IRENA : A green workspace management case study

How Arrive’s unified resource management solution is helping IRENA achieve their goal of having a single platform to manage room scheduling, signage and collaboration across different locations and time zones; while maintaining energy savings and efficiency standards.

The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) is mandated as the global hub for renewable energy cooperation and information exchange by 140 Members (139 States and the European Union). Roughly 32 additional countries are in the accession process and actively engaged. IRENA promotes the widespread adoption and sustainable use of all forms of renewable energy, including bioenergy, geothermal, hydropower, ocean, solar and wind energy in the pursuit of sustainable development, energy access, energy security and low-carbon economic growth and prosperity. More information can be found on their website: www.irena.org

The IRENA headquarters building is the first in the UAE to achieve a four-pearl Estidama construction rating – a UAE-certification system stressing energy, water and carbon efficiency. Located at the geographic centre of sustainable Masdar City, the 32,000 square metre complex consists of three interconnected buildings, which work together to conserve energy and water, and create shared space.

IRENA needed an efficient room booking solution for its temporary headquarters in Abu Dhabi’s business district during its initial years of operation. Under strict environmental and sustainable green technology mandates, it specified room booking technology that uses less cabling and power, and help in the utilization of meeting spaces more efficiently. The solution should also be easy to install and integrate when IRENA transitions to its permanent headquarters in Masdar City. In addition, the new headquarters require a single platform solution to manage video conferencing, signage and room scheduling.

Challenge

Meetings are the prime focus of IRENA operations:

IRENA is an organization whose primary business operates by way of meetings between internal employees or with external entities such as government representatives, companies, delegate representatives from other countries etc. The HQ of IRENA is designed to accommodate large numbers of meetings scheduled and held within their premises. The primary challenge was to find a way to book meetings from a unified platform that can handle multiple rooms, users, and provide central, summarized schedule displays. At the time, meeting were organized manually and prone to booking conflicts. Any attempt at conflict resolution was further compounded by the problem of quickly finding an available room within the premises for those who were “bumped out” of booked rooms. This caused a lot of frustration, negativity and most importantly, waste of valuable time. The need for a system that can manage bookings, display the correct meeting and organizer information, conflict resolution, and option to view bookings “at-a glance” became a priority.

Interviewing Process Policy of IRENA:

IRENA has a very strict policy of not requiring job applicants to come in person for interviews. This is to open job opportunities to applicants regardless of their location. They strongly believe that the only way to achieve this is to use a flexible video conferencing platform that can accommodate any type of application, software or device. This is because not everyone has access to a professional conferencing facility, and may only rely on personal Skype accounts or other apps, and use mobile phones or laptops.
IRENA also require video conference meetings with other companies or organizations who may have varied infrastructures such as Polycom, Cisco, Skype for Business, etc. Thus, another challenge was to meet IRENA’s strong requirement for a video conferencing solution that would provide them with a single platform to make calls between different video conferencing end-points.

Solution

Arrive installed the OnePoint Server, which is hosted on IRENA’s network, and provides the central configuration and management for room booking, signage and conferencing. Thirteen InfoPoint room signage devices were installed outside thirteen meeting rooms and shared workspaces, while the InfoView provided summary booking information and digital signage in their lobby area. The Arrive FacePoint, also seamlessly integrated with OnePoint Server, provided them with a unified conferencing platform that supports different VC apps and devices. The complete conferencing functionality is executed by a single press when choosing one of the two buttons on the UI: one for video collaboration and the other for a local session.

Results

Arrive OnePoint has helped IRENA achieve meeting management and conferencing goals. At the same time, the solution met their mandate of having only green technology that promotes efficiency, productivity and energy savings.

• Seamless system set-up without any networking issues.
• Central management functionality provides immense flexibility.
• The system has been reliable since installation and works well.
• InfoPoint uses only energy efficient LED status lights, provides meeting room use analytics and other reports, and energy conservation.
• InfoPoint doubles as digital signage and meeting room information display; has energy conservation features.
• FacePoint became a “room butler” for all of IRENA’s collaboration, conferencing and presentation needs.
• OnePoint Server demonstrates the power and convenience of a unified resource management platform combined with features that support the Internet of AV Things, room control, device and content management, reporting and analytics.