“The Yellowbox locker system has saved me countless hours of management.”
In order to gain a competitive edge, building owners and operators are striving to perfect the economic, societal and environmental conditions in their spaces. Utilising technology in a way that creates a seamless user experience has attracted premium tenants and higher yields, whilst enhancing building efficiency and reducing operating costs. Smart building technologies have traditionally encompassed improvements in data, visibility and control over air conditioning, ventilation, lighting and heating. Now in a post-COVID agile environment, Arcadis has focused on upgrading their tenant experiences through a flexible locker system.
Arcadis' office in Delftse Poort at Rotterdam Central had previously managed their lockers through a key-based system, maintained manually by using a physical log of which key was assigned to which employee. This way of allocating lockers led to a sub-optimal experience. On the one hand, employees had to preserve their keys at all times, and on the other hand, facility managers had to deal with lost keys and hours of physical management.
Arcadis has since upgraded their key-based system with new Yellowbox wireless smart-locks, allowing employees to reserve and open their locker using only their mobile phone. By implementing a smarter, more user-focused locker system, employees now have a stress-free and inspired start to their working day. As a self-serve smart locker solution, Yellowbox has also significantly reduced the amount of management required to onboard visitors and new staff.
The building manager was especially content, saying:
"The Yellowbox locker system has saved me countless hours of management, and has made it very easy for staff to choose their locker as previously they had to ask for a key from reception."
The number of lockers have never equaled the number of employees demanding them, creating an uneven distribution of resources. The key-based system emphasised this disparity, with key hoarding resulting in poor utilisation. Workplaces are now transitioning into a post-COVID working environment, and the Yellowbox shared locker system is ensuring that lockers are used considerately as well as to meet capacity demands.
The lockers are used on-demand and once the user vacates, they become available again. The Yellowbox management dashboard ensures that facility managers gain visibility and collect data around asset utilisation and can monitor hoarding behaviours, ensuring lockers are used by those who need the storage space.
Another advantage of the Yellowbox wireless lock system is that it doesn't require Wi-Fi or electricity, a contribution to a seamless retrofit process. The lockers are entirely decentralised, meaning the locks are not connected to each other or a central computer, which reduces the risk of a system-wide outage significantly.
As today's workforce moves in the direction of an entirely new working environment, adjustments are needed, and technology will continue to upgrade the traditional office to meet the new demands of tenants, with a strong focus on flexibility.
