Computer aided facility management

Computer aided facility management is bought to answer questions about space, and this is the first one: how much of what you pay for is actually used. Enter the desks or workstations in the estate, how many are occupied on an average day, the floor area and the annual cost of running it, and the sheet returns utilisation as a percentage, the empty desks, the annual cost per desk provided and per desk actually used, the cost carried by the empty ones, and the square feet you could release at that occupancy. On the worked example, 180 desks with 108 occupied is 60% utilisation and 72 empty desks; the space costs $2,333 a desk provided but $3,889 a desk actually used, $168,000 of the $420,000 is carried by desks nobody sits at, and 5,600 of the 14,000 square feet could in principle be released. That last figure is the one a lease renewal turns on, and it is arithmetic rather than opinion.

Cost per desk provided against cost per desk used

The gap between $2,333 and $3,889 on the worked example is the price of the empty space, expressed per person actually served. It is a more persuasive figure than a utilisation percentage because it is money, and it is the same fact.

Occupancy on an average day, not a peak day

Use a typical day rather than the busiest one, and count what is observed rather than what is assigned. Assigned desks always show higher utilisation than occupied ones, which is exactly the gap this sheet exists to expose.

What releasable area actually means

5,600 square feet is what the current occupancy implies, not what you could vacate tomorrow: space is not perfectly divisible and a lease is not perfectly flexible. It is the size of the prize, and it tells you whether a renewal conversation is worth preparing for.