This case study was originally co presented at Worktech Toronto 2015. It details the critical ways Serraview's occupancy planning tool helped BMO overcome common challenges like no buy-in about occupancy planning, a lack of transparency about vacancy and manual collection of data. Together they were able to improve clarity about occupancy and today BMO is better able to make decisions about reducing CRE costs. View this presentation to see how one year in, BMO is avoiding adding unnecessary footprint and cost with Serraview's occupancy planning tool.

1. THE VALUE OF IMPLEMENTING AN
OCCUPANCY PLANNING TOOL AT BMO
A CASE STUDY

2. PRESENTED BY:
Nada Farah
Sr. Manager, Workplace Strategy
BMO
BMO Financial Group
serves more than 12 million
personal, commercial, corporate
and institutional customers in
North America and internationally

3. Ian Morley
Cofounder & Chief Evangelist
Serraview
Serraview
a leading provider of workplace
management & optimization software in
North America and Australia, delivering
tools that drive better strategic CRE
decisions and huge bottom line savings
PRESENTED BY:

4. Occupancy Planning Challenges at BMO
41
Buildings
292
Floors
6 million
Square feet
47,000
Employees
SPACE AND PEOPLE:

5. Occupancy Planning Challenges at BMO
BUs claimed 2% vacancy
but reality was closer to 10% vacancy
VACANCY:

6. Occupancy Planning Challenges at BMO
Observation studies show 40% of space
not utilized on a daily basis due to vacation,
sick leave, or working outside the office
UTILIZATION:

7. Why Focus on Occupancy?
Real estate is the 2nd or 3rd highest cost for most companies

8. Why Focus on Occupancy?
Real estate is the 2nd or 3rd highest cost for most companies
Efficient use of space can lead to significant cost reductions

9. Why Focus on Occupancy?
Real estate is the 2nd or 3rd highest cost for most companies
Efficient use of space can lead to significant cost reductions
Optimizing space requires accurate understanding of
occupancy & utilization

10. Why Focus on Occupancy?
Real estate is the 2nd or 3rd highest cost for most companies
Efficient use of space can lead to significant cost reductions
Optimizing space requires accurate understanding of
occupancy & utilization
Accurate data is needed to support space decisions

11. Real estate is the 2nd or 3rd highest cost for most companies
Efficient use of space can lead to significant cost reductions
Optimizing space requires accurate understanding of
occupancy & utilization
Accurate data is needed to support space decisions
LOBs also benefit from knowing where people are
Why Focus on Occupancy?

12. BMO’s Difficulties Managing & Planning Space
NO BUY-IN
ABOUT
OCCUPANCY
PLANNING

13. BMO’s Difficulties Managing & Planning Space
NO BUY-IN
ABOUT
OCCUPANCY
PLANNING
LACK OF
TRANSPARENCY
ABOUT
VACANCY

14. BMO’s Difficulties Managing & Planning Space
NO BUY-IN
ABOUT
OCCUPANCY
PLANNING
LACK OF
TRANSPARENCY
ABOUT
VACANCY
MANUAL
COLLECTION OF
OCCUPANCY
DATA

15. Problems With Manual Data Collection
TIME CONSUMING

16. Problems With Manual Data Collection
RESOURCE INTENSIVETIME CONSUMING

17. Problems With Manual Data Collection
RESOURCE INTENSIVETIME CONSUMING
POINT-IN-TIME COLLECTION MEANS
INFORMATION IS QUICKLY OUTDATED

18. Problems With Manual Data Collection
RESOURCE INTENSIVETIME CONSUMING
POINT-IN-TIME COLLECTION MEANS
INFORMATION IS QUICKLY OUTDATED
NO ONE TRUSTS THE DATA

19. THE RESULT?

20. The Result?
• Inefficient use of real estate footprint

21. The Result?
• Inefficient use of real estate footprint
• Difficulty making strategic decisions

22. The Result?
• Inefficient use of real estate footprint
• Difficulty making strategic decisions
• Unrealized savings (potentially 40% of space
at $10,000 a desk per year)

23. to help us take control of our space management
BMO Needed an Occupancy Planning Tool
Confused about evaluating space management software?
Get your free copy of this helpful guide:
5 Critical Comparison Points for Workplace
Management Software

24. This is Not Good Enough
This used to be all we knew
about our space: floor plans
and teams

25. Why It’s Not Good Enough
• Occupancy cost was based only on existing rent
& historical business demand for space
• Who pays for space often doesn’t accurately
depict who’s actually using it
• High level view of space usage provided limited
visibility to TRUE occupancy

26. We Can Do So Much More With This
Occupied Desk Vacant Desk
Retail Banking
Team Names
Detailed view of teams using each space….

