“Wisp proved to be a valuable tool during Hurricane Sandy. The weekend prior to the storm, Facilities staff requested a report on the number of employees at each of the 21 locations in New York and New Jersey in order to determine the number that would be affected if a site was closed due to weather. We also reviewed vacancy reports for Northern NJ buildings to see which locations would be able to house the most associates until affected locations were back up and running.”
Upon loading its domestic portfolio into Wisp, 2.2 million square feet of unused space was revealed—equivalent to a 29% vacancy.
An international client with thousands of employees was struggling to manage its decentralized real estate portfolio. Each office was managing its space and occupancy independently, and the client believed that a real estate consolidation study might produce some savings.
A real estate consolidation study requires an up-to-date inventory of people and space. To achieve this, floor plans and data were loaded into Wisp— thus depicting the real estate supply and demand information required for the study.
Upon loading the domestic portfolio, 2.2 million square feet of unused space was revealed— equivalent to a 29% vacancy, and far exceeding expectations. In response, multiple consolidation projects were launched that impacted more than 36 buildings and 16,000 employees.
The information was also used to develop a mobility strategy. “Mobile working” was increased by 70%, while dispersed employees and offices were centralized (“smartshoring”). These changes have allowed the client to reduce space and cost, while retaining its most valuable asset—the employees.
Wisp continues to be the platform of choice to centralize the client’s real estate portfolio. Through strategic change management, Wisp was rolled out across all locations for consistent data capturing and reporting. The result is ongoing access to real time data for workplace strategy.
Gensler now has a master services agreement with the client and provides design and space and occupancy management for the whole portfolio.
