Microsoft, The Netherlands

Located within the complex of Europe’s third busiest airport, Amsterdam Schiphol, Microsoft’s Dutch headquarters, The Outlook, offers an open, tech-enabled workplace for both staff and customers that’s a short a walk from the departure lounge.

Since its renovation in 2018, all work settings at The Outlook are now designed to facilitate three ‘rituals’ of work. There are spaces for formal collaboration with suitable technology and privacy when needed; a diverse range of individual work settings for monotasking; and social hubs where serendipitous encounters are engineered but relaxation is deemed equally important.

The project team made an ambitious decision that the new office should reduce the amount of space accessible solely to Microsoft staff from 9,000m2 to 2,000m2, freeing up the rest to external businesses and members of the public.
To incentivize staff to reimagine the way they need to work, Microsoft closed the office entirely for 10 weeks, offering staff locations for meetings but forcing them to evaluate what they need from the office.

As a result, Microsoft used technology to use its remaining space in the most effective way possible. Users can gain control over their immediate environment through the Mapiq app (a smart workplace app) and access personal storage space using Vecos smart lockers. Users can manipulate their surroundings or simply move to somewhere better suited to their own preferences, staff can access internal navigation and colleague finding through the app.

Located within the complex of Europe’s third busiest airport, Amsterdam Schiphol, Microsoft’s Dutch headquarters, The Outlook, offers an open, tech-enabled workplace for both staff and customers that’s a short a walk from the departure lounge.

Microsoft installed more than 400 smart lockers at The Outlook for the 800 employees who use the space. The Outlook also welcomes over 9,000 visitors to the space a month, which means that this office is not only a hub for local employees but also for clients and employees across the European region.

Initially, Microsoft predicted the split for locker usage would be the large majority for employees and a smaller number for visitors. After analyzing the data over a few months from the smart locker system, Microsoft adjusted this split to better reflect the usage of the lockers.

Vecos is an official Microsoft Certified Partner and supports Microsoft globally with its smart locker system.

The Amsterdam location has been designed with testing and measurement in mind. Regular staff surveys as well as the various productivity and wellness metrics are being used to quantify the benefits of the new approach and the location is set to be used
as a testbed for other emerging technologies and solutions. It is a methodical and calculated approach to new workplace design that is poised to become the standard bearer for smart building deployment company wide.