Zurich Technology Delivery Center

Zurich Technology Delivery Center is a high technological IT and Operations center established in 2006 and based in Barcelona, Spain. It acts as the strategic IT and operations partner for local and global business units for the Zurich Insurance Group. As the office has a direct view at the Mediterranean sea, it is a popular destination for Zurich Insurance employees as a place of work.

Since September 2021, Zurich Technology Delivery Center offers their employees the possibility to choose between different ways of working: 100% remote work, a hybrid model, and 100% work from the office.

The office is home to 430 Vecos Smart Lockers.

A hybrid model as the new standard

Francesco Provera, Operations – Facilities & Data Office Manager at Zurich Technology Delivery Center, tells us: “When we decided to move to the Vecos system, we were implementing this new way of working. We were integrating the hybrid model. We had employees working from abroad who would only once or thrice a month be in the office. This was the new model.”

Faced with the new reality of hybrid work, Zurich Technology Delivery Center had to shape an environment that fostered effective collaboration, and helped people feel a greater sense of connection to their teams and work, regardless of location. “Of course, it impacted the ratio employees to desks. In 5 years, we grew to have twice as many employees, but we were able to keep the exact same space size.”

“As we are so closely located to the Mediterranean sea, our office is a popular office to visit for Zurich Insurance employees,” Francesco adds proudly.

Workplace of the Future

“Our employees were used to have lockers,” Francesco says. “But with the Workplace of the Future, our workplace strategy, came everything flex: flex desks, flex parking, and flex lockers. It’s a more democratic process now: we have a number of facilities available, and anyone can book it when needed.”

“So for the Vecos Smart Lockers, we have the same principle. Employee or visitor, anyone with a Zurich Insurance access badge, can open a locker. In theory, users ought to release their locker when they leave the office. The system is self-service, and our people are self-sufficient, so we do not need to control and check the lockers.”

“Initially, all lockers were programmed as personal lockers. But some of the teams wanted to share a locker to use it for team purpose. Our facility management read the Vecos’ documentation and were able to change this setting themself.”

Ready for future plans

“Developments we foresee in the near future include replacing the access badges with mobile phones and our own workplace app that we developed in-house. With Vecos’ system API, the integration will be smooth, just like we’ve seen at Zurich Insurance in Switzerland.”

“Next year, we’ll be giving our employees lockers that can also charge batteries for bikes and scooters,” Francesco concludes. “Which is not a unnecessary luxury when you live in a city like Barcelona!”

• Same system and technology installed at Zurich Insurance in Switzerland and England; Vecos had already passed the supplier assessment and technology tests
• 430 lockers for employees and visitors
• Maximum flexibility, maximum happiness