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Let’s hear it for acoustics
Plantronics is using acoustics
technology to enhance collaboration
in its new offices
Changing working practices underpin the design
and fittings at headset manufacturer Plantronics’
new offices in Hoofddorp, Netherlands, including
the use of biophilic design and acoustics
technology to enhance employee collaboration,
concentration and productivity.
Plantronics worked closely with architecture firms
William McDonough + Partners, N30 and Gensler to
design the office space to foster greater productivity
and inspire and engage employees, partners and
customers.
The layout contains both private and collaborative
workspaces to support different styles of work,
including impromptu hallway meetings, pop-up
brainstorms, video conferences and quiet concentration.
To enable such a flexible use of office space,
Plantronics has implemented a variety of technologies
designed to minimise the distractions typically
experienced in open plan offices and to protect the
privacy of employees’ discussions.
These range from the use of materials chosen for
their ability to absorb and deflect sound to active
acoustic management features that use the ‘sights and
sounds’ of nature to manage noise levels.
Highlights include three indoor waterfalls and the
sound of a babbling brook played through speakers, which
Plantronics says significantly reduces the intelligibility of
background noise and therefore its ability to distract.
The building on the Park 20|20 site has been
constructed utilising a ‘Cradle-to-Cradle’ approach and
is designed to be dissembled at end of life, with many
of the materials used being 100% recyclable.
Resource efficiency extends to the use of solar cells
to harvest at least a quarter of the building’s required
energy; a water system that harvests, cleans and reuses
greywater; and carpets made from recycled fishing nets.
Plantronics says the building is on track to receive a
BREEAM Excellent rating.
TeamViewer - Blizz
Mitel MiTeam
Asana, Microsoft, Flock, TeamViewer,
Cisco, Mitel and others offer much more
functionality than, say, email.
For Brian Atkinson, leader of
collaboration and customer experience
at Cisco UK & Ireland, one of the big
draws of Cisco Spark is its ability to make
the world feel a little smaller.
“In its most simple form, the
implementation of video collaboration
technology, unified communications and
telepresence means that a business in
the City can have a normal conversation
with colleagues in San Francisco, New
York or even the other side of London,
without having to leave their building.
Crucially, collaboration tools mean that
a company can not only significantly cut
travel costs, but also drive productivity
and connect employees in any corner of
the world,” he said.
A second reason, cited by Team
Viewer’s Brunner, is the need to maintain
a clear separation between consumer-
focused instant messaging platforms and
true business apps. He said: “Applications
likeWhatsapp and Facebook messenger
seep into an employees’ social life and
shouldn’t be enforced in a work situation.
These solutions are designed for sociability
and not for business projects. A tailored
solution like Blizz by TeamViewer is much
more streamlined and professional.”
Productivity and efficiency
Feedback from existing users of team
collaboration solutions seem to justify
the confidence that solutions vendors
have in their products.
Flock’s Turakhia said: “Flock has
helped teams improve collaboration,
efficiency and productivity by 30%, boost
transparency at work and reduce wasteful
email and in-person meetings by 50%.”
Farinacci hears similar things from
Asana customers. He said: “In our most
recent broad customer survey, customers
reported that Asana makes them 45%
more efficient, and more than 80%
said they had increased clarity and
accountability on their teams.”
Simon Skellon of Mitel cites a report
by
Harvard Business Review
showing the
extent to which effective collaboration
can save users time. “A sample of 300
large corporations worldwide by Bain
and Economist Intelligence Unit found
that the most productive companies
lose 50% less time to unnecessary
and ineffective collaboration than
the rest. This is achieved by reducing
organisational drag. Organisations can
adopt collaboration tools to provide
regular feedback and updates on
projects, reducing the requirement
for unnecessary meetings. Such tools
allow companies to analyse processes
to reduce the amount of interactions
required to get work done.”
There’s also anecdotal evidence
that these tools contribute to better
decision-making. Farinacci said: “When
teams have clarity on what’s going on,
decision-making is definitely better. One
of our customers is Possible, a global
health organisation focused on providing
care in some of the world’s poorest
regions. The executive director, Mark
Arnoldy, says that ‘with Asana providing
a clear trajectory for the work we do,
we’ve become more disciplined in our
decision-making and have magnified
the volume and velocity of our output.
Our whole culture has become centred
around clarity, timeliness and speed. The
difference has been remarkable’.”
Email remains the default tool for
business communication, partly because
of its ubiquity and interoperability.While
it’s unlikely that newer collaboration
tools will replace email any time soon,
businesses will have no choice but to
adapt their internal communications
as workforces become increasingly
dispersed and mobile. And, for many,
that will mean implementing a specialist
collaboration solution.
In the words of TeamViewer’s Brunner:
“Collaboration tools allow organisations
not only to work, but to thrive in a
rapidly changing work environment.”
COLLABORATION
