Salesforce and Siemens have bundled their workplace management tools in a new IoT suite to help businesses reopen after lockdown and embrace new practices for physical workplaces, as a so-called ‘new normal’ takes shape in the shadow of the global coronavirus pandemic.
The principle is to offer better space management solutions, via IoT-based sensors and sense-making tools, and social-media style user apps.
The partnership pairs Salesforce’s Work.com sales performance management platform and Siemens’ various workplace gadgetry from its ‘smart infrastructure solutions’, including its space optimisation application Comfy and its IoT-based buildings management business Enlighted.
The pair is promising a ‘touchless office’ with mobile ‘boarding passes’ for building and elevator entry, and a safe occupancy management system, which allows employees to reserve rooms and desks in the Comfy app, and get alerts about capacity and social distancing thresholds.
Occupancy and location data, already provided by Siemens via its Enlighted business, are being re-presented within the context of the Salesforce tie-up, as a means to aggregate employee check-in and desk and room reservations, and augment manual contact tracing in Work.com.
Contact tracing will be an opt-in solution to respect users’ privacy, said Siemens. Siemens and Salesforce will deploy the new combined solutions in Siemens smart infrastructure headquarters in Zug, Switzerland, and in Salesforce Tower in San Francisco.
Roland Busch, deputy chief executive and member of the board at Siemens, said: “The safe return of people to the workplace is a global challenge, and it’s vital that companies protect their employees to build trust and confidence. Together with Salesforce we can swiftly support businesses around the world to implement technology which supports employees as they return to the office, while laying the foundations of long-term digital transformation in workplaces.”
Alex Dayon, president and chief strategy officer at Salesforce, said: “Organisations are beginning to reimagine the future workplace experience, putting their employees’ health and safety at the centre of their digital transformations. By combining Siemens’ smart infrastructure solutions with Salesforce’s Work.com, we are giving companies the tools to make smart, data-driven decisions quickly and the confidence to reopen safely.”
