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CREATING THE OFFICE OF THE FUTURE
HOW TO MAKE YOUR OFFICE SMARTER
2 | Creating the office of the future
“The Edge” was developed by the Dutch real estate
developer OVG Real Estate on behalf of the auditing
and consulting company Deloitte, and knowledge wor-
kers can freely choose where they prefer to work: at
an available desk, in an inviting lounge area or even
in a massage chair. Via an in-house smartphone app
you can adjust the immediate office environment accor-
ding to your preferences: it lets you control the lighting
and air-conditioning and you can project presentations
from your notebook directly on a large video screen, In
“The Edge”, it takes but a few clicks to create a perfect
work atmosphere.
This structural freedom does not stop with the office
equipment: employee assessments are exclusively ba-
sed on the quality of their projects and their work. Where
that work has been carried out is completely secondary
– whether it was inside the office building, on the sofa
at home or in the city park of Amsterdam. The result is all
that counts.
At present, most of the roughly 17 million Germans who
work in an office can only dream of such working con-
ditions. Although you can frequently read about similar
concepts in official company or start-up publications –
if you look around in medium-sized enterprises you will
mostly find individually assigned workplaces in open-
plan offices. Instead of an indoor climate that can be in-
dividually adjusted, there are often heated discussions
among colleagues as to how far or how long a window
may stay open. Will smart work and office concepts, as
realized in “The Edge” or in the offices of Google and Fa-
cebook, continue to be the exception to the rule? As far
as the experts at Fraunhofer Institute of Labour Econo-
mics and Organization (IAO) are concerned, the answer
is, „No.“ Medium-sized companies are just as much af-
fected by the changing work environment. Given the im-
pact of the digital shift on all areas of life and work, why
should it stop at the doors of small and medium-sized
companies? “To remain competitive, it is both crucial and
timely to create appropriate structures inside all compa-
nies which enable flexible forms of work,” says Stefan
Rief, Head of the Fraunhofer IAO Competence Center in
Stuttgart.
But how can a medium-sized business create these agile
structures? How can small and mid-sized companies keep
up with office buildings such as “The Edge”? We want to
address these issues on the following pages. We will be-
gin by looking at what distinguishes smart work concepts
such as that designed for “The Edge” and – against this
backdrop – examine the role of documents in the future
office. This should give you a better idea of where to start
making your work smarter and more flexible – as a mana-
ging director, department head or employee.
If you happen to work in “The Edge” in Amsterdam, NL, you can call yourself happy: it’s one of the world’s most modern office buildings with all workplaces offering maximum comfort.
TAKE A GLIMPSE AT THE OFFICE OF THE FUTURE
3 | Creating the office of the future
One thing is clear: We will all (still have to) go to the
office in the future but with one salient difference: com-
pulsory attendance will be dropped, according to Stefan
Rief from Fraunhofer IAO. “Knowledge work will be cha-
racterized by greater flexibility in the future,“ says Rief.
“We will have more choices to decide when and where
we are going to carry out our work– whether in a typical
office, a home office or even at so-called third places
which include co-working centers.”, Rief has been stu-
dying the effects of the digital conversion on the office
and working atmosphere for many years. According to
him, a trusted workplace will also gain in significance,
in addition to trust-based working hours. This assump-
tion is supported by a representative survey conducted
by the trade association BITKOM among 1,500 managing
directors and human resources managers of companies
from all industries. Every fourth enterprise (24%) ex-
pects that the typical office workplace with compulsory
attendance will become less important in the future. At
the same time, almost every third business company
(30%) assumes that home offices will gain in importan-
ce. So how about today? According to a long-term survey
conducted by Fraunhofer IAO, the majority of those in-
terviewed are already working autonomously in terms of
time. More than half of them are allowed to decide when
exactly a particular job shall be carried out. As far as the
choice of workplace is concerned, however, there are
still many restrictions. The Fraunhofer researchers also
found that flexibility and productivity directly correlate
with each other.
According to Fraunhofer IAO, 20% of all those interviewed are very satisfied with their working environment and another 42% are rather satisfied. Source: Fraunhofer IAO
fully agree
rather disagree
somewhat agree partly agree
not agree at all
Open spaces, modern IT equipment, mobile processes: the office as a place to work is gradually evolving and getting smarter. What matters in this respect is not only stylish office furniture but also a holistically planned and, above all, flexible office setting.
