GSK

GSK plc, (an acronym from its former name GlaxoSmithKline plc,) is a British multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with global headquarters in London. Established in 2000, GSK is the tenth largest pharmaceutical company and #294 on the 2022 Fortune Global 500.

With multiple locations (both offices and labs) around the world, it is crucial for GSK to offer their employees a unified experience when it comes to personal storage. Whether they work in a GSK office or production location, when employees visit other GSK locations, the employee experience should not be any different.

The Vecos Smart Locker System is currently deployed in 13 locations (ranging from North America to Europe and Asia) and more locations are joining. The Global roll-out of the Vecos Smart Locker System is focused on GSK offices but also includes some production sites. as it is necessary for each employee to change every day to the appropriate protective workwear.

The strong partnership between GSK’s Worldwide Real Estate & Facilities (WREF) team and Otto Boot, their dedicated Vecos’ Global Accounts Manager, ensures smooth local implementations at a global scale. Here’s how they do it.

It all starts with that first office

GSK House in Brentford was the first location to implement the Vecos Smart Locker System with currently 970 lockers installed. “Our system proved itself as the enabler of dynamic working at GSK House,” says Otto Boot, Global Account Manager at Vecos. “Soon, it set the example for other GSK offices to follow. With the largest deployment in Bangalore, India (+/- 1,600 lockers), some mid-sized locations in the USA and Canada (on average 300 lockers per location), and smaller sites scattered around Europe in Switzerland, Denmark and Poland.”

Scalability around the globe

Is scalability just a matter of copy and paste? “Yes and no,” says Otto. He explains: “GSK allows each location to select their own furniture supplier for the cabinets. GSK’s local team then instructs this supplier to share floor plans with Vecos and to request a quote for the hardware elements of our solution.” Once the hardware is installed, the site will be configured under the respective Geography and country in the Vecos Releezme software platform.

The floor plan is the starting point of each project because it shows:

• Quantity and position of locker banks on a floor
• Quantity of lockers per bank
• Material of the lockers
• Desired positions of the terminals
• Locker options, such as LED light and/or USB charger

Vecos delivers locks, cables, hubs, terminals and power supplies to the furniture supplier to build it into the cabinets, prior to arriving on-site. “The Vecos Smart Locker System can be installed in any locker from any furniture supplier,” says Otto. “As Vecos has been in the smart locker business since 1997, global clients such as GSK benefit from our extensive network of global and local furniture suppliers and installation partners.”

GSK ways of working

Next steps include the setting up of building & IT infrastructure (power, data, IT landscape), with its lead time being dependent on situation and project. A Vecos-trained specialist oversees commissioning, software configuration, training and project management.

The Vecos software is an off-the-shelf solution that is configured in line with GSK’s global Ways of Working (a set of configuration rules to promote and sustain smart working). One of these rules is that used lockers have to be released by the end of each workday. This standard is, however, not set in stone – but constantly evolving.

“The beauty of having multiple locations connected to one smart locker management system, is that the information we gain in the system turns into new insights that influence the standard Ways of Working,” says Otto.

Within the Vecos software, GSK can decide to activate a timer based on a so-called sliding window period; each time a user opens the locker, the timer restarts. This way, users that frequently open their lockers are not impacted by a fixed release of the end of each workday.

The concept of the timer is also practical for those employees that need lockers in changing rooms after and before their shift. When setting the timer to a so-called maximum use period, it ensures that enough lockers are released by the end of one shift and therefore available for the next shift. This way, shift workers always have personal storage when they need it, while you also make optimum use of space and resources.

GSK embraces hybrid work for the long haul at new London HQ

The next big collaboration between GSK and Vecos is GSK’s new headquarters on the corner of New Oxford Street and Earnshaw Street, in the heart of London. In July 2024, some 3,000 people have moved in adhering to a hybrid working model. This includes GSK’s global leadership team, as well as teams supporting research and development, the supply chain, commercial operations, corporate functions, and subsidiary company ViiV Healthcare.

The new headquarters have been designed for collaboration and are powered by technology to keep supporting effective hybrid working. Smart lockers have been installed on the office floors, in the basement for commuters, and in the gym – all powered by the Vecos Smart Locker System. The new headquarters define a whole new standard for GSK’s Way of Working worldwide, thus proving the case for dynamic working at scale.

• The Vecos Smart Locker System is configurable to fit all your users’ journeys in the age of hybrid working. The lockers can be used for all types of personal storage, (temporary) project or department teams’ storage, in changing rooms, for in-company mail distribution, for exchanging IT spare parts, and much more.
• The global, corporate vision sets the default, but local culture, habits and needs define the specifics.
• Our global technology covers all locations from 1 central system, to provide the highest information security and the latest features of the Smart Locker System. All locations benefit from local service and support through the furniture supplier of their choice.