Siemens Equips Singapore Office with its Smart Workplace Technology to Enable Hybrid Working Model
Siemens Pte Ltd has equipped its Singapore office at Siemens Center with its Smart Workplace solutions. This supports a safe return to the workplace for over 650 employees during the current pandemic and lays the foundation for more agile and future-oriented working.
The integrated mobile app by Siemens-owned Comfy combines location, usage and building data with a wide range of features to connect employees to their office environment. The app administrators can define the daily occupancy limits, to comply with the government’s work-in-office and Safe Management Measures at the workplace. The Smart Workplace solution is built on a foundation of intelligent IoT sensors by Enlighted Inc, a company acquired by Siemens in 2018.
When integrated with the Comfy app, the sensor technology will enable employees to check the occupancy rate in the office and book a desk or meeting room, based on predefined thresholds. Through this, employees can register their intention to work in the office, receive company-related updates, use indoor navigation, locate co-workers and submit facility issues to the Facilities Management or sanitation team. Furthermore, the app is integrated with the Land Transport Authority’s open-source platform, Land Transport Data Mall, allowing users to get real-time bus arrival information.
“The COVID-19 situation has not eased so we need to continue to be vigilant. Our priority is to protect our people. By rolling out our Smart Workplace solutions, we can provide more information to our employees, to help them make informed decisions about whether to return to the office or not, and if they do, they can do so with a peace of mind,” said Dr Thai-Lai Pham, CEO of Siemens ASEAN. “This way, the application is also supporting our new mobile working model which allows employees to work from home or wherever they are most productive two to three days a week.”
The Intelligent Workplace Platform also provides a dashboard of historical, current and future data of employees returning to the office, eliminating a manual and time-consuming tracking process. Comfy offers in-depth analytics in the form of dashboards and reports that provides insights on how spaces are being used, enabling a smarter, data-driven strategy for real estate right-sizing This allows organisations to better maximise their space through redundant space management, leading to significant operational cost savings.
Siemens is currently deploying its Smart Workplace solution in about 600 locations, with the aim of making the solution available to 100,000 employees in 30 countries. The initiative is in line with the global “New Normal Working Model” announced in July last year, which was a result of a worldwide survey where employees confirmed their desire for greater flexibility and personalised solutions in the way they work.