Powering Future-Proofed Workplaces with Penn 1 Plaza

Cisco needed to modernize its underutilized and outdated real estate portfolio to support new and future ways of working. By leveraging its own, unique networking and collaboration technologies, Cisco was able to transform its PENN 1 office space in New York City into a smart, data-driven environment that optimizes space utilization, enhances user experience, and serves as a model for Cisco offices worldwide.  

In today’s world where many employees can work from anywhere with a stable internet connection, getting employees into an office can be a battle. Why drive when you can sit comfortably in your own space (and sweatpants)? This worker mentality catapulted into fruition with the pandemic. Years later, the office is no longer the first-choice space for many workers. In fact, it must “earn” the commute. So, how did we create an office that employees want to and enjoy going to without a mandate? 

Rightsizing real estate in a post-pandemic world

For years, our real estate portfolio had been underutilized and outdated. We knew this even prior to the pandemic when I began leading the Smart Building business at Cisco. But the pandemic brought further clarity. With the changing policies, we saw a greater need to downsize, and find answers to questions we never had to think about such as:  

• How many people are using a certain floor at any given time? 
• What is the air quality of the utilized spaces? 
• If an employee makes the commute to an office, will a workspace be available to them?  
• Will I be able to work comfortably and efficiently while I’m in the office? 

We knew the data we needed to answer these questions and make informed decisions existed on the wireless network. However, it wasn’t readily available or easy to access. So instead of relying on inconsistent badging data, we began to look at how we could use the network to unify the disparate components across our infrastructure and visualize spatial data so we could harness the full power of the Cisco technology in our offices. And we had the perfect office to start with— PENN 1 in New York City.  

Divesting to invest

Our formal design process typically involved our partners, including architects and Mechanical Electrical Plumbing (MEB) firms. However, when that was halted due to the pandemic, we brought the process inside of Cisco and started thinking about the problem differently and put the end user experience first. We knew that the way we used space was forever going to change, and the notion of “divest to invest” was built inside of the finance organization. The goal was to invest in key office locations and create hubs as opposed to multiple underutilized spaces. 

As it typically goes, organizations transition portfolio in terms of space every ten to fifteen years — the standard length of a corporate lease. As part of this natural evolution and “divest to invest” strategy, we chose to shut down seven offices around the New York City area to invest in the modernization of PENN 1 and our new hybrid work model. The goal was to create an office that would be a magnet for employees and customers, a place they could come to collaborate, meet, celebrate, and more. 

To get started, we took a different approach than typical. Instead of designing the technology around the space, we built the space around the technology. We brought together the best collective knowledge of diverse minds and experiences from Cisco IT and Workplace Resources (WPR) to find a way to unify our technology and create a platform that would be flexible enough to adapt to the future.  We wanted to ensure we could easily make changes and upgrade the technology over time without the need to rebuild an office. 

Unlocking the data for insights and action

To do this, we needed to get a better understanding of how the space was being used, and what kind of infrastructure we could leverage to get insight, while ensuring the employee experience would be the best that it could be. It wasn’t just about the space. It was also about the new ways of working, our sustainability and wellness goals, as well as making the critical data available to the right teams to support those initiatives. If we did it right, we’d create a workspace that could scale for future needs and trends.  

Here’s the beautiful thing. With our powerful portfolio of networking, collaboration, and security solutions — this data already existed in our IT environment, we just needed to unify it to bridge the gap between Operational Technology (OT,) Information Technology (IT,) and real estate. We were able to do this with Cisco Spaces, which allowed us to extract and aggregate the data in a way that made sense and was reportable to deliver outcomes for everyone.  

Cisco Spaces is a single scalable, reliable cloud platform that digitizes space and makes them safer, smarter, more sustainable, while delivering seamless experiences.

