About Withers Worldwide
Withers Worldwide is a leading international legal practice headquartered in London, with an additional 18 offices across the United States, Europe, and Asia-Pacific. In the last decade, they’ve added eight international offices, increasing the employee count to over 1,200, 40% of which are based in London.
Business Challenge
After years of explosive growth, Withers found itself facing escalating demands for conference room usage and video conferencing across its properties. The company started to rethink its overall approach after deciding to migrate from a fixed seating environment to an open-plan, agile workplace with room booking capabilities. This move was driven by the need for a wider variety of work settings and desire for closer collaboration between the firm’s teams.
Solution
To overcome these challenges, Withers Worldwide implemented Workplace Central, specifically for its Space Scheduling and feature-rich booking capabilities. Designed to support an agile work environment, the solution helped employees streamline how they book and manage rooms. The company deployed the solution and multiple LiveSign Pro panels in 17 offices worldwide, making how they coordinate and book spaces quicker and easier.
Business Impact
Workplace Central’s intuitive software enable Withers to align on how they plan and book space on a global scale, quickly futureproofing the offices while decreasing the chances of misalignment.
Self-service booking
Withers is now capable of easily booking and managing conference rooms, and they can easily configure the operational rules of said rooms. The team can make and update reservations with fewer clicks, and they’re able to set the rules for how and when conference rooms can be used in accordance with internal and safety guidelines. This helped make room booking more flexible to the team’s needs and freed up ghost bookings by implementing no-show rules within a set time frame.
Reservable breakout rooms
Workplace Central’s LiveSign Pro panels were fitted outside the company’s reservable breakout rooms, which lets employees see at a glance when rooms are taken or available to be prebooked. The panels also allowed users to book on-the-fly without having to go through the booking team. This gives employees the ability to book for ad-hoc meetings without delay, contributing to the practice of an agile work environment.
Worldwide, multi-team collaboration
Even though Withers has multiple offices globally, they are now able to effectively schedule events across multiple time zones using the integrated global videoconference booking process. By streamlining a once complex process, Withers’teams across the world can efficiently communicate and collaborate without any gaps or delays.
We needed to make sure our staff had access to the right technology to enable them to do their jobs as efficiently and productively as possible. The system is easy to use, and it has given people more say because they can now request a specific room whereas before it was allocated to them by the room booking team.
Peter Gibbons, Global Head of Facilities and Logistics Operations
Withers Worldwide
