Accenture 360 Customer Story June2011

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Houston,we have a solution

Accenture’s new Houston oce

launches the company’s innovative

global workplace strategy.

Planning Research Design Corporation, Houston, TX

McCoy Workplace Solutions, Houston, TX

Steelcase Applied Research and Consulting

A Threesixty Publication

360.steelcase.com

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES SPRING 2011



360.steelcase.com Houston, we have a solution °2

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES SPRI N G 2 0 1 1

The nature o their work was

changing, becoming more

collaborative and mobile,and Accenture consultants

were working just about

everywhere it seemed, except

in their oce. “In our previous

location, you would see people

reserve an oce, and there

would never be a person in

the oce. And the briecase,

and the PC, and the coat hadone o the best views in town,”

says Bill Mearse, Houston

location managing director.

Like other companies, Accenture wanted

to address the empty oce issue, but

they wanted to do more. The workplace,

they reasoned, should exempliy the high

perormance the company is known or,

and actually help people attain higher

levels o perormance. So they developed

a global strategy, and rolled it out in areinvigorated Houston oce. It’s a workplace

that’s dramatically boosted communication,

collaboration, networking, and mentoring,

as well as productivity. Improving an already

well unctioning oce started with a strategic

view o the company’s business.

“When most organizations pull a workplace

strategy together, it really has a real estate

ocus. We aligned our overall business

strategy, our human capital, real estate, and

technology strategies very closely and pulled

all o those together into a comprehensive

strategy, grounded on what we call the 4 Es:

eciency, eectiveness, engagement o our

people, and environmental responsibility,”

says Dan Johnson, Accenture’s global

director, corporate real estate workplace.

Accenture prides itsel on its ecient use

o real estate – it started hotelling more

than a dozen years ago – but what sets

their workplace strategy apart is its holistic

approach. Instead o simply using smaller

workstation ootprints and other typical

approaches to increase density, the Houston

workplace is both smaller and harder

working, providing new spaces and new

ways or workers to use them.

Accenture engaged Steelcase Applied

Research and Consulting (ARC) to help align

their business and real estate strategies,

assess their existing work environment, and

provide recommendations or optimizing

work experience or Accenture sta. ARC

worked closely with the design team, led

Lauri Goodman Lampson, principal, Plan

Design Research Corporation (PDRC). “W

worked simultaneously, so while we were

digging into the existing data and space

utilization gures, the ARC consultantswere having detailed interviews with a cro

section o senior executives and others o

the sta,” she recalls.

“ARC helped build a very strategic approa

early on in the process. They conducted

workshops with our executives and other

in the workorce, did a lot o observation

studies. It’s more valuable to get an exter

point o view than to rely on our own eye

or maybe survey data that tends to be not

always quite as accurate as an external p

o view,” says Johnson.

Houston, we have a solution





PDRC’s Lampson concurs. “It’s dicult

to articulate how you work. That’s why it’s

important that ARC had in-depth interviews,

took observation photos, and watched

how people work, in order to validate work

processes and the ways people really get

their work done.”

ARC uncovered what Johnson calls “a

signicant mismatch between how people

were working in our oces and how they

wanted to work. Our space was ocused on

individual work, when in act people wanted

to work together much more collaboratively.”

ARC suggested ways to increase collabora-

tion and knowledge sharing, and how to

build community among the Houston-based

workorce, strategies that were used in the

programming process to help develop thedesign o the space.

The new Houston oce is a transormed

workplace. Three foors o real estate

have been reduced to just one. A work

environment that primarily supported

individual work is now a workplace o open,

semi-enclosed and enclosed collaborative

workspaces and, acknowledging a highly

mobile workorce that spends many days on

the road with clients, there is one seat or

every eight workers.

To make the most o Accenture workers’ time

together in the oce, the urniture, tools,

technology, and space are fexible by design.

“Every space is multi-unctional,” notes

Lampson, “and will accommodateone to two or more individuals working

together. It’s a pretty progressive shit that

Accenture embraced.”

The shit was driven in part by a workorce

that itsel is changing. “About 55% o our

workorce is Gen Y, about 40% is Gen X,

and the rest are baby boomers. So we’re

a very young organization, technologically

aware, and people come to the organization

expecting to leverage the best tools and

technology. There’s a dierent expectation

about how they work,” says Johnson. “We

want to make sure it’s a very engaging

experience, and that people learn something

by being here that they wouldn’t know by not

being here.”

Given those parameters –open and

collaborative, multi-unctional, leveraging

the best tools and technology, a learning

environment– Accenture uses c:scape to

create open workstations, including benching

applications, “because o the ecient

ootprint. It allowed us to get a air number

o seats into a relatively small area,” says

Josey Duke, director o acilities & services.Lampson likes c:scape’s versatility. “The

bench application enables a group o people

working together, as well as individuals

working autonomously.” Accenture’s

smaller, non-dedicated workspaces are

made possible because workers usually

need dierent spaces during their time

in the oce. They move rom bench to

enclosed space to caé to lounge area. Their

work weaves between meetings, inormal

collaborations, quick asides, and ocused,

personal work sessions.