MORE THAN JUST FANCY OFFICE FURNITURE: THE COMPONENTS OF A SMART OFFICE
4 | Creating the office of the future
As Rief recalls, “Our study showed that self-sufficient wor-
king conditions do have a positive effect on many areas of
working and private life. If you can individually design your
job profile, you will improve your work-life balance and ex-
perience a higher motivation and better performance.” At
the same time, Rief points out that this won’t signal the
end of the typical office. Examples like “The Edge” de-
monstrate that – depending on the situation and the pro-
ject – the employees working there still need a place whe-
re they can directly communicate with their colleagues or
work together in a focused manner. These are conditions
you won’t find at your kitchen table at home or at any other
alternative location. Therefore, home offices and the like
will not replace the office as we know it. Instead, these so-
lutions will provide employees with new opportunities to
interlink work and everyday life – i.e. they extend the office
as a place to work. The way you structure the office environ-
ment is therefore a significant lever to improve productivity
and employee satisfaction.
However, according to the same study, there is potential for
improvement in many companies: Only about 20% of the
employees interviewed are really satisfied with their cur-
rent office environment. As far as the structural design of
their working and office environment is concerned, nearly
40% of them still see enormous potential for optimization.
“The Edge” in Amsterdam is considered to be the most advanced office building in the world (OVG Real Estate).
5 | Creating the office of the future
These findings are also backed by the study “Employee
Commitment and Workplaces of the World” for which
Steelcase and Ipsos have interviewed 12,480 office wor-
kers from 17 countries. The result: on a global scale, only
13% of the employees are highly motivated, in Germany
only 12%. Particularly noticeable: While in Great Britain
approximately 49% of all offices have an open design,
only about 19% do in Germany. Especially for mid-sized
businesses it would be worth investing more in an appe-
aling working and office environment in order to attract
and retain qualified employees.
Making office work more flexible, however, implies more
than just purchasing fancy office furniture. As Rief points
out, flexibility relies on the seamless interaction of three
factors. “Really making office work smart involves an
ideal interplay between spatial conditions, appropriate
technologies and the company’s mindset.” Establishing
flexible working methods must therefore become part
of the corporate culture which means the right mindset
must evolve. This is no small objective since changing a
proven method is never easy, even though it can be very
worthwhile.So what are the opportunities for you as an
employee or manager to make your working environment
smarter? When confronting your superior with the idea of
acquiring lounge furniture in order to intensify informal
exchanges, the matter of costs is likely to come up. That
said, you can still say goodbye to traditional working me-
thods – even if these are only small steps at first.
Start with the processes in your sphere of influence and
question them: Are the established processes in your de-
partment really up-to-date? Do they allow flexible, colla-
borative ways of working? Would new solutions be more
cost-efficient? Whether you’re the manager or an emplo-
yee – you won’t be able to change the corporate culture
all on your own or within a month, nor can you motivate
changes by by making them compulsory. But if you jointly
start questioning existing processes and attitudes, you
will automatically change your working method and thus,
inch by inch, the corporate culture as well … and not
necessarily for the worse!
“To make office work smart involves the interaction of spatial conditions, appropriate technologies and the company’s mindset.”Stefan Rief, head of the Fraunhofer IAO Competence Center in Stuttgart
6 | Creating the office of the future
Hardly a working day goes by without being occupied
with e-mails. Whether it’s on the move on your mobile, on
a tablet or in front of your computer – e-mails seem to be
our communication media of choice, especially in ever-
yday business. The technology-focused market research
company The Radicati Group estimates that ca. 205.6 bil-
lion e-mails are being sent and received per day. Even
if you deduct the enormous amount of unwanted spam
mails from this number (between 80% and 90%), each
person receives several e-mails every day. We become
particularly aware of this when we return from a holiday
to a totally clogged-up inbox. But how could e-mail beco-
me so incredibly successful? Obviously because what we
want to communicate reaches business partners within
seconds – no matter where that person may be. Often
we even get a read confirmation. An e-mail is sent out
fast, easily and for free. Yet it is not really an ideal com-
munication medium to help establish flexible and smart
working methods. In fact, e-mail communication has se-
vere drawbacks including security issues. If an e-mail is
sent out unencrypted, it has the same security level of a
postcard. What’s more, due to the flood of e-mails, it is
very likely that business-critical statements or figures are
discovered too late or not at all. This can easily create
problems, especially in a location-independent working
world. Let’s assume you’re sharing a project with a col-
league who’s in the office while you’re working in your
home office: it can be truly discouraging if that colleague
doesn’t immediately respond to an e-mail you consider
urgent. Communication is vital for greater job flexibility.
Collaboration tools or workflow solutions provide an ef-
ficient remedy to this problem, enabling a clean separa-
tion line between official business communication and a
quick exchange among colleagues. They offer functions
we know from messenger services, providing a faster and
more direct exchange with colleagues than by e-mail. Yet
e-mails are just one example that shows how collabora-
tion in companies can be improved. Let’s look at working
on a client project: whether it concerns product require-
ments or orders, status reports, delivery documents or
contracts – during a project, numerous documents are
created which have to be passed around, edited by va-
rious persons and finally filed in a way that they can be
quickly retrieved from anywhere. In a flexible working en-
vironment, your inbox or a random file on a server may
not be the most appropriate place.
