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Global WorkPlace Solutions makes real estate work better for business

Guy Holden
As part of Johnson Controls Building Efficiency business, Global WorkPlace Solutions (GWS) is the world's largest global real estate and facilities management service provider. GWS helps major corporations make productive use of their real estate by addressing the entire workplace ownership lifecycle – from strategic planning, acquisition, design and construction project management, to facilities operation and eventual disposal of surplus assets. More than 17,000 GWS employees serve clients in 90 countries. The business manages more than 1.5 billion square feet of property for companies such as IBM, Barclays, Motorola, and Shell. Despite such impressive credentials, many people still don't appreciate the full scope and scale of what GWS does. To find out more about the business, we talked to Guy Holden, Vice President and General Manager for Johnson Controls Global WorkPlace Solutions. Guy has more than 25 years' experience in commercial real estate development, investment and facilities management. He has overseen the growth of GWS into a $3 billion business.

What is Global WorkPlace Solutions?
We are a corporate business partner that plans, creates, manages and renews the places where major corporations work in the world. Our customers don't want to be in the real estate business. Our solutions enable them to concentrate on their core business.

How do you benefit customers?
Different customers have different real estate requirements. For data centers, uptime is critical. For retailers, it's all about the customer experience. Office environments must attract and retain knowledge workers. For industrial facilities, it's about lowering production cost. We help clients meet these needs by identifying the right properties, managing acquisition and, if needed, construction, overseeing space design, then managing and operating their buildings to support the business everyday. We save customers money, make them more energy efficient and help them become more sustainable. We provide transparency of data so clients can make well informed decisions. In short, we improve clients' financial performance, lower their risk, and increase shareholder value.

What are your growth opportunities?
We're seeing double-digit growth as more corporations are looking for outsourced integrated services to support their businesses on a global basis. That plays to our strengths.

What new technologies are you deploying?
Our Energy and Emissions Management System helps clients save energy, reduce costs and capture emissions data from facilities anywhere in the world. Our Global WorkPlace Knowledge Center in Manila provides seamless data management support for corporate real estate operations. We're piloting our new global facilities management process technology. It will handle everything from receiving service requests to engaging suppliers and tracking costs worldwide. It is part of our vision for a globally consistent technology platform.

What do you want customers to remember most about GWS?
We can make significant contributions to the bottom line. We have a proven track record of lowering costs, managing risk and creating value by delivering the best workplace strategies for our clients. That's what we do for the world's leading corporations globally.
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