“Our brand is about

high perormance...

being smart, innovati

collaborative, exib

and pragmatic. This

ofce encourages tho

kinds o behaviors.”— Dan Johnson

Global Director, Corporate Real Esta

Accenture

Accenture consultants are highly mobile and shit e

between ocused individual work and collaboration

c:scape urniture in a benching application suppor

both workstyles in a minimum ootprint. Nearby gla

ront rooms oer privacy or calls, conerences, etc

Then

800 workers

3 foors

66,000 t2

surplus space thatallowed space“ownership”

90% individualworkspace

The AccentureWorkplace Strategy

Now

800 workers

1 foor

25,000 t2

1 seat / 8 workers

90% shared,unassigned, andcollaborative spaces

Space that works at least twice as hard





Collaboration spaces abound. From casual

lounge areas to reservable small rooms

or groups and a caé with a variety ocollaborative spaces, Accenture workers are

never ar rom a place to create, share, and

evaluate inormation and ideas.

media:scape is a key tool or knowledge

sharing. Workers simply plug a cable into their

laptops and press a Puck to share inormation

on the screen. “In order to acilitate really

engaging collaborations, we needed a

technology solution that would bring people

together in small groups and allow them to

share inormation. This really transorms

collaboration into a more interactive and true

working session,” says Duke.

The entire workplace is a shit, a new oce

built or new ways o working. Since this

oce would test strategies that Accenture

would use in other oce around the world,

the stakes were high. Accenture recognized

the gravitas the change would have on the

company, and measured the impact on the

organizational culture. “We did a lot o work

to look at what was happening not only here

in Houston but also in many oces around

the world, to make sure we had our nger onthe pulse o what the real workplace issues

and opportunities were,” says Johnson.

“We wanted to dramatically increase connec-

tion and collaboration between our teams, to

positively impact productivity, and to actually

change the culture. We were successul on

all counts, and more importantly, this was

accomplished in an oce that was perorming

very well in the old workplace,” notes Johnson.

“To see increases in collaboration and com-

munication o more than 25% is astounding”

says Johnson. What pleases him even more

is that Accenture staers eel that leadership

is more visible and approachable than

beore. “And not just a little more visible, but

substantially more so. This metric increased

by 41%, and that’s huge because, in an

organization that’s more than hal Gen Y

workers, we want to encourage mentoring

and knowledge sharing between senior and

younger sta.”

media:scape collaborative technology (back

right) and a oursome o i2i chairs in the

multi-use Accenture caé. “It’s not just a

lunchroom. It’s a place where individual or

group work can happen,” says Josey Duke,

director o acilities and services.

Glass walled oces complete with storage,

integrated technology, and movable urniture

are used on a scheduled or drop-in basis bysmall groups or by workers who need a place

to call their own.

Accenture’s Houston oce shows

marked increases in communication

and collaboration, surpassing

leadership expectations. An

Accenture consulting executive says

“the new environment promotes a

more positive atmosphere, which

is conducive to collaboration and

sharing o ideas. The technology is

very helpul in working together. The

client interest in what we have done

has been astonishing. The oce is

really a tool now.”

Collaboration and Communication Categ

5.91

5.98

6.02

6.06

5.99

5.92

7.82

7.75

7.71

7.55

+

+

+

+

+

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Interaction with Clients and Customers

Networking and Mentoring

Impromptu Collaboration

Collaboration with Team members

Overall Results

Previous New





The Houston oce “certainly exceeded my

optimistic expectations,” says Johnson. “The

Accenture brand is something that’s always

been represented by high perormance.

We think about our personality being

smart, innovative, collaborative, fexible,

and pragmatic. And I think this oce really

encourages those kinds o behaviors.”

Managing director Bill Mearse says

Accenture’s clients will benet, too. “We can

be more productive, thus we can give our

clients better service at a lower cost, and we

all become high perormance organizations

as a result.”

PRODUCTS

Steelcase® c:scape® freestanding system, media:scap

collaborative furniture and technology

cobi® and i2i™ collaborative seating, Think ® task sea

Duo™ storage, and RoomWizard® room scheduling sy

Coalesse Bix™ workbooths and Circa™ modular seat

Details Walkstation and SOTO LED lighting

Designtex surface materials

A popular spot or inormal work sessions, quiet talks,

and consultations, a Bix workbooth is a comortable

space or two to our people. “A lot o those people are

consultants, so they’re not in the oce all the time. This

is really a destination or them and we want to make

sure it provides a mix o work settings and allows them

to have experiences when they come here that they

wouldn’t have in a traditional oce,” says Johnson.

An Accenture staer uses a Walkstation while workin

on his laptop. Younger workers were the rst to take

it; now all ages enjoy an energizing stroll while doing

the same work they would do while seated. Only the

ootwear changes.

“It’s a great, fexible space to work

and engage with coworkers,” says

an Accenture consulting executive

o the new oce. Big increases in

how well the workplace refects the

company’s cultural and core values,

promotes a sense o community,

and makes leadership more visible

and approachable, plus improve-

ments in productivity and qualityo work, demonstrate how the new

Accenture workplace works harder

than the previous one —and in nearly

two-thirds less real estate.

Productivity and Quality of Work: Category

6.42

6.58

7.09

6.70

7.16

7.4

7.6

7.3

+12%

+13%

+7%

+10%

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Facilitate Continuous Learning

Develop Innovative Solution s

Produce Quality Work

Overall Results

Previous New

Design and Expression: Category

6.28

6.98

6.58

5.65

6.12

8.00

7.73

7.5

7.96

7.74

+27%

+29%

+14%

+41%

+27%

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Culture and Core Values

Sense of Communit y

Balance of Spac e

Visible and Approachable Leadership

Overall Result s

Previous New

Documents

Accenture 360 Customer Story June2011