The office of the future is above all flexible. However, how people communicate and accessibility to information are central to establishing flexible working methods. This is why you should challenge established technologies and procedures because they don’t always help you in reaching your goal, as the following e-mail example illustrates.
FLEXIBLE VS. FIXED: ENCOURAGING COLLABORATION
7 | Creating the office of the future
Workflow solutions or digital customer files which im-
prove responsiveness are clearly a better solution. They
enable you to safely and centrally file and administrate
business-relevant information: with electronic busi-
ness partner files, sales employees, customer or ser-
vice staff can evaluate a client-relevant situation and
provide specific information within a very short time.
These two examples show which issues can be addres-
sed by companies if they want to design smarter wor-
king methods.
Cooperation with colleagues or external agencies, ser-
vice providers or customers is becoming more import-
ant in a hyper-flexible working environment. Ask your-
self: Do the currently implemented solutions ensure an
efficient exchange between all the persons involved in
the process? And do the tools and processes that are
applied actually meet the requirements of the respecti-
ve department with regard to an advanced information
management? Is all vital information always available?
Since most of the business-critical processes in your
company are based on documents, managing docu-
ment processes offers a high potential for making work
more flexible. KYOCERA offers you the possibility to
carry out a self-check and find out just how good your
information processes are. Within 15 minutes you will
get an assessment report outlining where there is room
for improvement in your department or your company.
More teamwork – collaboration will characterize work in the future
8 | Creating the office of the future
The Building Research Establishment (BREEAM) (agency
for sustainable real estate) awarded “The Edge” with a
98.36% positive rating. The highest mark ever rewarded
an office building. Located directly on the Amsterdam
beltway, “The Edge” was designed by Dutch real estate
developer and investor OVG Real Estate for the corpora-
te consulting company Deloitte. They worked closely to-
gether to achieve the best results. The south side of the
building is equipped with highly efficient solar panels
which produce more energy than needed for the more
than 1,000 employees working there.
Furthermore, it’s the first office building in the world
equipped with the innovative office lighting system “Po-
wer-over-Ethernet“ (PoE) from Philips. This networked
system combines comprehensive light management
software with intelligent, PoE-compatible LED luminaires
which are integrated into the IT network. What’s more,
the building is able to continually document and adjust
its energy consumption according to individual user
needs by means of efficient technologies. However, even
if “The Edge” sets new standards in terms of eco-friend-
liness – hard to achieve by medium-sized businesses
– one thing becomes crystal clear: Environmental sus-
tainability will definitely be an issue in the office of the
future. Another Fraunhofer IAO study on “Green Offices”,
issued in 2014, reports that most companies and, above
all their executives, are well aware of this topic and wil-
ling to take eco-friendly measures, although there is still
a lot to be done on a nation-wide basis. But especially
small and medium-sized businesses have the opportuni-
ty to considerably push their economic efficiency with
appropriate concepts and heighten their attractiveness
in the eyes of their staff as well as job applicants. There
are several approaches worth mentioning here. In addti-
on to commuting to work in an eco-friendly manner using
things like job tickets or parking lots reserved for car-sha-
ring, it is also possible to create reward systems to limit
the use of energy and resources as well as nurturing en-
vironmentally responsible behaviour through communi-
cation. Another aspect which is frequently addressed in
any discussion about “green” office structures is how to
cut paper consumption. The “Green Offices” study also
revealed that most companies have already taken steps
aimed at reducing paper consumption. While this seems
to be common practice, today’s offices still can’t func-
tion completely paperless. Nonetheless, a few compa-
nies have managed to go pretty far in their transition to
digital working methods. One of those is Connox GmbH
in Hannover, Germany. As managing director, Thilo Haas
recalls, “The conversion of processes takes time and ac-
tually starts in the preparation phase. We started by ana-
lyzing all existing paper-based document management
processes.
“The Edge” in Amsterdam is not only an office building with the latest technology. It is also the world’s most sustainable one. This high-tech complex spans over 40,000 square meters and proves that the topic of environmental friendliness extends beyond energy savings to also provide users an attractive workplace.
GREEN IS ACTUALLY SMARTER: THE OFFICE OF THE FUTURE IS ECO-FRIENDLY TOO
9 | Creating the office of the future
You have to critically examine the situations where prin-
ting something is unavoidable. We were really surprised
just how many individual work steps are involved in, let’s
say, an incoming invoice. This is necessary, however, if
you want to identify at which points you can save paper.”
