EY

EY is one of Sweden’s and the world’s leading advisors in tax, auditing, management, and transaction strategies. A new global work strategy with the motto “building a better working world” was to be implemented, and the need arose to find a new office where the premises could act as a catalyst for the global strategy towards Sweden. 

The goal was to create a more modern workplace with the possibility of increased flexibility in where and how to work, and not least, to promote a culture of cooperation across business areas and boundaries. 

Another important pillar was the sustainability itself and the goal to be climate neutral by 2025. 

The new office would be the very image of a modern workplace with flexible workspaces, where ventilation, light and humidity are adapted based on which surfaces are currently used, and where all systems for flows of people in the premises can be overviewed in the new EY app, that among other things handles easy booking of workplaces. The premises shall also maintain a high level of security with entry systems and security cameras to meet the high standards that exist, based on the highly sensitive customer data that EY handles.

– This is not just a new office, but part of a transformation of the entire business where the office is the hub,” says Jessica Schmidt, everyday management consultant at EY and responsible project and program leader for the new office. 

– Coromatic understood our needs and was able to help us find the best solutions throughout the project, that also had tight timeframes.

Same number of employees in 50% of the space

In recent years, many businesses have reduced the number of workplaces due to the fact that many employees are still not in the premises. EY has done the opposite and although they have reduced the number of square meters by 50%, EY has increased the number of workplaces by 7%, with the goal that everyone who needs and wants to be in the office at the same time, shall have the availability to do just that. 

However, not all 1550 employees have their own desk, some of the seats are distributed on desks, sofas and various meeting places within the premises. Something that places demands on everything from electricity- to network connections.

– Our requirements for availability, security and redundancy are very high. 

The combination of everything being connected together with the workplaces that needs to be flexible, places extra demands on both IT infrastructure and electricity,” says Zakaria Rahmani, project manager for technology and IT within the project. 

– Coromatic was able to help us integrate all these parts in a very smooth way, where we would otherwise have had to engage several different suppliers to meet all the challenges.

Coromatic has ensured that both the actual relocation of critical infrastructure could take place without interruption, as well as designed and installed all new mission-critical infrastructure for electricity and datacommunication with the right dimensions for the requirements for the business.

The pandemic raised the level of digitalization

As with so many other businesses, new creative working methods have seen the light of day during the pandemic. EY believes that some of them is here to stay. 

One example for that was the permanent establishment of building up two studios for live broadcasts of webinars.

– We have raised the digital meeting infrastructure in the premises to a level that was originally intended due to the pandemic. We have previously invited to breakfast lectures quite frequently, but I think we have all realized that it is much better and smoother to both conduct and attend a digital lecture even after the pandemic,” comments Jessica Schmidt.

All meeting rooms are equipped with advanced audio and visual technology to ensure the optimal digital meeting experience, and where Coromatic has ensured that the network infrastructure meets the high-performance requirements.

Clear requirements and ambition important parameters

Moving a workplace if this magnitude requires planning, and designing an office where virtually all the features that can be smart in the form of being connected are, requires that there is long-term thinking in terms of sizing. So what is EY’s advice to anyone who is moving a workplace or building a new smart office?

– Work on the basis of a clear ambition and ask yourself why you do this first and foremost. Then start all planning based upon the needs of the employees and involve senior management in the most important decisions,” says Jessica Schmidt. And enlist the help of experts like Coromatic for advice on how to design and dimension the digital infrastructure to work both today and in the future.