Technology Toolbox: Software Solves AMGEN’s Space Challenge

iotech giant Amgen‘s corporate campus in Thousand Oaks, Calif., is immense, covering 3.8 million sq. ft. (353,020 sq. m.) and housing more than 3,000 employees involved in manufacturing, R&D, marketing and administrative functions. During the summer of 2008, the souring economy had given the company a sense of emptiness, real estate-wise, with considerable excess space.

ARCHIBUS with ArcGIS Online features dashboards providing geospatial business intelligence for sites, space, infrastructure and physical assets.

      “Because of the economic situation, we had a fair about of vacant space, about 25 percent,” says Rick Apodaca, Amgen’s senior manager, master planning and development.

      Last October, Amgen’s accounting executives asked Apodaca to put into play a “what-if” scenario he had drawn up a few months earlier. The task was a major consolidation of space and staff, involving moving 1,000 people and the closing of three buildings. Apodaca relied on facility management software developed by Boston-based ARCHIBUS. The move was successfully completed in just six weeks.

      “What really helped with the move is ARCHIBUS’ ability to query our database and graphically display the groups and where they are moving to,” Apodaca says. “From the green light, we had operationalized a very complex migration with very little time. It was a rather challenging and fun project.”

      Using ARCHIBUS, Amgen was able to shutter three buildings and move their occupants back to the center of campus, allowing the company to capitalize on the ability to write off the operational cost of the buildings.

      “The great thing about ARCHIBUS is that it is part of the information infrastructure at Amgen,” Apodaca says. “No space exists without it coming from ARCHIBUS. Once we were able to integrate it within our enterprise, we were able to bridge a lot of information and were able to do a lot of complex inquiries and reports.”

      Apodaca says ARCHIBUS offers easy reporting to create what-if scenarios, allowing for quick movement of personnel at the lowest cost.

      “Ultimately we leveraged our technology well,” Apodaca says.

      ARCHIBUS serves a broad range of clients including companies in life sciences, consumer products, chemicals, telecom and financial services, as well as governmental agencies. The majority of those clients buy the ARCHIBUS software and use it internally, but it’s also available on a service basis.

      “If you look at the classic way of keeping track of what you have, it’s usually done in a survey mode and typically the information would be out of date within 24 hours of a report,” says Greg Alevras, vice president of sales at ARCHIBUS. “At any given time, if you push a button, ARCHIBUS will give you an accurate accounting of space, showing what you have and who’s using it.”

      Alevras says ARCHIBUS has been moving toward a more Web-based product with the recent introduction of new applications for managing space on the Web.

      ARCHIBUS allows users to maintain real time inventories and create what-if scenarios without impacting the core database, Alevras says. It now offers the ability to take a closer look at rooms, and rooms within rooms, or cubicles.

      Alevras says difficult economic conditions increase the value of ARCHIBUS.

      “In these types of conditions, companies take a look at opportunities to evaluate how they are using their facilities and look at how to better identify opportunities to consolidate their portfolio,” he says. “We are getting a lot of calls from new prospects interested in doing that, and from our existing user base.”