How Westpac is using tech to transform its 200-year old workplace

The centrepiece

Credit: Geyer.

Linked gallery: Photos: Westpac's tech-enabled workplace

However, the centrepiece of WorkSmart is arguably the mobile app.

The app allows workers to not only access the contact details for anyone in the organisation - and understand their position within the hierarchy - through a rich search functionality, they can also physically locate the whereabouts of other staff members.

Westpac toyed with the idea of GPS- based location but ultimately decided the privacy implications outweighed the benefits.

The location of an individual is based on the unique MAC address of the dock that sits on a desk - a locator agent running on each laptop reports the MAC address back to a database when the laptop is docked.

The function also allows staff to view on a map which desks are taken (and by whom) and which are vacant at any given time.

“The app means everything is at your fingertips. It means you can work anywhere, anytime,” Tim Atkinson, head of WorkSmart technology telecommunications, told iTnews.

 What hasn’t worked

As with any transformation, Westpac has experienced both hits and misses.

One of those misses was specially built kiosks designed to run larger-sized versions of the WorkSmart mobile app.

The kiosks stand at key points around the pilot WorkSmart floor in Kent St and offer the same functionality as the mobile app - staff directory and location, desk availability search, meeting room booking, and help and information.

“We thought the kiosks would be quite a hit, but everybody was happy with the mobile app. So they weren’t being used,” Zaid said.

“We won’t put kiosks in Barangaroo,” Kulkarni said.