BIG FISH GAMES REELS IN iOFFICE IWMS AND NETS BIG RESULTS
Seattle-based Big Fish Games is one of the world’s largest casual video game development companies. Since its founding in 2002, the company has distributed more than 2.5 billion games to customers in 150 countries and boasts a growing catalog of 450+ mobile games and 3,500+ PC games.
THE PROBLEM
Big Fish Games’ Seattle headquarters is the largest of their three offices, with 122,000 square feet of space and 600 employees. There are also two regional facilities: one in Oakland, California (34,000 square feet and home to 100 team members) and another 2,000-square-foot building with 12 employees in Luxembourg.
The company had a small facilities management (FM) team and was using a labor-intensive manual process to manage moves within the growing company. Armed with only static PDF floor plans and Excel spreadsheets, the FM team had no way to visualize the actual move process, which resulted in several moves to find the right fit. Furthermore, without dynamic tracking or reporting capabilities, the FM team couldn’t monitor the quantity or impact of moves.
To complicate matters, there was no integration with HR or IT—each department had its own systems and databases. Therefore, when a new employee would join the Big Fish Games workforce, the FM team would simply get an email from HR and then finish the onboarding and set up manually. The lack of a standard procedure and centralized repository led to inaccurate and quickly outdated employee information. While this process was sufficient, it was not ideal and certainly not scalable.
In 2012, Big Fish Games was faced with a major challenge: increasing their workforce by 100 to 150 percent. Evan Cottingham, Director of Global Real Estate and Facilities, was responsible for the expansion and was feeling the pressure. Having prior experience managing moves of this size, Cottingham understood how difficult this undertaking would be without workplace management software to support the process. This is what ultimately triggered his search for a solution.
THE ACTION
Cottingham began his search for a solution at IFMA’s World Workplace. After learning more about the numerous software choices, he decided to issue an RFP for Big Fish Games.
Among the IWMS providers Cottingham considered were FM Systems, Office Space and iOFFICE. What set iOFFICE apart from the competition was its customization, usability, mobility, scalability and price point. The iOFFICE platform also aligned with the Big Fish Games company culture, which emphasizes the need to empower each employee to do their best by providing them with the best tools.
IMPLEMENTATION
In preparation for the big move, Big Fish Games decided to start with a test environment where they used iOFFICE’s Move Management module in tandem with the existing protocol to increase the probability of a positive outcome. This strategy proved successful, and when it came time for the real move, Cottingham and his team introduced iOFFICE to the rest of the Big Fish Games workforce.
In addition to the 2013 move, the FM team has supervised an average of two to three interdepartmental reorganizations per year, using the iOFFICE solution to help at each step along the way. The iOFFICE mobile app allows team leads to see exactly where to place personnel as well as equipment and then make the moves instantly.