. But the Office Index analysis reveals a spot between this ambition and actuality. Whereas 50% of companies are embracing built-in worktech platforms, many are nonetheless navigating the early phases of digital transformation.
Attendees worldwide expressed a rising have to transition from managing hybrid work preparations to harnessing knowledge and expertise for strategic benefit. To realize this, they’re more and more standardizing their knowledge and consolidating fragmented programs.
This sentiment was echoed by JLL’s Thomas Mackean at Flex/24 Singapore, who described a rising demand for good buildings. This journey, he defined, begins with primary instruments like spreadsheets and evolves into refined AI-driven programs, demonstrating the business’s ongoing evolution.
In Washington, DC, Flex/24 introduced office and facility leaders from U.S. authorities companies collectively to listen to how federal staff are making use of tech within the constructed atmosphere.
An infrastructure chief who manages protection property defined that their company is transferring away from overly custom-made programs, which presently take as much as 18 months to improve due to their complexity. As an alternative, they plan to make use of extra configurable instruments to streamline their processes. His advice for profitable tech implementation is to realize alignment throughout operations and IT, talk transparently, and set robust governance.
A listing supervisor at heath care targeted company shared how they use Archibus to grasp their house stock and establish inefficiencies to repurpose underutilized areas into affected person care areas.
Federal companies in attendance additionally indicated extra openness to embracing the Federal Danger and Authorization Administration Program (FedRAMP) when choosing cloud resolution suppliers. FedRAMP promotes the adoption of safe cloud applied sciences, making certain the safety of federal info and enhancing their use of configurable choices to enhance safety.
Making a frictionless worker expertise
Of the 400+ attendees on the Flex/24 occasions, many conversations revolved round a central query: How can we get folks again into the workplace? Atlanta speaker Derek Goshay, VP Security & Sustainability at Real Elements Firm, shared the cultural shifts which have taken place all through the return-to-office course of as they adopted a Google-inspired campus method. Qualcomm Senior Supervisor of Amenities Planning Michael Ippolito shared in Silicon Valley that occupancy traits differ for his or her enterprise throughout world areas, with APAC main on in-office attendance.
In truth, the 2024 Office Index report revealed a major year-on-year enhance in workspace reserving: 27% within the Americas, 52% in APAC, and 31% in EMEA. Whereas this knowledge signifies a optimistic attendance pattern, it additionally underscores the necessity for built-in expertise to streamline operations. John Hilderbrands, Eptura’s VP of Options Engineering, said at Flex/24 London that “reserving isn’t a purpose, however a superfluous motion that helps obtain an consequence [like collaboration] and permits folks to work the way in which they wish to work.” To facilitate a extra seamless in-office expertise, enterprises are leveraging expertise like Eptura’s automated check-in performance which makes use of AI to alleviate the necessity for workers to find the suitable sort of workspace.
In Chicago, Drew DePriest, McKesson’s Director of Actual Property Operations Expertise, beneficial beginning with the query: What tech is necessary to the enterprise? For him, it’s the flexibility to collaborate asynchronously and for enterprise continuity. The aim of tech within the office can be to turn out to be extra anticipatory — one thing enterprises can turn out to be stronger at when empowered with complete knowledge. This dialog contributes to the overarching theme of utilizing knowledge to foretell traits in workplace utilization and to take away boundaries to a collaborative worker atmosphere — core capabilities that Eptura permits.
Hitting sustainability targets with tech
Sustainability was a serious focus for attendees in any respect Flex/24 occasions. A first-rate instance is Royal London’s workplace transfer, led by Office Design Supervisor Graeme Roberts, the place they prioritized furnishings reuse and saved a outstanding 44 tons of CO₂ by diverting waste from landfills.
Fabrice Martin, Eptura’s Chief Product Officer, emphasised the large alternative for companies to make use of sustainability and inexperienced constructing administration instruments to hit their targets, comparable to waste discount and reducing their carbon footprint. Since almost 40% of the world’s carbon emissions originate from buildings, leaders can leverage knowledge generated by built-in expertise to realize sustainability objectives. This may be carried out by figuring out alternatives to optimize house utilization and modernizing facility upkeep processes.
Tim Rijnders of sensor supplier VergeSense echoed this on the APAC occasions, stating that “the impacts of unused house on ESG are vital. Buildings are accountable for 37% of world carbon emissions and 34% of power demand. Optimizing our footprint is among the handiest methods to contribute [to ESG efforts].” He additionally harassed the necessity to match workspace structure with worker habits by utilizing knowledge insights to create the most effective working atmosphere.
These potentialities and insights have been essential contemplating most audio system mentioned that reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 was an enormous focus for the longer term, together with McKesson’s Drew DePriest. Drew talked about at Flex/24 Chicago McKesson’s purpose to succeed in a 50% discount in carbon emissions by 2032.
The New York occasion noticed in-depth discussions about Native Legislation 97 — an bold municipal program for decreasing constructing carbon emissions. JLL shared that they’re actively engaged in understanding this laws’s influence on tenants and property homeowners, in addition to the corresponding tips and penalties enforced by companies till 2040. The laws can even influence the New York Metropolis Division of Citywide Administrative Companies, whose IT Enterprise Assist Director Clara Gomez shared how they handle and lease public buildings all through town. These examples spotlight the rising urgency for companies to implement sustainable practices, and to combine the suitable expertise to realize this as seamlessly as doable.
Rooms stuffed with leaders dedicated to vary
Flex/24 fostered necessary conversations about making operations simpler, bettering the worker expertise, and assembly environmental objectives. Our discussions with business leaders spotlight the transformative potential of built-in worktech options. Collectively, we are able to construct workplaces that aren’t simply environment friendly, but in addition inspiring.
Discover our consultancy providers to find how Eptura may also help you lead office transformation to fulfill your strategic objectives.
By Gabi Bellairs-Lombard
Gabi is a London-based author with 8 years of expertise in copywriting and technique throughout numerous verticals. She has been immersed in tech for 2 years, beforehand writing for a fintech firm. Her specialities lie in long- and short-form writing, search engine optimization writing and technique, and market analysis. In her present position at Eptura, she covers the newest worktech and office expertise traits.
