Siemens has introduced a set of new features and collaboration tools to its workplace technology solution Comfy, which will play a key role for businesses returning employees to the office, and simplify the shift to hybrid work.
The new features are designed to address known employee concerns around hybrid working, such as a lack of social contact, difficulty with building and maintaining a network and a lack of collaboration opportunities.
The new collaboration tools are part of Comfy's 'Flexible Spaces' solution, and help create stronger community through a digitalized, app-based employee experience. They maximize opportunities for employee collaboration and connection by providing employees with insights on colleagues' in-office preferences and planned visits, and enable employees to find coworkers at the office.
In-Office Preferences: Employees can set workspace locations so they can better see colleagues in the office by viewing their chosen workspace 'address' on a map within the application. They can also set and view in-office preference days to align their hybrid working schedules and maximize their office time.
Coworker Future Filter: An in-app filter allows employees to find out when relevant coworkers are coming into the office so they can plan their hybrid work schedules in advance. The filter also eases the onboarding process for new hires, by enabling new team members to find relevant coworkers' future hybrid schedules, and meet new faces across teams and building locations. Opt-in capabilities ensure that employees have control over schedule sharing.
Coworker Delegate Booking: This feature simplifies the process for organizing meetings and booking desks or conference rooms, by allowing employees to book spaces for teammates or assign delegates for reserving space. The booking feature integrates with calendar applications to allow delegates to make space reservations.
'Our new Flexible Spaces features alleviate the 'empty office syndrome' and enable companies to rebuild a sense of community, by improving the convenience of space reservations and creating opportunities for collaboration and connection,' said Stefan Schwab, CEO, Comfy | Enlighted. 'To succeed in implementing hybrid working and returning employees to offices, businesses must carefully consider how they can elevate the employee experience. These new tools build on Comfy's core promise of making it easier for employees to connect with each other and their physical offices, by allowing them greater visibility into when their colleagues will be in the office for activity-based work.'
A survey published by Siemens in November 2021 found that employees see clear benefits to flexible working, including better work/life balance (73%), ability to work flexibly (59%) and improved productivity (38%). However, many cited lack of social contact (65%), difficulty building and maintaining a network (52%) and a lack of collaboration opportunities (43%) as major drawbacks.
Comfy provides a suite of workplace-essential solutions that drive more positive engagement between occupants and their spaces. The new collaboration tools join additional recent enhancements to Comfy's employee experience and space management capabilities, including Neighborhoods, a way to group spaces for organizational assignment; In-App Check-In, a way for maximizing reservable space; Space Traits, a way to categorize and track employee space preferences, and Insights Access, a data API that provides data insights for space planning and real estate portfolio decisions.
Siemens Smart Infrastructure (SI) is shaping the market for intelligent, adaptive infrastructure for today and the future. It addresses the pressing challenges of urbanization and climate change by connecting energy systems, buildings and industries. SI provides customers with a comprehensive end-to-end portfolio from a single source - with products, systems, solutions and services from the point of power generation all the way to consumption. With an increasingly digitalized ecosystem, it helps customers thrive and communities progress while contributing toward protecting the planet. Siemens Smart Infrastructure has its global headquarters in Zug, Switzerland. As of September 30, 2021, the business had around 70,400 employees worldwide.
Siemens AG (Berlin and Munich) is a technology company focused on industry, infrastructure, transport, and healthcare. From more resource-efficient factories, resilient supply chains, and smarter buildings and grids, to cleaner and more comfortable transportation as well as advanced healthcare, the company creates technology with purpose adding real value for customers. By combining the real and the digital worlds, Siemens empowers its customers to transform their industries and markets, helping them to transform the everyday for billions of people. Siemens also owns a majority stake in the publicly listed company Siemens Healthineers, a globally leading medical technology provider shaping the future of healthcare. In addition, Siemens holds a minority stake in Siemens Energy, a global leader in the transmission and generation of electrical power.
In fiscal 2021, which ended on September 30, 2021, the Siemens Group generated revenue of EUR62.3 billion and net income of EUR6.7 billion. As of September 30, 2021, the company had around 303,000 employees worldwide.
Comfy and Enlighted are Siemens companies and leading providers of workplace intelligence technology, empowering people and businesses to create smart, healthy and flexible spaces for the future of work. Our workplace SaaS solutions, IoT infrastructure and data insights combine building intelligence, space analytics, and a consumer-grade mobile app to improve the workplace experience for Fortune 1000 companies around the world. Headquartered in California's Silicon Valley, our solutions are deployed in 59 countries across 83 million square feet of managed office space, with more than 222,000 users of the Comfy app.
Contact:
Michael Palmer
Tel: +971 55 200 3873
Email: michael.j.palmer@siemens.com
SIEMENS AG 
