The fourth utility

THE problem with technology is that its physical demands and requirements, especially in an ever wireless, Bluetooth and portable world, are often not given real consideration. But when you’re building, retrofitting or redesigning a new office, you need to plan for digital infrastructure just as you would electricity, water or gas. Connectivity is the fourth utility – and arguably the most important in the modern workplace.

And the key to success is the bigger the better when planning fibre internet connectivity for workspace, to future-proof great performance. Fibre contracts are generally 36 months, so it is necessary to have a clear view of the likely needs of your building tenants when placing the order. This realisation is now becoming better understood, which is why we have seen a sharp rise in clients ordering 10Gb/sec lines – accounting for 10% of total orders over the past 12 months. Without the Covid lull, this trend would be stronger still, possibly three times higher.

In a new development, one of the biggest hold-ups is not being connected; yet the cost, resource and impact of installation is something operators often do not foresee, as they do not naturally consider digital infrastructure when building and fitting out a new space. Fibre delivery is currently taking between eight and 12 weeks from survey to installation. Sometimes this is a simple job but it usually requires a wayleave agreement from the building owner and the involvement of a full range of contractors, adding to the programme time.

Why is this so important? With accelerated change in workplace culture, the growth of hybrid working and the rise of satellite offices in the war to retain and attract talent, high-performance connectivity is a necessity to enable a great user experience for workspace.

Wireless versus wired ports

It is very common to look around and see everyone around you connecting wirelessly, but in a flexible consistent high-performance internet is necessary – as it is for any realtime activity, such as video calls –cabling is still the most effective way to deliver this.

When designing the wireless infrastructure for a building, best practice is to conduct a ‘predictive survey’ at the design stage to determine where to situate access points, a revised survey in the ‘as-built’ stage to ascertain whether materials or walls have affected wireless effectiveness, followed by a ‘postinstallation’ survey to ensure optimal coverage and to remove any residual wireless black spots. Addressing wireless connectivity issues during the building’s construction or fitout phase is significantly easier than rectifying it later down the line.

SMART benefits

workspace or multi-user site, wired ports and cabling generally still have an important role to play. This is especially true for the rising number of corporate users in flexible workspace who generally have a requirement for wired cabling for at least their core infrastructure, if not more devices.

Wireless performance has hugely improved over the last couple of years but ultimately still lacks the reliability and speed of wired ports when it comes to device connectivity, so if

The majority of the machinery and equipment installed in buildings today will have SMART technology functions. With connectivity sorted, you can fully leverage SMART technology – and more importantly its benefits. The term ‘SMART’ refers to ‘self-monitoring, analysis and reporting technology’. It is a technology that uses artificial intelligence, machine learning and big-data analysis to provide cognitive awareness to objects that were in the past considered inanimate.

The ‘Smart Workplace Global Market Report 2021: Covid-19 Growth and Change’ projects that the smart workplace market will reach $53bn

(£41bn) by 2025 in the race to be more sustainable, support wellbeing and become carbon neutral. With ESG at the heart of the property agenda, one way to meet sustainability targets is through leveraging and monitoring this technology.

A great example of this is air conditioning units. SMART AC greatly reduces energy usage without compromising on cooling. In an office environment, once the desired cooling settings have been learnt, it will slow down as soon as the required temperature in the space has been achieved. Learning from individuals’ experience, it can also be targeted to specific areas. This means that it will not be consuming as much energy as it will not be working to full capacity at all times. Likewise, it can sync up with occupancy sensors and door entry systems, meaning that it is not in use when the building is empty.

Similarly, intelligent lighting can enable energy usage to be reduced by up to 80% based on occupancy, time of day, weather and seasonal changes. It can also adjust based on what is happening in the space and what is required. For the landlord or operator, data analytics on building usage and resulting energy usage enable them to take control. They can track energy consumed and even set limits to keep track of their bills.

All of these innovations add up to being able to offer solutions that connect and enable users to work smarter, better and more efficiently.

Digital infrastructure

Going into our clients’ offices, we are already seeing the future of the workplace materialising. This is no surprise when automation and the ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) are increasingly in common use. This goes beyond physical buildings and in today’s workplaces these technologies are used to improve the employee experience, unlocking their creativity.

Building operators compete to offer the best user experience and technology is at the heart of that, with innovations such as smart coffee machines that dispense baristastyle coffee at a click of the button, touchless door entry, digital booking screens outside meeting rooms and even robots acting as couriers.

In a multi-tenanted site, especially a flexible workspace the like of which we are specialist in, additional to connectivity to IoT and SMART tech, users need to be able to access secure and private connections.

Often there is a shared internet bandwidth service that all users can connect to. However, we are increasingly seeing a rise in larger corporate users, tech start-ups and businesses needing faster connections for working with larger files, high-quality video streaming and similar bandwidth-hungry activities. This provides operators with an opportunity to monetise bandwidth by selling dedicated connections to occupiers and gives their customers the quality of experience they require.

For the corporate user, this provides peace of mind as cybersecurity is front and centre of their operations and satisfies users requiring faster speeds. To deliver this within a shared building, it requires thorough planning, which is why cabling models are essential to ensure network traffic is not aggregated to avoid a cybersecurity breach.

Digital infrastructure is now central to the modern workplace, essential to provide the services that attract and retain tenants, manage the building itself and to deliver on those all-important ESG targets.