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Office space reconsidered: new style, new digs

31.07.2006
Chris Kniola wants to radically redesign his company's call centers. Instead of eight-pack cubicles -- the sterile setup of four desks in two rows, separated by low walls and equipped with standard desktop computers and phones -- Kniola envisions a free-flowing space that offers customer service reps everything from comfortable chairs to garden-side work spots. "You walk into the office, the security desk gives you your computer, and you go sit wherever you want," he says.

Kniola, project manager of facility technology at a large financial services company near Chicago, says the evolution of technology is turning such visions into reality. Laptops, widespread wireless connectivity, voice-over-IP and increased bandwidth could create this call center of the future today, he says.

Corporate executives, spurred on by facility managers like Kniola, are beginning to embrace a new model of how the workplace should look and perform. They're endorsing plans that replace desks and offices with collaborative work spaces and "touchdown" areas for remote employees.

As an IT leader, you'd better be ready, because it will be up to you to make these changes possible.

The new paradigm

"Work is what you do; it's not where you go anymore," says Larry Barkley, former CIO of CoreNet Global Inc., an Atlanta-based association for corporate real estate professionals and those in related fields.