The Office Of The Future: Heat Mapping & Mi Insight
The workplace has changed significantly over the past 20 years in terms of the way we work and how the physical office, or lack thereof, looks. This shift was further impacted by COVID-19, forcing businesses to replace the traditional office with the likes of Agile Working and Activity Based Working.
Businesses have reimagined the physical office to focus on their employees, considering ways to improve communication and employee-wellbeing, maintain safety and increase productivity. Activity Based Working promotes those values by splitting the office into various zones, giving employees the freedom to choose where and how they work best.
Curious to know more? Find out what Activity Based Working is!
The office of the future requires businesses to go further. The adoption of video conferencing equipment and collaboration tools has called for more support. With tools such as heat mapping and Mi Insight, businesses can effectively manage spaces, creating a seamless experience in the office.
What Is Mi Insight?
Mi Insight is part of Midwich’s Mi Support package. It is a product-agnostic monitoring platform that actively monitors AV and UC systems around the clock. Essentially, its purpose is to identify and fix issues that arise before they affect the workings of your business. It’s more than a ticket alert to IT - Mi Insights sends automated responses to devices in a fault state to resolve issues.
The adoption of agile working means that AV equipment is distributed over various locations – from home, on the go and in the office. Mi Insight gives businesses full visibility with real-time identification and solutions. It lives on your AV network, constantly tracking health, status and usage. The cloud service collects this information from each piece of equipment and consolidates it into a single dashboard for easy viewing and management.
The dashboard ensures that businesses can see faults from every location. This is important as a fault located in one space could potentially affect another. Mi Insight helps businesses prioritise workload, identify and fix the issue quickly and even resolve the root of the problem, preventing the issue from arising again.
For example, in a meeting room or collaboration space, UC&C equipment may be connected to a cloud-based software codec such as Microsoft Teams or Zoom. Issues may arise from something as simple as an unplugged HDMI cable to more complex issues such as a rise in temperature that stops a system.
These issues are typically not caught on traditional IT network monitoring systems. Fixing these issues on-site can be costly and time-consuming. Mi Insight proactively monitors the systems before hardware issues arise. This eliminates human error within data and ensures that businesses feel confident to collaborate and communicate at any time of the day – increasing productivity and streamlining workflow.
Mi Insight is not only efficient but affordable too. Businesses can enjoy this software-as-a-service model at a low monthly cost.
What Is Heat Mapping?
Heat mapping helps businesses organise the office as efficiently as possible. It gives businesses access to real-time occupancy maps and utilisation data such as zone bookings and meeting room reservations. This data helps determine how the office is being used and how it can be improved.
This is especially important in the agile era where keeping safe and managing flexibility is key. Many meeting rooms are subject to ghost bookings. This means that employees book a meeting room but do not attend it, thus wasting valuable space. Heat mapping shows visibility and room booking solutions automatically release meeting rooms when no one shows up.
Heat mapping is effective for activity based working offices as it helps businesses determine the conditions of each space. It shows whether a space is overcrowded or underutilised – helping businesses to create a flexible office that works for everyone’s needs.
A world-leading audio brand Jabra has considered using heat mapping for noise. In their blog, they explore how headsets can gather intelligent data about the office sound environment. Businesses can use headsets to gather unbiased data in the workplace and capture information about the level of background noise.
Companies can analyse this data and create a detailed heat map of noise levels. Rather than striving to eliminate noise, businesses can rethink the workspace to relocate those noisy areas, perhaps into social zones or silent zones.
Case Study: Deloitte
Deloitte uses heat mapping in their offices by displaying digital wayfinding screens. Connected to sensors, it shows real-time availability and occupation levels of spaces. This is significant for agile working, allowing employees to gain insight into a space before physically entering. It also means that they can predict busy and quiet times, maintaining optimum comfort in the office.
Read more about how Deloitte transformed their workplace.
The workplace has changed and it requires solutions that support every worker in the office or remote, ensuring productivity and efficiency while maintaining connectivity and flexibility. Mi Insight can help businesses manage their systems with ease while heat mapping can help businesses optimise their space safely.
Head to our interactive portal to explore an activity based working office!
