Monday 15 July this year was a bright Summer day, which is just as well. BT Ignite Solutions, the e-business and communications group of BT moved into its new offices at Leavesden in Hertfordshire. Those familiar with construction will be familiar with the organised chaos that is a near-complete site and would have no doubting at the statement of Mike Underwood, project manger from Telereal: "It will be ready."
The new building, on MEPC's redevelopment of the former Rolls Royce aero-engine plant, totals 190,000 sq ft in three buildings, linked by an internal street. It will be home to 1,240 BT Ignite Solutions staff, moving from Network House, Meadowside and Eaton Court in Hemel Hempstead, and Tenter House in the City of London. Leavesden will also be a base for an additional mobile population of around 400 staff. The move reflects a general wish to consolidate and the BT strategy to move operations out of London. So far so typical of modern corporate moves.
But BT has been at the forefront of innovative office development since its Workstyle 2000 Initiative was launched in the 1990s (See panel). The building not only represents the latest incarnation of this thinking, but the manner in which BT's workplace philosophy has evolved provides key pointers for facilities professionals in a technological age – and an age in which both working practices and staff members are more demanding.
Underwood says: "One of the key drivers for change was having the building enabled for wireless and Bluetooth." Despite this, however, he reckons the building has about the same amount of cabling as other office buildings, perhaps more. However, with infrastructure above the ceiling and below the floor, using the latest specification network standards, he adds: "We should have a network where we never have to run another cable again." On each floor the network is on a grid system. Knowing where the cables are means that, if new desks are put in it is simply a question of cutting a hole in the floor to create a network point.
Having a consistent and coherent network also means that all of the building systems can be integrated, from security devices such as cameras to environmental sensors. And, when certain security issues are resolved, wireless networks and radio LANs will mean less hardwiring. The cautious approach to wireless networking reflects what BT Ignite does: hosting of other company's networks, with clients including Lloyds TSB and The Halifax. With ducting also in place for fibre optical networks, Underwood says "We've future proofed it. We’ve gone as far as we can go in terms of what is foreseeable."
How, it could reasonably be asked, do they know?
The only was to know was to research it. BT analysed 2,200 staff. Researchers walked around various buildings to identify where people were and what they were doing. Are they working at a desk, talking to a colleague, in a meeting, taking a cigarette break, checking files, popping out to a cash machine or any one of the interactions that occur in a busy office?
"From that we can build a picture, by group, of how often people are at workstations," says Derrick Whapshott, of BT Ignite.
BT Ignite identifies 'hot' and 'cold' workers. Hot workers move around a lot, both within and between buildings, meaning relatively underused desks, while cold workers are less mobile and in the office five days a week. The research enabled percentages of each to be identified for each workgroup. This evidence proved very effective at overcoming the natural resistance to change that any office environment experiences and was strong enough to be used in presentations to the board.
The result of this is that Leavesden has no dedicated offices. Further, it was found that the term 'meeting room' was too limiting. They are used for meetings but also training, presentations, projects, quiet areas and interviews. They can also be used for those times when a single office is required temporarily, such as personnel and finance matters. So they are called multi-purpose rooms and are managed by an electronic booking system. This in turn led to a furniture solution with specific implications for the facilities team.
Whapshott demonstrates by releasing a couple of catches, folding a table away and flat-storing it against a wall in a matter of seconds. He then does the same with an ordinary looking office chair. Matthew Poll of Monteray, BT Ignite's FM provider notes that these means porters do not have to be called because furniture can be moved without riding a coach and horses through health and safety regulations. The selling factor to the board – who do have desks adjacent to such rooms – is that they know such reconfiguration can be done quickly and easily.
The research did not stop there, however, because the team wanted to create a facility with different working environments. The team set up trial areas in BT's Milton Gate office to get feedback, testing wireless LANs and various styles of work areas (workstations, breakout space, set down points and so forth). A concept called a pole was developed which is almost exactly what it sounds like - a set down facility where a laptop can be connected to the network for 'on the run' work.
A combination of under floor ventilation and chilled beams gives very accurate control of the environment. Poll says: "There is no 'new' technology, but we have quite a sophisticated approach that is interconnected to fire alarms and lighting systems."
To exploit this integration, a single helpdesk will provide a one-stop shop for all services, Monteray running all except food. Poll notes that although easy in principle, such systems are difficult to pull off.
Leavesden shows how technology, new working practices (See panel) and even innovative furniture design can be combined in a manner that throws up both opportunities and challengers for facilities professionals. BT Ignite occupation of the new building was cautiously phased, with tens of staff moving in at a time, but as Poll observes, it is intelligence applied to the challenge, as much as intelligent technological systems that is the key.
New working practices
BT has been at the forefront of developing new working practices since it created the Workstyle 2000 initiative in the 1990s. It was concerned not only with new technology, but with new work practices such as flexible working, hot desking and hotelling.
Leavesden brings this thinking bang up to date. The 1240 staff will have a desk ratio of 5:4, reflecting the fact that most staff have a fairly conventional work pattern, but a significant minority are mobile. Wheeled lockers will take the place of conventional pedestals, while general building lockers will be used by some staff to alleviate the problem of coats and bags being left around the building (a real security issue). The Customer Centre, a controlled environment for visiting customers includes a business centre, a variety of meeting rooms, conference facilities with integrated audio-visual facilities, and a multi-media exhibition area.
The most obvious manifestation new thinking is the 'street' that links the buildings. Building on a concept pioneered by BA, Leavesden’s street contains not only the main restaurant (with many wired up network points), but coffee bars, a touchdown centre for short-term work use, a shop and a cash machine. This last item reflects a reality of business park life: they are not normally near town centres.
The building has much more, however. Not only is there a gym, but for the less politically correct, both a smoking room and an outdoor smokers' shelter. There is also an onsite travel co-ordinator to arrange car sharing, shuttle busses from local stations and to aid cyclists and bus users. The co-ordinator is able to organise discount deals and given that BT Ignite's most long distance commuter travels from the Isle of Man this is no trivial job.
Also reflecting the distance from shopping, a home-shopping-from-work service will allow staff to have groceries delivered to the office at the end of the working day.
Some of the pressure will be taken off these services as MEPC builds out the scheme, and progress will also deliver more green space, and will bring a supermarket, a crèche and a bank.
But the bulk of the challenge faced by BT Ignite's facilities team will be inside its own complex: although only a small number of staff will work outside office hours, Leavesden is a fully 24/7 building. A fully integrated cabling system and infrastructure to support all currently foreseeable technological advances allows centralised and efficient service delivery to staff and customers.
© Ian Cundell 2002