Willis Towers Watson partners with Workplace Fabric to launch Freespace

Willis Towers Watson has partnered professional services firm Workplace Fabric to put together a new digital real estate solution. Freespace, a new space finding and workspace optimisation solution, is aimed at helping clients to locate new offices around the world, or get the most out of existing environments.

As digital disruption enables a multitude of start-ups and SMEs to compete with long-term market heavyweights, a growing number of companies are looking to expand their operations internationally. This means that there is increasing competition for real estate across the globe, particularly in terms of office space. Last year, this saw record levels of office space real estate investment in London alone.

In order to respond to the changing needs of clients – keen to eke out the best deal in the real estate market for their firm’s expansion ambitions – Workplace Fabric and Willis Towers Watson have partnered in a bid to transform companies’ searches for new space. Workplace Fabric works to help clients to lower real estate costs, while global advisory Willis Towers Watson leverage the talents of over 40,000 employees in 140 countries to design and deliver solutions.

Sensor-based platform Freespace offers real time space availability information to office users, as well as deep insights about property use to the Corporate Real Estates team. The platform has the inbuilt capability to measure temperature, humidity, light and noise levels, in addition to occupancy, which provides further opportunities for extension to other applications. Following a successful six-month trial, Freespace is already deployed in 25 cities around the world, including iconic work environments such as the Sears Tower in Chicago, the Gherkin in London, and the Century Link Towers in Pudong, Shanghai.

Steve McKie, Head of Global Strategy and Clients Solutions at Willis Towers Watson, said, "Willis Towers Watson is committed to create the best workplace experience for our colleagues, and Freespace enables our colleagues to work more effectively in our agile environment."

Raj Krishnamurthy, CEO of Workplace Fabric, commented, "Freespace is designed to be deployed with ease on a global scale by seamlessly integrating into the existing IT infrastructure… We are proud to partner with Willis Towers Watson on their journey to create the best workplace experience for their people worldwide."