Nokia Espoo Campus – The new digital workspace experience

Our smart building consultancy team collaborated with Nokia, who was looking to enhance the internal technology available to the 3,000 employees located in its Espoo campus. The project objective was to improve the user experience further, increase team and individual collaboration, and reduce unnecessary office space on the new campus.

With people flow and user experience at the forefront of digital building technology, Nokia recognised the need to go beyond the standard changes often made and utilise the smart building consultancy and technology available to them through Granlund. Once we engaged with Nokia and the project commenced, discussions quickly developed, from lighting, ventilation and other technical systems to identifying smart apps as the most viable solution.

If, as employees, we can order lunch or a taxi with a click of a button on a smartphone, reserving a meeting room within your office building should be just as easy – and it can be that easy, with the right technology.

“The rise of the app culture has elevated our expectations and fundamentally changed the way we interact with our personal and built environments. If, as employees, we can order lunch or a taxi with a click of a button on a smartphone, reserving a meeting room within your office building should be just as easy – and it can be that easy, with the right technology. Incorporating this type of technology not only makes the employee experience more interactive and smoother, but it also enhances productivity and boosts employee satisfaction,” said Ken Dooley, Technology Director at Granlund.

Already aware of the benefits of smart apps, the Nokia real estate team was ready to embrace a modern approach to office interactions. Phase one of the project entailed the deployment of a smart office app which allows employees to locate free workspaces and desks on campus, thereby reducing the amount of time taken searching for a place to work for the day. If the feature is activated within their app, employees are also given the option to share their location within the office with their colleagues. 

Booking a meeting room requires minimal clicks, and if an ad-hoc meeting takes place in a free meeting room, sensors alert the system and mark the room as occupied. These simple yet effective changes provide an environment that fosters team collaboration, ultimately encouraging employees to spend more time in the office than working from home. 

By defining the end-user requirements and matching them with smart app technology and hardware, the team was able to manage the roll out of the solution which was embedded directly into employees’ phones and laptops. 

Employers are seeking out new ways to ensure employee retention, beyond promotions and bonuses. They need to provide a friction-free environment where the employee day runs smoothly within the office.

“The modern employee is looking at more than just salary and annual leave when they consider a change in job or are just starting out in the corporate world. They are looking for an experience. We are finding that with this shift in outlook, employers are seeking out new ways to ensure employee retention, beyond promotions and bonuses. They need to provide a friction-free environment where the employee day runs smoothly within the office,” said Dooley.

With the workspace changes already implemented, the second phase of the project was to deploy the smart restaurant app, enabling employees to monitor the wait time at each restaurant area in real-time and pay for their lunch via their app. This not only decreased the time spent waiting, eating into valuable free time but also people flow in the restaurant area improved significantly.

The entire project was completed with four quick implementations across a six-month timeline including testing, deployment, staff communications and training. 

Want to hear more?

Tero Järvinen

Development Director

Granlund Oy

+358 50 323 2934

firstname.lastname@granlund.fi