Siemens to equip 600 locations with its workplace experience app to aid safe return to work

Siemens is deploying its workplace experience solution, Comfy across its global offices, targeting approximately 600 company locations, by October this year. This supports a safe return to the workplace for employees during the pandemic and lays the foundation for more agile and future-oriented working. The Comfy app combines location, usage and smart building data with a wide range of user demands to connect employees to their office environment. More than 100,000 Siemens employees in 30 countries will get access to the application. In the first phase, a simplified version will provide the most important information about each employee’s office location. This also includes the latest general and location-specific COVID-19 updates as well as health regulations.

The pandemic has accelerated the need for digital tools while highlighting the importance of office space for collaboration between employees. Employees will be able to register their presence and obtain local information about their office, to make informed decisions about how and when they can safely return to the workplace. This will also enable daily occupancy limits to be defined and met, ensuring offices comply with local return-to-work regulations on physical distancing.

“Our priority is to protect our people so they can return to the workplace safely and confidently wherever they are. By using smart office technologies, we can reshape how we work,” said Roland Busch, Deputy CEO and member of the managing board of Siemens AG. “Our Comfy app supports our new mobile working model, by enabling employees to better plan when they choose to work from the office.”

In the second phase of the rollout, further capability from Comfy’s feature set can be added to enhance the Siemens workplace experience. Employees will be able to reserve specific rooms and desks, navigate offices and campuses with maps, locate co-workers and personalise the temperature and lighting levels to ensure comfort. Additionally, there will be the option to deploy a network of IoT sensors from Siemens-owned Enlighted Inc. When integrated with Comfy, this enables employees to view the occupancy of desks, rooms and offices in real time.

Siemens Real Estate, which is responsible for real estate activities within the company, is overseeing rolling out the solution across all global locations. Commenting on this development, Zsolt Sluitner, CEO of Siemens Real Estate, said: “We are proud that Siemens is the first blue chip company which starts to digitise its workplace environment on a global scale by using its own technology.”

The Comfy workplace app aims to enhance the collaboration with Enlighted, both at customers’ and Siemens’ premises. Employees expect more flexibility to successfully manage and balance their professional and private lives while making use of agile workplaces that foster creativity and innovation.

Comfy’s employee-facing app enables businesses to keep their people informed and productive while providing a workspace that is safe and compliant with local regulations. Comfy, a Siemens company, supports companies to develop smarter, more personalised workplaces for a better employee experience. Comfy Insights offers businesses an analytics dashboard to better understand how offices are being used, informing a smarter, data-driven strategy for future workplaces.

For more information on Siemens Smart Infrastructure, see www.siemens.com/smart-infrastructure