(pensive music)
- [Adam] Cisco's revamped New York office
is packed with technology.
There's tech that tracks.
- There's 5,000 individual data points
that are being constantly collected and harvested
in this facility.
- And tech use for collaboration.
Is there any space
in this office that doesn't have a camera?
- No, there isn't.
- [Adam] Cisco's smart office is both a showcase
of the company's technology and an example
of how it sees the workplace evolving.
So how does it look?
And more importantly, how does it work?
I took a tour with the project's leaders
and popped into a few meetings to find out.
(meeting participants chuckling)
Cisco's 59,000 square foot office sits
in midtown Manhattan in One Penn Plaza,
exactly where it's been for the last 17 years.
But in the last two,
it's undergone an $18 million tech-driven redesign.
- This is one of the few projects
where technology was really at the very beginning
and pervasive throughout the entire process.
- In this space, the screens, cameras
and sensors came before the lighting and furniture,
which was a new process for both Gensler and Cisco.
- We really think technology is gonna be at the heart
of how people design buildings moving forward.
So we started it with that layer.
- To see this tech,
all you have to do is look up.
The ceiling is littered with tech, each of which doing more
than it might appear.
So hard to miss this camera.
What is this camera doing?
- Actually, this was a Meraki security camera
and obviously, it's recording people coming in
and out of the floor,
but it's also got a trip wire built in.
We can actually count people
as they come in and decrement as they leave.
So at any given time,
we know the overall occupancy of the floor.
- [Adam] But to know where people are
after they enter the office,
Cisco uses its wireless access points like this one.
- It's actually tracking mobile devices as a proxy
for understanding occupancy of space and people
but it's also tracking air quality,
temperature, and humidity.
- Is it tracking my mobile device right now?
- Yeah, it's tracking a mobile device.
It doesn't know it's you
but it knows there are two mobile devices here
because I have one in my pocket as well.
- Leave the hallway to enter a meeting
and the cameras used to connect employees on video call
then pick up the count, tracking the number of participants
in the room.
While employees may be anonymous,
this type of tracking isn't common.
Just 1% of companies
in a 2022 Gartner poll have sensors that track foot traffic.
43% of companies say
they aren't tracking onsite attendance at all.
Are employees at all concerned
about the tracking that's possible
in an office where cameras count the number
of bodies in the space?
- No, I don't believe they are.
And the reason for that is at Cisco,
we don't have a set number
of days that we expect employees to be in the office.
I think if we had different expectations around being
in the office, it may feel a little bit different
but because we don't, I think they understand
that those insights allow us to make the space the best
that it can be for them.
- [Adam] Still, these are Cisco products.
Other companies that purchase these systems could use them
for more specific tracking or they could do as Cisco does
and feed the data here for employees to see.
- Really what we have here is the great ability
to show employees space availability.
Red is obviously a space that is booked
and being used right now, or Amber is a space that's booked
and not being used and green is an available space.
- Let's find a space that we can go to.
- Yeah, so here's a space right here.
- We'll go to this space.
- Okay.
- Let's hold that.
And that's gonna give us four minutes to get over there.
- [Adam] Four minutes because in this office,
space is meant to be shared.
So rooms like the ones lining this hall aren't bookable.
The red and green lights are your signal.
- See, this is our room that we're gonna use.
Yep.
- All right.
These ad hoc spaces represent one
of the biggest changes to Cisco's space: how it's balanced.
Take a look at Cisco's floor plan.
These spaces are what Cisco considers individual workspaces.
These spaces are for teams.
- In the past, our building was set up where 70%
of the space was targeted toward individuals
and 30% of the space was targeted toward teams.
And we flipped that.
- [Adam] That resulted in the 90 collaboration spaces
seen here and left just 50 individual desks.
- I think this is a new era and I think
that when you want to sit by yourself and get work done,
you may not choose the office to do that.
- [Adam] There are actually about 1,700 employees assigned
to this office but Cisco doesn't expect
that they'll all be in on the same day.
- With hybrid here to stay,
we're seeing so much more emphasis
on amenity spaces, collaboration spaces.
People are coming in to be with other people.
The things that they can't do when they're working at home.
- [Adam] Things like brainstorming on a whiteboard
or meeting in a 14-person room like this one
are now the focus.
- So what's really interesting
about this space is how the space design,
how the furnishings and the technology all come together.
- [Adam] They come together
because Cisco designed the table to work specifically
with the camera at the other end,
from the placement of the microphones to this matte finish,
which helps reflect light up onto the faces of the table.
Most noticeable though is the table's tapered shape.
- We shape the table to make sure everybody has a line
of sight on the display and can see content.
And we also make sure
that people that are remote that are joining us
actually have line of sight of everybody at the table.
- Right, because that person all the way at the end
is much further to the right than I am.
So they should be able to see every single face
down the road.
That shape and the exclusion of chairs
on the screen side is pervasive
in Cisco's space because it says 98%
of its meetings will have a remote participant.
So who is this conference room designed for?
Is it designed for the people who are here
at this table or is it designed
for the people who are signing in remotely?
- When we think about designing collaboration spaces
like this, we spend as much time
if not more about worrying about the remote participant.
We wanna make sure there's absolute digital equality.
- [Adam] Digital equality,
that's an idea that Cisco stressed
and something it thinks its hybrid workforce needs.
- Something that we have all experienced
is sometimes you're in a meeting
and you're having a hard time breaking in
and especially if you happen to be the only one
in the office or the only one working remotely.
- And here's where the camera can help bring people
or at least their faces closer.
I tested it with colleagues who work
in two separate offices.
Are you seeing this full room?
Are you seeing this whole table?
- No, I'm seeing four chairs.
- Same. I just sent you a screen grab.
- Oh, okay. - Yeah.
- So you're really only seeing like my side of the room.
There is an argument to be made that with all
of Cisco's technology and the ability to make every space
into a hybrid meeting space that the office
isn't really needed at all.
What would you say to that?
- Well, I think that at the end of the day,
people will want to come together
but they're gonna come together for different reasons.
- But for those who'd rather stay home
the tech is here to support that.
And that's an example that other companies may follow.
So do you expect other companies you work with
to want to do tech first, design second?
- Absolutely, I mean, so many of our clients are interested
in seeing this space because of how this was built.
I think anyone that's looking to build a new space
is gonna think this way.
(pensive music)