Cisco Smart Workspaces FAQ

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Updated:June 6, 2023

Bias-Free Language

The documentation set for this product strives to use bias-free language. For the purposes of this documentation set, bias-free is defined as language that does not imply discrimination based on age, disability, gender, racial identity, ethnic identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and intersectionality. Exceptions may be present in the documentation due to language that is hardcoded in the user interfaces of the product software, language used based on RFP documentation, or language that is used by a referenced third-party product. Learn more about how Cisco is using Inclusive Language.

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Updated:June 6, 2023

Table of Contents

 

 

Overview

Q.  What is Cisco Smart Workspaces ?
A.  Cisco ® Smart Workspaces from Cisco Spaces bring together the power of the Cisco portfolio, including Catalyst, Meraki, and Webex, to help enterprises create safer, smarter, and more enriching workplaces. The digital signage experience solution helps employees visualize real-time occupancy and indoor environmental conditions (air quality and temperature) on interactive 3D maps and makes it easy to locate available meeting and collaboration spaces. Employees can use this information to make informed decisions about where they work and collaborate when in the office.
And the Facilities Suite of Apps help IT, facilities, and real-estate teams receive analytics to better utilize space, right size their real-estate portfolio, manage energy usage, and monitor the indoor environment to quickly act on health and safety concerns.
Q.  What is the difference between Smart Workspaces Digital signage and the Facility Suite of Apps?
A.  Both Smart Workspaces and the Facilities Suite utilize environmental and location data to provide actional and relevant information on a 3D rich map.
Smart Workspaces Signage is geared towards office employees and guests that need to book a conference or meeting room and understand air quality and noise levels when selecting an area to work.
Facilities Suite of Apps is designed for facilities, real-estate, and IT teams that need real-time visibility into office space occupancy and environmental data.
Additionally, these apps enable teams to associate and manage sensors in their workspaces at scale to identify and prioritize sensor sources for the most accurate readings possible.
With the Facilities Suite organizations can gain:

      Deeper insights into space utilization and office space air quality.

      More accurate spaces that foster collaboration as well as quiet spaces for focused work.

      Visibility into space occupancy levels enabling maintenance and cleaning schedules to be reduced in under-utilized areas along with lighting and HVAC to save time and help reduce energy costs.

Q.  What value does Smart Workspaces deliver?
A.  Cisco Smart Workspaces allows organizations to:

      Improve employee experience and productivity.

      Improve employee satisfaction and retention.

      Make informed decisions on how they bring employees back to the office

      Help employees feel safer and more empowered in the office.

      Better utilize space and assets.

      Right-size their real estate portfolio and optimize operations.

      Understand network power consumption to drive energy efficiency strategies in data centers and other areas.

Enterprises spend as little as $1 per square foot per year on Smart Workspaces and can realize benefits up to $9 * per square foot per year.
* Assuming space optimization and employee productivity use cases have been deployed with recommended hardware.
Q.  Who will be the primary users of Cisco Smart Workspaces?
A.  Hybrid workers/ employees:

      Safety: View real-time occupancy and air quality.

      Productivity: Visualize meeting room and desk availability.

      Experience: Provide contextual awareness.

IT/facilities / real-estate:

      Understand space utilization.

      View real-time occupancy and manage capacity.

      Gain real-time insights that can be used to enhance the employee experience, improve productivity, and optimize space utilization.

Q.  What is the Facilities Suite of Apps?
A.  Facilities, real-estate, and IT teams will all find value in the Facilities Suite of Apps which consists of:
Space Manager:

      Visualize real-time occupancy to understand how people use your spaces, on a 3D map of the floor.

      Floor occupancy heatmaps to see in real-time where people are located around the building.

    Visibility into environmental sensor data from Cisco Catalyst, Meraki, Webex, and third-party sources.

    Easily associate and manage a rich array of sensors in your workspaces. Choose which sensor are used for specific measurements, identify sensor gaps, and gain visibility into the health of each sensor.

Environmental Analytics:

      View and analyze detailed environmental trends at your workplace - air quality, temperature, humidity, CO2, noise, etc.

      Get updates on deviations and anomalies and employees are working in a safe environment.

      Gain a holistic overview of building performance for optimizing HVAC operation.

Energy App:

      See how your network consumes power across PoE devices.

      Understand network energy utilization to help achieve NetZero goals for a more sustainable footprint.

      Integrate select Smart PDU's to understand more about your energy utilization.

