When Booking.com transitioned to their massive 65,000-square-meter headquarters in Amsterdam, they faced an enormous challenge: how to effectively manage facilities on such a scale. This move, consolidating multiple smaller offices into one centralized campus, came with significant responsibilities, including taking ownership of hard services like HVAC, electrical systems, and plumbing—tasks previously handled by landlords.
To navigate these complexities, Booking.com partnered with Spacewell to implement an Integrated Workplace Management System (IWMS). This system not only addressed immediate challenges but also transformed how they approached facility management, turning it into a streamlined and data-driven operation.
The Challenge: A New Scale of Complexity
Prior to consolidating operations in one innovation hub in Amsterdam, Booking.com maintained a network of smaller offices spread across the city. However, the company wanted to foster collaboration within the company and to move all employees to a single, massive headquarters building. This change meant that they would need to move 7,000 employees to a building with 3,000 desks. This transition presented new challenges:
- Complexity at Scale: The sheer size and intricate design of the new headquarters demanded a more sophisticated approach to facility maintenance. Managing a multitude of hard services (HVAC, electrical, plumbing) for a building of such footprint necessitated a centralized system for efficient oversight.
- Reliance on Excel: Booking.com previously relied on Excel to manage various aspects of facility services. This approach was labor-intensive, prone to errors and hindered communication, created data silos, and made it difficult to gain a holistic view of facility operations.
- Manual Workflows: The process of submitting and tracking maintenance requests, communication with vendors, and managing maintenance schedules was largely manual, leading to inefficiency and delays.
- Limited Control and Visibility: Without a centralized platform, Booking.com lacked real-time data on maintenance tasks, supplier performance, and overall facility health. This limited their ability to prioritize tasks, ensure timely completion, and optimize resource allocation.
The Solution: Spacewell Workplace IWMS as a Centralized Hub
Recognizing the need for a comprehensive solution, Booking.com partnered with Spacewell to implement Spacewell Workplace, a robust IWMS platform. Spacewell’s IWMS provided the centralized hub essentials for streamlining facility management across the new headquarters.
Key features that addressed Booking.com’s challenges include:
- Unified Platform: Spacewell Workplace serves as a single source of truth for all facility data. This includes asset information, maintenance schedules, service requests, and supplier details.
- Performance Tracking: Spacewell’s IWMS provides a clear system for tracking supplier response times and completion rates. This facilitates performance management and allows Booking.com to hold vendors accountable for meeting service level agreements (SLAs).
- Seamless Communication: Spacewell Workplace fosters improved communication between internal teams (facilities, IT) and external vendors through a centralized platform for task assignment, updates, and status tracking.
- Data-Driven Decision Making: Spacewell Workplace generates real-time reports and dashboards, providing Booking.com with valuable insights into maintenance trends, resource allocation, and overall facility performance.
- Proactive Maintenance and Control: Booking.com leverages Spacewell Maintenance to plan and budget for all renovation and maintenance needs. This proactive approach allows them to prioritize tasks, allocate resources effectively, anticipate potential issues, and maintain optimal building functionality. Spacewell’s Workplace Management system then facilitates the efficient distribution of these tasks and tracks their completion in real-time, ensuring a well-maintained facility for their employees.
Implementation and Integration
Booking.com adopted a phased approach to Workplace IWMS implementation, prioritizing the most critical needs first. Initially, the focus was on managing hard services (HVAC, electrical). The system integrated seamlessly with Booking.com’s existing ServiceNow system used for submitting employee maintenance requests. ServiceNow acts as a front-end interface, while Workplace IWMS functions as the back-end management engine.
To ensure efficient task prioritization, Booking.com utilizes Spacewell’s built-in categorization system (problem tree). This system allows for assigning urgency levels to maintenance requests based on severity and potential impact. The company also established a dedicated office management team as the first line of contact for minor issues. This team possesses the expertise to resolve simple problems and filter out non-critical requests, preventing unnecessary escalation to external vendors.
Results: From Reactive to Proactive Management
The implementation of Spacewell’s IWMS marked a turning point for Booking.com. Improved communication, increased transparency, and enhanced control allowed the Workplace Services team to operate with greater precision and efficiency.
“Before adopting Spacewell’s IWMS, facility management was complex and reactive. Now, we manage by data, not intuition, which aligns perfectly with our values as a data-driven business.” – Joran Lise, Contract Manager Hard Services, Booking.com