27. We Can Do So Much More With This
Occupied Desk Vacant Desk
Retail Banking
Team Names
Showing which desks are occupied…

28. We Can Do So Much More With This
Occupied Desk Vacant Desk
Retail Banking
Team Names
… and layers of information about teams

29. And With Visibility to Individual Seating
No more duplication
or “hiding“ space

30. And With Visibility to Individual Seating
No more duplication
or “hiding“ space
Enables decision
making

31. And With Visibility to Individual Seating
No more duplication
or “hiding“ space
Enables decision
making
Everyone can easily
locate people &
teams

32. CLARITY ABOUT OCCUPANCY IS HELPING US:
• Provide better support to our teams
Occupancy Planning is a Key Enabler

33. CLARITY ABOUT OCCUPANCY IS HELPING US:
• Provide better support to our teams
• More efficientlymanage our space
Occupancy Planning is a Key Enabler

34. CLARITY ABOUT OCCUPANCY IS HELPING US:
• Provide better support to our teams
• More efficientlymanage our space
• Highlight & minimize “hogging” behaviour
Occupancy Planning is a Key Enabler

35. CLARITY ABOUT OCCUPANCY IS HELPING US:
• Provide better support to our teams
• More efficientlymanage our space
• Highlight & minimize “hogging” behaviour
• Avoid long-term rent increases (and eventually decrease rent)
Occupancy Planning is a Key Enabler

36. CLARITY ABOUT OCCUPANCY IS HELPING US:
• Provide better support to our teams
• More efficientlymanage our space
• Highlight & minimize “hogging” behaviour
• Avoid long-term rent increases (and eventually decrease rent)
• Make better long-term planning decisions
Occupancy Planning is a Key Enabler

37. The Right Occupancy Planning Tool
gives you clarity about what you have and the ability to make better decisions
Consolidate
space?
Move to
new space?
HOW CAN WE REDUCE CRE COSTS?
Renew
leases?
Agile work
environment?

38. BMO’s Choice was Serraview
Click to download the full report.

39. • Focus on occupancy management and
planning
• LOB ownership and accountability
• Transparency for both Real Estate and
LOBs
• Intuitive, easy to use
• Quick deployment period
• Superb customer service
• Modular (so we could implement in stages)
Why BMO’s Workplace Team Chose Serraview

40. Shared Benefits for Other Departments
Business units can easily
find people and other
teams
Everyone gains an accurate
book of record for
occupancy

41. Serraview’s Story:
• 10 years ago, Serraview founders were asked by NAB (National Australia Bank) to
build a tool to automate management of new space, help make better decisions &
support cultural change
• All major banks in Australia & most government agencies have been using Serraview
for a decade
• Expanded into North America 2 years ago
• Now supporting BOM, top 2 US banks & top global technology firms
• Recently named FM Software Company of the Year by Frost & Sullivan Australia

42. Want to See Serraview’s Occupancy Planning Tool in Action?
Watch the quick video
on the next slide to
see how BMO uses
Serraview's tool to
manage space:

43. HERE’S WHERE THE
MAGIC HAPPENS

44. Serraview’s “What If?” Scenario Planning
Watch the quick video
on the next slide to
see how Serraview's
tool makes scenario
planning easy:

45. BMO IS ONE YEAR IN…

46. Groups Can No Longer Hide Space
Increased Clarity for LOBs
We now have Dynamic Data
Enhanced Metrics
… And Already Seeing Results

47. A YEAR AGO:
• We knew we had vacancy but could not prove it to LOBs
• Were forced to keep adding space & cost to meet demand
Serraview Helped Change Discussions with LOBs

48. TODAY:
• Valid occupancy data means everyone can see what
space is available and where
• We can restack a floor to consolidate available space
for another team
• We can avoid adding footprint & cost unnecessarily
Serraview Helped Change Discussions with LOBs

49. • BMO’s executive team recently requested extra seats.
• Instead of leasing new space, the property team were able to
show they already had enough vacancy within their own footprint.
• A simple restack of the floor allowed us to free up 20 contagious
seats, preventing the need to find extra space or lease another
floor (yielding an estimated $200,000 to $900,000 per year in
savings).
One Success Story

50. Lessons Learned
A focused approach was the right choice for BMO
We achieved faster results by focusing on occupancyplanning,rather
than trying to take on too many issues at once.

51. Lessons Learned
Cleaning up our own data
ImplementingSerraview helped us create a reliable source of
data, not just for occupancy,but even org chart and enterprise
directoryinformation.

52. Lessons Learned
Training stakeholders
Identifying & trainingLOB stakeholders put the onus on the users to
own their data & process.
TIP: Encouraging teams to include occupancy data updates in their onboarding
and offboarding processes keeps data current.

53. Lessons Learned
Catalyst for change
ImplementingSerraview showed us where we needed to revise
processes that weren't working and implement new processes.

54. THE JOURNEY CONTINUES

55. BMO’s Plans for 2016 and Beyond
Further enhancing the data and our
processes
Relocation management (link to website)
Utilization analysis: sensor technology and
wayfinding (link to blog)
US expansion & retail sites in US
Do a reverse feed into the HR system to
capture names to seats
Learn more about collecting utilization data with this free guide to Measuring Workplace Utilization

56. Find Out What Serraview Can Do
For Your Occupancy Planning:
SIGN UP FOR A
SERRAVIEW DEMO
READ SERRAVIEW’S BLOG

57. This content was originally presented at the WORKTECH 15 Conference, December 8, 2015 in Toronto.
WATCH THE FULL VIDEO
Nada Farah
Sr. Manager,
Workplace Strategy
BMO, Toronto
Connect on LinkedIn
About This Presentation
Ian Morley
Cofounder &
Chief Evangelist
Serraview, New York
Connect on LinkedIn