Why Space and Occupancy Were Key to Vodafone's £1B Cost Savings Initiative

Headquartered in Berkshire, England, Vodafone Group is the largest mobile telecommunications network company in the world. The high-profile telecom provider boasts operations in 25 countries, partner networks in 42 additional countries, and annual revenues of £75 billion ($121 billion USD).

But as part of a recent company-wide push to improve profitability through a £1 billion ($1.6 billion USD) cost reduction initiative, the company also included a re-evaluation of how cost-efficiently it was using its office space.

Vodafone’s estimated 260 million customers across five continents are supported by an extensive sales and service network. These employees occupy a sizable portfolio of commercial properties. Some are owned, some are leased, and all are scrutinized on a quarterly basis for greater operational efficiency.

The company’s collection of 44 office and exchange buildings for its Vodafone UK division, however, has been a proving ground over the last few years attesting to the value of real estate, infrastructure and facilities management software from Archibus.

Replacing Excel spreadsheets, the company’s original implementation of Archibus Space Management and Move Management applications has enabled Vodafone to automate many of its real estate- and facilities-related functions resulting in better informed strategic decisions on a daily basis.

So when Vodafone wanted to evolve its system for improved data access and visualization via dashboard technology, as well as introduce more self-service options over the Web, Archibus delivered again.

Through simple personalization, periodic re-configuration and other modifications, Vodafone’s original Archibus implementation is able to generate quarterly space and occupancy reports, integrate views of Archibus data with AutoCAD drawings, and support individual and group moves using Archibus Move Management.

Using Archibus, Vodafone also has the ability to access quick overviews of the company’s UK campus, identify buildings that fall below its 95% target occupancy rate, and enable desktop planning for its approximately 7,000 employee moves annually.

In addition to having data to support vacancy statistics and technology to perform strategic space and portfolio planning, the company was able to dramatically drive down the cost of managing over 1.4 million square feet of office and telephone exchange sites.

Working with Archibus Business Partner Excitech, Vodafone more recently introduced Web Central-based dashboards that provide graphical reporting for improved analysis of their strategic and operational space management requirements.

In addition, the use of Web-enabled Move Management provides more convenient online support for employee moves. Users can now request moves, view the spare desks on the chosen floor plan, and track the progress of the request, all from their desktops.

Just as important, Vodafone’s Archibus platform is able to conduct its quarterly census throughout the UK in a single day, versus weeks, for more accurate headcounts and space audits.

The Archibus platform also supports space metrics using an “Archibus-ready” spreadsheet incorporating a moves matrix. This means that, once any move project is complete, the resulting move information can be uploaded into Archibus via a data transfer utility that checks data tables for errors prior to uploads. It also updates the Employee table and the Rooms table within Archibus.