Again, if you intend to scale back paper consumption,
you will have to question established procedures. The ex-
ample of Connox shows that paperless work can only be
achieved by making structural changes to existing proces-
ses. This means that if saving on paper is all you want to
accomplish, you will very likely fail – just like setting up a
table soccer on a department floor won’t really heighten
the feel-good factor in the office. This is confirmed by Thilo
Haas as well, “The most important step in the conversion
process was one of a psychological nature. We had to raise
the awareness of our employees first. The concept of truly
reflecting reflect is a document really needs to be printed
has to “click” in the mind of every colleague.” Of course,
Connox is not an isolated example of advancing digital do-
cument processes. About 25% of all German companies
already rely on digital correspondence, and 40% intend to
increasingly shift to digital communication in the near fu-
ture. This is confirmed by a representative survey done by
Bitkom Research. “A company which digitalizes all docu-
ments is able to operate more efficiently”, says Jürgen Bif-
far, head of Bitkom’s competence area ECM. “Classic mail
generates undue costs for companies as well as for the
environment. These costs can be considerably lowered by
applying digital document management solutions.”
Digitalizing documents (e.g., scanning)
Process control/process management (e.g., invoice approval)
Archiving and document management (e.g., electronic files)
Output management (e.g., generating documents)
Business collaboration (e.g., virtual team rooms, panels, portals, etc.)
Cross-divisional search for company information
Automated detection of incoming documents and information
For which of the following fields of activity does your company already use
or is planning to use software to organize office and administrative processes?
Many roads lead to the digital office
In use
Envisaged
Companies with more than 20 employees | Source: Bitkom Research
10 | Creating the office of the future
Compulsory rules are certainly the wrong approach to
bring about change. However well-intentioned, a spe-
cific measure such as our example above of the table
soccer idea can create pressure which inevitably leads
to resistance and denial. The road to the office of the fu-
ture will only be successful if it can be co-designed by
all. This may sound trivial but introducing a new, colla-
borative and flexible working environment is nothing
short of changing the corporate culture. The bad news
is that this cannot be achieved overnight. It takes time
and patience from all those involved – no matter if it’s a
manager or employee. But the good news is that culture
is then created by the entire staff. Therefore, everybody
has a chance to make an impact. But how can you im-
plement this change in individual departments or across
an entire company? The easiest way is probably to set up
a cross-functional team of employees from different de-
partments. Individual team members should see them-
selves as an ambassador of their department and jointly
discuss all existing processes: How are single workflows
initiated? Are the tools and solutions that are used the
right ones? Where is room for improvement regarding
communication, collaboration and organization? In sum-
mary: Which changes does the company need, and how
can these changes be implemented? It’s not just the
current employees who will benefit. In view of the demo-
graphic and digital shift, companies in the “traditional”
part of the economy will have to address the issues of a
better work-life balance, flexible work concepts and ope-
rating scopes in order to meet the expectations of skil-
led employees. The issue of the workplace of the future
is not just about trendy feel-good strategies. Rather, it is
a matter of making all processes and structures as well
as the corporate culture future-proof. Should you crui-
se the Amsterdam beltway anytime soon and pass the
glistening facade of “The Edge”, just remember that the
office of the future involves more than just an attractively
designed exterior or interior. Instead, it’s about the tri-
ad of architecture, technology and mindset. The office
of the future is a long term objective that will take time
to develp. But many offices are already well on their way
to getting smarter. And don’t forget that you can indeed
contribute to making your working environment more agi-
le, more flexible and more sustainable. For more informa-
tion about creating a smarter office, you can also check
our e-books “How to make your business processes more
agile with digital workflows” and “How much DMS do you
need? Information management on the test bench”.
IT STARTS WITH A CHANGE IN MINDSET: NEW APPROACHES PAVE THE WAY TO THE OFFICE OF THE FUTURE
This applies to executives as well as to employees. It is very easy to champion change but incomparably more complex to get it done. So how can you succeed in bringing your colleagues and superiors further on the path to the office of the future?
11 | Creating the office of the future
Kyocera Document Solutions headquartered in Osaka, Japan is a leading manufacturer of document imaging solutions
and document management systems, including colour and monochrome multifunctional products and printers and
wide format devices. Kyocera’s products are renowned for their unique long-life imaging components that provide grea-
ter reliability and less waste — resulting in a lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) over the life of the product.
The Kyocera Document Solutions portfolio does not stop at hardware. A full suite of business applications and consul-
tative services allow customers to optimize and manage their document workflow, unleashing the full potential of their
hardware investment. Kyocera Document Solutions Inc. is a core company of Kyocera Corporation, the world‘s leading
developer and manufacturer of advanced ceramics and associated products, including telecommunications equipment,
semiconductor packages and electronic components.
ABOUT KYOCERA DOCUMENT SOLUTIONS