M&G Investments
Project Overview
Technology Change Training for Activity Based Working pilot space for 100 users ahead of full scale London HQ relocation project.
Technologies & Innovations
Thin client at the desktop; Surface Pro devices; headset technology for calls and computer audio; flexibility for voice calls to use desktop handsets or mobile devices; SMARTboard screens in meeting and collaboration.
The Client
M&G Investments (M&G) is a leading international asset manager, known for its long-term and conviction-led approach to investing. It has been an active manager of investments for individual and institutional clients for over 80 years. Today it manages assets in excess of £247.5bn (as at 31 December 2015) in equities, multi-asset, fixed income, real estate and cash for clients across Europe and Asia.
The Team
GVA Second London Wall, TP Bennett
The Challenge
M&G’s current London office leases expire within the next 4 years. With its future workplace accommodation, M&G wanted to provide for future growth in the business and bring together the firm’s London operations in a single building. Relocating the business will require the acquisition of suitable new premises and then designing, fitting out and equipping these.
M&G has completed an agreement for the lease of 328,000 sq ft at 10 Fenchurch Avenue with the relocation expected to happen in 2018. Ahead of this major relocation and to support short term expansion requirements, M&G wanted to develop new workspaces to pilot Activity Based Working. Cordless Consultants (Cordless) was engaged to provide Technology Change Training for an Activity Based Working pilot space for 100 people at M&G’s office in One Angel Lane.
The Solution
The new working area was designed with new furniture including height adjustable desks, new collaboration spaces and a range of new technologies. As part of the change programme, Cordless helped to develop a technology training plan to help the users transition to using the technology in the new setting.
Cordless oversaw a multi-stream technology training programme that addressed the following requirements:
- The ability to transition between different workstations and work settings providing greater flexibility when using different devices.
- Use of a single headset when making phone calls or listen to computer audio without unplugging any cables.
- Understanding of the adaptability of the Surface Pro, which is suitable for different work settings and scenarios due to its flexibility as a laptop or tablet and its touchscreen interface. The SurfacePro is packaged with the latest native Microsoft applications to produce documents with rich content on a mobile device.
- Access to specific applications is possible via connecting to the desktop Thin Client.
- The use of the Avaya EC500 phone, which allows the user to be contactable wherever they are when their extension is called – both the phone and mobile phone ring.
- The ability to extend a call from a desk phone to a mobile.
- The ability to make calls using a BYOD phone through the Avaya OneX Communicator software.
- Use of SMARTboard technology and relevant software that will enable collaboration between different project teams.
Cordless managed 22 training sessions for M&G, giving all 100 users the opportunity to take on key learnings about the technology in the new Activity Based Working space. Cordless created a user manual to assist in supporting users post transition.
Each 1.5 hour training session was followed by a 15 minute feedback session, increasing user engagement and interaction. Cordless ensured that a technology training specialist was available onsite for 3 days after transition to answer any further questions that the users had.
The Results
M&G wanted to implement the Activity Based Working pilot to see how it would fit around the organisation’s working behaviours ahead of the major relocation project.
As a result, the M&G has been able to reduce its desk to person ratio in this area by 30% and take forward some key learnings on the use of technology to enable collaborative and agile working.