Today’s enterprises are more spread out than ever, often consisting of multiple office buildings spread across the United States—and even the globe.
The challenge: finding a way to make those facilities and the people who work there more efficient. That’s exactly what iOFFICE Corporation, a fast-growing software-as-a-service provider, is doing for some 1,400 corporate clients.
The iOFFICE platform allows facility managers and executives to, for example, visualize floor plans and analyze space usage across all their properties. They can use available data to plan for future usage of those spaces in the most cost-effective way possible.
With a separate module, users can pull data from a building’s HVAC, lighting and refrigeration systems to monitor and curb energy use at the site.
But it’s not just the building that iOFFICE is trying to make more efficient. The firm also offers applications designed to streamline the work that employees perform. One of those offerings is a project management tool that enables improved collaboration throughout the enterprise.
Growing client list
The Houston-based firm has been able to expand its offerings through a series of partnerships with other specialized SaaS (Software as a Service) providers. This “Marketplace,” as iOFFICE refers to this network, includes technology companies that offer expertise in areas like space utilization, energy management and occupancy planning.
iOFFICE provides the user-friendly, mobile-ready backbone that helps users seamlessly search workspace and project data, as well as plan for future needs. The company calls their network “the first app ecosystem for the 21st-century workplace.”
Corporations in a variety of industries are latching onto the idea. The company’s clients now include the likes of Adobe, Sephora and Under Armour—all trying to build efficiencies into their work environment.
“iOFFICE works hard to ensure that its clients have the technology to support their employees,” the company’s outside spokeswoman, Bethany Morris, says.
Currently, about 2.4 million users around the globe rely on iOFFICE software to gain visibility into their operations.
The business had much humbler roots when Don Traweek and Elizabeth Dukes, both former executives with Pitney Bowes Management Services, founded the business in 2002. But over the past several years, the company has gone through a period of remarkable growth, emerging as one of the leaders in the integrated workplace management system, or IWMS, sector.
What was once a staff of just two employees has exploded to 49 and counting. Traweek continues to serve as the company’s president and CEO while Dukes holds the title of executive vice president, helping to drive the firm’s sales and marketing strategies.
An evolving workplace
iOFFICE’s solutions are particularly suited for today’s changing corporate environment, where so-called “activity-based working” is becoming more the norm. More and more, employees have the freedom to perform tasks in the type of space that best suits their needs— that could be at their desk, in a meeting room or even in a designated quiet space.
Enterprises see this as a way to increase collaboration and innovation within the organization. By moving away from a static, closed-in environment, they believe it also increases employee satisfaction and helps with retention.
The organization recently released Hummingbird, a software solution that according to a company statement, offers employees “an elegant and user-friendly way to add critical activity-based work functions to find, request, use and reserve the spaces, information, people and events they need every day.”
In The 2017American Business Awards, the company was rewarded for its innovative approach to workspace needs by securing a Bronze Stevie Award for “Most Innovative Tech Company of the Year” in the under-100-employees segment.
For a company that’s followed the Stevie Awards for several years, Morris says the designation was a major shot in the arm for the entire staff. “Since winning the Stevie Award, iOFFICE and its employees have enjoyed a boost in morale,” she says.