Implementing Cisco Spaces at Penn 1 

Cisco Spaces integrates the data from the network and collaboration devices and visualizes it into a customizable dashboard to tailor to the needs of the specific teams extracting the data for their individualized goals. We unified data across the entire Cisco portfolio using: 

• Cisco Spaces: PENN 1 end users have a 3D floorplan enabling insights into occupancy, air quality, CO2 levels, temperature and humidity, and the ability to view and hold open workspaces and rooms. It runs on Webex collaboration devices throughout the facility. 
• Cisco Catalyst 9000 switches and access points: 43 Cisco Catalyst 9166 Wi-Fi 6E APs are deployed in a high-density design to provide excellent coverage and seamless roaming and maximize location-detection capabilities to allow Cisco Spaces to monitor occupancy in different areas of the floor. They are also equipped with built-in temperature, humidity, and air quality (VoC) sensors to provide data on environmental performance. 
• Cisco Collaboration Devices The PENN 1 office is equipped with 92 Cisco collaboration devices (Desk Pros, Desk Cameras, Precision Cameras, Room Bars, Room Kits, and Board Pros) to ensure every space is video enabled for an inclusive hybrid work experience. Cisco Room Navigators enable seamless room booking, calendar view, meeting information, and meeting extension with real-time occupancy visualization. 
• Cisco Meraki smart cameras: The 27 Meraki MV12 cameras bring physical security and advanced analytics and insights.  
• PoE (Power over Ethernet): We power everything from lighting and shades to environmental conditions over the network and collect sensor data to feed into Cisco Spaces and power the Smart Workspaces application. 

By combining these Cisco products and solutions, it allowed us to create amazing employee experiences that deliver a sustainable, yet positive working environment, conducive to both collaboration and individual work. 

Delivering outcomes across the business

With the new hybrid work design, we reduced the floor plan of PENN 1 by 25% through space optimization. Every room was built with purpose to amplify the intersection of people and space, regardless of the workplace anyone is physically in. We used the data from our entire technology stack to power numerous outcomes and benefits including: 

• Mixed presence enablement: 100% of spaces in the new office are now video enabled, and we increased the number of collaboration spaces by 40%. We’re connecting people in new ways when they’re in the office, while still being inclusive of remote participants, as 98% of meetings will have at least one remote participant. 
• Space optimization: We enabled 2X the number of people to be seated in half the space, with a variety of different room designs tailored to cater to a variety of different working styles and needs, without compromising user experience. 
• Wellness and user experience: With 20% of the world’s population being neurodiverse, we designed the office to cater to varying sensory and space needs with acoustics and personalized light and temperature controls.   
• Energy efficiency and sustainability: Energy decreased by 36% purely from the change in design, without taking into account the floor plan reduction. We turned all connected endpoints into an energy networking micro-power grid that is fully tracked, controlled, and monitored and eliminated the need for 3,000 lbs (about 1360.78 kg). of steel and 1,000 lbs. of copper wiring material by deploying PoE infrastructure. 
• Cost efficiency: We experienced a 5% reduction in CapEx, and saved $250k in construction costs. 

1 is now a true testament to the unique power of our portfolio, and the outcomes enabled through the unification of networking with collaboration and security. With amazing experiences becoming the norm for our workforce and easy access to data-driven insights for informed business decision making, the workplace is fully equipped to stand the test of time and deliver outcomes for employees, customers, IT, and everyone across the business.  

Paving the path toward possibility

The PENN 1 office in New York City proudly stands as an example of what the future of workplaces can look like, and the model we use as we develop other offices around the world. The platform we built with PENN 1 is the same model deployed at our offices in ATL, Washington DC, Milan, London, Paris, and soon to be Austin. What’s most exciting, is the ease with which we can help our customers achieve similar outcomes.  

With Cisco Spaces, everything becomes a sensor. For the first time, we’ve digitized real estate with the data sets from existing Cisco technology that allow us to optimize space like never before. This sets the stage for wayfinding, asset tracking, utilization, and more. With Cisco networking in place, there is powerful data we can help you leverage.  If you have Cisco networking and collaboration devices, that set expands. The flexibility allows us to meet our customers where they are and layer on top of what they already have.  

Our workplaces give people a reason to come to the office, enabling better collaboration everywhere. We’ve already proven that we can do our individual work from anywhere. But we’ve amplified the experience with technology as an asset that can provide insights to not only IT, but other influencers and buyers in the marketplace whether it’s real estate or the head of retail operations.  

We’re changing the conversations we can have with our customers around what’s possible and shaping the future of smart building technology with the power of unified data.  

To learn more, check out this video, read the PENN 1 case study, and explore Cisco Spaces 

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