How Cisco Designed the Collaborative Connected Workplace Environment

Like most companies, however, Cisco had designed its office space traditionally, under the assumption that employees would work in their own cubicles during regular work hours and needed an assigned work space with their own desk, PC, and phone. The result: meeting rooms were often in short supply, while offices and cubicles remained vacant 65 percent of the time, on average. The resulting Connected Workspace floor plan was conceived with a university theme, with open spaces called quads - plazas where employees can meet informally, common areas for breaks, and enclosed offices called colleges. The absence of cubicle walls allows more natural light to reach the workspaces, and a wireless LAN and IP Telephony provides employees with even greater mobility.