Big 4 Accounting Firm

The Challenge

The firm needed to know how it was using 30 floors at their New York City headquarters. The firm suspected that space was often forgotten, abandoned, or reserved as a contingency plan.

The firm used software that allowed the hundreds of employees visiting headquarters every day to book temporary office space for hoteling. However, the software provided no visibility into whether the booked space was used as planned ― or at all. In general, the firm lacked critical information about their actual space utilization.

The Solution

After selecting and implementing EMS Software, the firm began capturing actual office attendance. Using the check-in and reporting capabilities in EMS, the firm was able to compare bookings to actual use to determine true utilization rates.

The Result

The results revealed that only 49% of assigned offices were being used, while transient employees used only 67% of the hoteling space — leaving 1,665 workspaces vacant daily.

With this insight, the firm was able to reduce their real estate costs:

• The firm vacated 6 floors and sublet 3
• The firm realized a savings of $85 million over 5 years
• Real estate moved from the firm’s second-largest expense to the third

With 695 offices around the world, the firm continues to drive efficient use of their 21 million square feet of space. By expanding their use of EMS, the firm expects to save an additional $97 million over the next five years — translating to about $36 million in annual real estate savings.