Benefits and features

Q.  What are the benefits and features of this solution?
A.  Rich employee experience

      Cisco Smart Workspaces transforms flat floorplans into dynamic, interactive, 3D maps. It uses digital signage, such as Webex® Boards, to provide contextual awareness, easily locate empty meeting rooms and desks, and find important points of interest.

Safety and well-being

      Employees can easily access real-time occupancy and environmental information (indoor air quality, volatile organic compounds, temperature, humidity, noise levels, etc.) across a specific building, floor, or meeting room. IT and facilities teams can monitor occupancy and air quality in real time, set alerts, and respond immediately when safety thresholds are crossed.

Employee productivity

      Employers can improve employees’ experience and boost productivity by decreasing the amount of time it takes to find meeting rooms and desks. Employees can visualize live meeting room and desk availability along with key environmental parameters such as temperature, humidity, and noise levels. Additionally, they can temporarily hold meeting rooms until they arrive, all with the touch of a button using digital signages.

Space utilization

      IT and facilities teams can use Cisco Smart Workspaces to get a better understanding of the physical workspace. Organizations can improve space utilization and make decisions on consolidation or reconfiguration by analyzing usage patterns, running A/B tests, and reviewing the impact of layout changes on productivity.

Environmental Analytics

      Monitor indoor air quality, temperature, humidity, CO2, etc. to keep your indoor environment safe.

Energy Utilization

      Understand network energy utilization.

Inventory Management

      Track high value assets, office equipment, furniture, collaboration equipment, etc.

Q.  When will this be available?
A.  Cisco Smart Workspaces signage experience is generally available starting May 6, 2022. Space Manager, Environmental Metrics, and Energy App will be generally available in July 2023.
Q.  How do I purchase Cisco Smart Workspaces?
A.  Smart Workspaces is accessed via the following options:

1.     Cisco Spaces Act. Licensed on per device/year basis. Available as an option on Cisco DNA Advantage (Transactional and EA) as well as a la carte.

2.     Cisco Spaces Unlimited: Licensed on building unit / year basis (per square foot / square meter building unit).

Q.  What makes this solution different from competitor offerings?
A.   

      Cisco holds a unique position at the intersection of networking, collaboration, and cloud, and Cisco Spaces ties them all together.

      Cisco delivers an end-to-end solution.

      Cisco is committed to evolving our products for hybrid work and building future-ready capabilities for our customers’ changing road ahead.

Q.  What do I need to get started?
A.   

      For interactive 3D rich maps: Facility (CAD) maps.

      For building and floor-level occupancy data: Wireless network (Catalyst or Meraki) or Cisco Meraki® MV cameras*.

      For floor-level environmental metrics: Cisco Catalyst® access points,* Webex® devices, Meraki MT sensors, and/or third-party IoT sensors*.

      For room-level occupancy, people count, and room environmental metrics: Webex devices or third-party IoT sensors*.

( *Roadmap.).
Q.  What environmental metrics are available today?
A.   

      Indoor air quality: Total Volatile Organic Compounds [TVOC]

      Temperature

      Humidity

      Ambient Noise

Q.  How are the 3D maps created?
A.  Facility (CAD) maps are required to create 3D rich maps. The Cisco Spaces mapping engine intelligently deconstructs facility maps and extracts data such as meeting rooms, desks, and amenities using AI/ML and transforms them into interactive, rich maps.
Q.  What kind of data do Cisco Spaces Smart Workspaces and the Facilities Suite collect, how does it use the data, where does it keep the data, and for how long does it keep the data?
A.  Cisco Spaces:

      Does not collect any special category of personal data, such as race, ethnic background, political opinions, genetic data, biometric data, health data, etc.

      Does not intentionally collect any personal data from minors, as minors are disallowed from using the Cisco Spaces solution.

      Collects only nonsensitive personal data through the network (MAC address). This data collection is optional, and in certain cases the customer may decide to collect additional data from users.

Q.  I’m interested. How do I get more information?
A.  External resources:

      Smart Workspaces landing page

      Video

      E-book

Q.  What technical support is available to help with deployment and management of the Cisco Spaces Smart Workspaces solution?
A.  Smart Workspaces and the Facilities Suite include end-to-end monitoring and proactive notifications. Visit https://dnaspaces.cisco.com/support/ for more details. For onboarding and deployment related queries, get in touch with the Spaces team by sending an email to: dnaspaces-onboarding@cisco.com.

 

 

 

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