“On a project of this magnitude it’s very rare that you can say the outcome exceeded the vision. Storr has surpassed all our expectations.”
– Ivory Johnson

Lenovo

Challenge

In 2014, Lenovo acquired the IBM Server Lab division which included 1600 new employees. With this new addition to their team, Lenovo needed to find a way to make their real estate more efficient and revamp their working styles.

The majority of the IBM employees were coming from a dated facility lacking natural sunlight and their collaborative spaces consisted of traditional conference rooms with limited data and power. Each individual was allotted separate offices which hindered their chance for sharing ideas and insights.

Solution

The Space

Storr understood the needs of Lenovo’s diverse teams through their support of the RTP location for over 8 years. Due to this fact,   Lenovo relied heavily on Storr’s facility services team to evaluate potential site locations for their new server location.  Storr worked closely with Perkins & Will Architecture, Whiting Turner Construction, and other key decision makers in selecting the optimal location to fit Lenovo’s progressive culture and unique set of business objectives.

Storr created a modern, exciting space that could fit the growing business needs of Lenovo while promoting creativity and progress in a naturally lit environment. To account for Lenovo’s active and fluid project teams, Storr sprinkled in several specialized lab spaces and informal meeting spaces amongst the more traditional individual workstations. Benching was also introduced as a way to create a more space efficient option while still meeting user needs for storage and organization.

With Lenovo being a leader in technological advancements, Storr understood the need to integrate technology throughout the space.  Steelcase’s Media:Scape revolutionized the collaborative processes allowing employees to quickly share ideas and inspirations. Multiple touchdown and team spaces provide secondary environments for quick collaboration while having full access to power and data.

Although typically considered an area for respite, Storr equipped Lenovo’s break rooms and cafeteria with the technology to support the live and impromptu culture that exists within Lenovo’s landscape. These shared areas are optimized with the Media:Scape as a collaborative tool while providing spaces for socializing and dining. Relaxing lounge options in these areas promote a variety of postures to address the individuals as opposed to the masses. The mixed use Work Café takes this large amount of real estate and diversifies its function to better suit the ebb and flow of the work day.

The reaction to the new space has been extremely positive. With no more closed doors and no more empty hallways, Lenovo team members are embracing the different collaboration spaces and learning new ways to meet and interact.

The Move

After the selection was made, Storr quickly went to work developing a comprehensive change management plan. This included extensive programming with each line of business, detailed stacking plans, and creative scheduling to maximize efficiency while avoiding the interruption of Lenovo employees. To achieve this, Storr devised the following move strategy that allowed for 1600 team member to be relocated in just 3 days.

Storr’s crews began the move early in the morning the first day – loading out the team members’ belongings to be relocated to the new Enterprise site. This load out continued into the second day to ensure everything was ready for unloading at midnight at the new site. This allowed Storr’s move team to work quickly through the second and third day unloading team members’ belongings to allow Lenovo’s new site to be up and running by the fourth day. This tightly run process permitted 1600 team members to be moved from 11 separate buildings to the 2 new buildings on Lenovo’s Enterprise site in the extremely limited schedule.

Following this work, Storr continued to supply post-move support with several help desks to address any questions as well as provide maps and collateral to ensure all team members fully understood how to use their new workspace.