Plotting The Office Of TomorrowPlotting The Office Of Tomorrow

Say hello to the smart office. IBM and office furniture maker Steelcase Corp. Monday unveiled their vision of tomorrow's workplace--or at least one cubical of it--at IBM's T.J. Watson Research Center in Hawthorne, N.Y. It's some cubical.

Approach the 11-by-7-foot workspace, designed by researchers at both companies, and a monitor on the outside wall of the ergonomic workstation signals whether its occupant is available, eating lunch, at a meeting, or on the phone. Colored lights radiate the worker's status. On a December tour of the research project, IBM Research senior manager Marissa Viveros demonstrated the system. As she crossed into her workspace, the badge around her neck turned the overhead status light green, illuminated a task light above her desk, and signaled team members--via IBM-designed Web software--that Viveros was back in action. Meanwhile, temperature and noise sensors made sure the office wasn't too hot or cold, and monitored sound levels to make sure her conversations would not disturb others.

BlueSpace, as IBM and Steelcase call their creation--another installation of the project lives at Steelcase headquarters in Grand Rapids, Mich.--tests trends shaping the workplace of the 00's. One is information persistence--the idea that younger workers accustomed to managing multiple streams of information simultaneously will use those skills to more closely monitor their work environments. In the BlueSpace cubical, for example, a second touch-screen beside the user's primary display tracks team members' whereabouts and availability, controls the temperature and lighting, and cues messages for colleagues. Office workers also want more personalized environments, including desks and walls that slide to spec, says Mark Greiner, senior VP of research concepts and ventures at Steelcase.

"The nature of work is changing just as dramatically as the technology is changing," Greiner says. "We're seen as a reference point by many across the world for our understanding of the nature of work," says Greiner. But "we have not built that all by ourselves," he adds. "We have to look to companies that have deep pockets." A year ago, Steelcase joined IBM's selective First of a Kind program, which pairs a few ambitious customers a year with IBM researchers to solve unique problems. More than 100 customers of IBM and Steelcase have toured the BlueSpace installations, and the companies plan to deploy pilots at perhaps half a dozen customer sites this year.

Steelcase booked $3.89 billion in revenue last year, most of it from selling products like desks, chairs, and filing cabinets. If the world's largest office furniture supplier succeeds in its partnership with IBM and delivers on other technology projects--last year, Steelcase bought PolyVision Corp., whose Bluetooth-enabled cameras can turn whiteboard notes into electronic data that users can print, save, and E-mail--it can lower customers' cost of maintaining office space and make employees more productive, says Greiner. The research head started as a software designer at Steelcase in 1973, then worked in data processing, marketing, and served as CIO for three and a half years before taking over Steelcase's tech ventures and research efforts last year.

Customers want Steelcase to help them think more about how its furniture and cubicals mesh with their offices' architecture and computer systems, Greiner says. The company is relying on developing that expertise to create new business: Revenue growth slowed last year, and profits since 2000 are down from the late 90s. "BlueSpace is meant to be a collecting point of many of the ideas we're trying," he says. "Depending on how aggressive the firm is, many of these technologies are already in use."