Wired and intuitive

An IT company plans to embed nifty technologies in its new offices. G. MAHADEVAN sees the start of the future.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, The Hindu, September 04, 2010 - Coconut palms all around, a rivulet winding languorously through swathes of green, a park full of butterflies and birds … In the midst of this "Kerala setting" will rise a building resembling from some angles the axe of the legendary Parasurama. Embedded in the ambience will be an Internet-driven system making the 36-acre campus (1 acre = 0.4 hectare) "smart and connected." For UST Global, an information technology (IT) services provider, futuristic is only a year away. UST executives are fond of saying that their new campus, adjacent to Technopark, will be iconic in more ways than one. The campus will be "intelligent" with a "smart and connected real-estate solution" developed by the networking major Cisco. IP-based The "smart" network, based on Internet Protocol, will reduce capital expenditure by simplifying building design and will enable UST to reduce its carbon footprint and maintain an highly energy-efficient environment in the three-million sq.ft of work space and entertainment facilities on the campus. The first building in the three-block facility is expected to be ready by September 2011. Alexander Verghese, India country head of UST, told The Hindu-PropertyPlus that nine sub-systems of Cisco's S+C solutions would be rolled out in phases on the campus: energy and office resource management; asset management and tracking; emergency response management; health care; transport; sports and entertainment; education; a personal virtual office system; and a maintenance system. When employees "swipe in," the office resource management module will kick in, lighting only that part of the office where people will be at work and deciding the optimum heating or cooling levels. Minutes before a scheduled meeting, the system will switch on the air-conditioner and lights in the conference room. The movement of elevators and escalators through the 16 levels will be "intelligently" managed. Using the personal virtual office module, a UST employee will be able to custom-set the physical and digital settings in his "office" irrespective of the cabin he chooses to work from. "I can pre-set the room temperature, decide whether I want the window shades to be drawn or not … in short, I can remotely personalise my workspace. This will not only increase personal comfort but will also increase productivity," Mr. Varghese says. In case of an emergency requiring a range of responses, including evacuation, the S+C system will kick in, lighting up emergency exits, signposting evacuation routes and even notifying the police and the Fire and Rescue Services if necessary. The intelligent campus will track the movement of vehicles transporting the employees. An employee leaving the campus late at night can rest assured that the vehicle's location andits intended route are being monitored from a central facility. The new campus will have its hand on the pulse of the employees, literally. Walk-in facilities will show the vital signs of an employee to nurses, and doctors can tele-diagnose his or her ailment. The system oversees the overall maintenance — preventive and otherwise — of the facility, keeping an e-lookout for faults, leaks and breakages. The campus will be host to a lake, an aviary, a sportsdrome, a race track, swimming pools and a gym.

Source: http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-propertyplus/article612709.ece