The days where the term ‘optimal workplace’ was synonymous only with efficient utilisation of space and cost-effective building management are long gone. Of course, these things still matter. However, having worked alongside many leading companies over the past decade, we have had a front-row seat where we’ve watched the thinking around what makes an optimal workspace change.

Today, Building and Facility Managers are under increasing pressure to create a work environment that is not only efficient, but is one in which employees feel comfortable, and that fosters productivity.

At a time where the competition for top talent is at an all-time high and many businesses are aware of the significant cost associated with staff turnover and unproductive employees, Building Managers are under pressure from HR and the Executive Team to do their part in lifting employee satisfaction and retention.

As a result, real estate and facility management technology has also had to adapt. Leading solutions in the field now pay increasing attention to the human element instead of just focusing on spaces and assets. To learn more about all of this, I caught up with Mark Williams from Australian-based Building Insights experts, TRIXi. I asked Mark about the changing demands placed on Building Managers and how IBM's Integrated Workplace Management Solution TRIRIGA can help address some of these challenges. Here is what I learnt.

Mark, tell me a bit about the changes you have seen in regards to workplace management and the role that people play.

I think it has been an exciting time for many Building Managers as well as Senior Operations Professionals and CFOs in organisations with significant property aspects to their business. With millennials now well and truly in the workforce, the expectations that employees have when it comes to their work environment have changed significantly.

Today's workforce, especially the younger workers, are hardworking and smart, but they are also harder to keep happy. They want to focus on the tasks at hand and expect the buildings they work in to support them in that. They have little patience for things going wrong or things that require significant amount of time to learn. They are used to technology seamlessly working for them in their personal lives, and they expect the same in the work environment. Perhaps most importantly, they know what's possible with technology these days. They expect that leading organisations do so too, and are motivated to leverage those possibilities.

In other words, attracting and retaining top talent means organisations need to create work environments that are comfortable, support productivity, leverage novel technology and to put it simply, just work.

Thank you, that is very interesting and also aligns closely with what we have seen among our Certus customers. I know you guys at TRIXi are considered to be the TRIRIGA experts in Australasia.

Tell me a bit more about this IBM workplace management solution, and specifically how it helps address these new challenges around people.

The great thing about TRIRIGA is that it is an integrated, all-in-one solution to manage your real estate and workplaces. It has all the workspace and asset management capabilities that modern Building Managers and CFOs are looking for. On top of that, TRIRIGA has several great features that are targeted at improving the everyday lives of your employees to help them be more productive, more comfortable and happier. These features include things like:

1. The Reserve Module that allows employees to reserve rooms, catering, equipment and anything else that might require booking. The smart backend technology makes sure that reservations are removed when no one shows up to claim them, so they are available again to others.
2. The ability to request location moves for individuals or entire teams and for the system to work out the most efficient way to ensure everyone can work from a comfortable and convenient space.
3. The ability for employees to easily log maintenance or repair requests.
4. The ability to give people GPS direction, not just to the building or site but also within them.
5. Intuitive mobile interfaces that give employees easy access to TRIRIGA from anywhere.

On top of that, employees also directly benefit from the other TRIRIGA capabilities even if they never touch them and often don't even know they exist. By having a powerful, integrated system to optimise the work environment and plan and manage maintenance work, employees are less likely to find their days disrupted by malfunctioning equipment or the inefficient use of workspaces.

Thanks Mark. I can absolutely see the benefits of all that. I know from my own experience how disruptive it can be when something as simple as booking a room takes much effort or when the printer runs out of ink just when I need to print something urgently.

It's great to see that there are solutions like TRIRIGA that help businesses fully leverage technology to create better, more productive and more comfortable workspaces for their people.

If you would like to learn more about IBM’s TRIRIGA and how it can help keep your people happy and productive, as well as better manage your spaces and assets, then check out our on-demand tech talk in which I ask Mark and my Certus colleague Michael Cahir more questions about the system and its benefits.

Watch our tech talk to learn more

If you would like to learn more about IBM’s TRIRIGA and how it can help keep your people happy and productive, as well as better manage your spaces and assets, then check out our on-demand tech talk in which I ask Mark and my Certus colleague Michael Cahir more questions about the system and its benefits.