The disconnected workplace is costing you more than you think
Your guide to the unified workplace experience — and what it looks like when it really works.
Picture a hybrid morning that just works.
You’re heading into the office later for a town hall. Before you leave home, you open Teams and say hello to your intranet – there’s no separate login or switching channels. You read about the town hall, spot that a few colleagues are already planning to come in, and book a desk next to your team. Click. Done.
You arrive to find a digital sign in the lobby cycling through updates – it includes a heads-up that Parking Lot C is closed today. The same alert is already in Teams, so no hassle there. You find your desk, check in, and get on with your day.
Easy. A morning that works.
That’s what a unified workplace experience looks like. But most companies are still managing the workplace through a patchwork of separate tools: desk booking, room reservations, intranet, digital signage, team messaging – each doing one job, none talking to the others.
The result is friction, wasted time, and employees spending time managing tools instead of doing their jobs.
Something just shifted in the market
The workplace experience market has reached an inflection point. Gartner has established Workplace Experience Applications as a distinct enterprise software category and published its inaugural Magic Quadrant™. Appspace is named a Leader in the first report.
That recognition matters because it reflects a broader shift in how organizations think about the workplace. Rather than managing communications, spaces, employee services, and digital experiences through separate systems, leading organizations are bringing them together in a single experience.
What does “unified” mean when it comes to workplace experience?
It’s a term you’ll hear often in discussions about the future of work. In practice, a unified workplace experience platform brings three things together:
- Space. Desk booking, room reservations, visitor management, and floor plans – all in one place.
- Communication. Digital signage, intranet, mobile notifications, push alerts. Whether someone’s at a desk, on a shop floor, or commuting, they get the right message, in the right place, at the right time
- AI. Not bolted on as an afterthought. It’s woven through everything – helping employees find and book spaces; helping communicators understand what’s landing; giving facilities teams insights that mean they can spot a 12-person conference room that’s being used by two people every Tuesday.
When these three things work together, the friction disappears. People stop switching between apps and get on with their day.
Why this matters beyond the day-to-day
A better employee experience is reason enough. But there are concrete business advantages here too.
Space costs. One Appspace customer was headed for an expensive office remodel – until utilisation data showed they already had plenty of unused space. The data paid for the platform and then some.
Productivity. Every minute spent figuring out where to sit, where your team is, or where to find a piece of company news is a minute not spent on your real work. Remove that friction at scale and the savings add up fast.
Operational efficiency. Automating visitor check-ins, room bookings, and floor management takes a huge load off facilities teams. That extra head space is invaluable.
Reaching everyone. For some organizations, up to 80% of the workforce is frontline or mobile – these are people who aren’t sitting in front of a laptop all day. A good workplace experience platform reaches them too. Everyone gets the same experience and feels part of the same organization.
Where’s this heading?
Gartner projects that by 2028, 40% of large enterprises will shift towards a space-as-a-service model. Tomorrow’s workplaces will flex and adapt as workforce patterns change, hybrid ratios shift, and as the way people work keeps evolving.
That’s just two years away.
The organisations that make that shift well are the ones building the right foundations today. They’re the ones tracking utilisation, measuring engagement, and understanding how their spaces are being used over time so they can make smart decisions rather than expensive guesses.
How to get started (even if you don’t own all of this)
Workplace experience doesn’t sit in one team. It spans facilities, HR, comms, and IT. So wherever you own a piece of it, here are four things worth doing now:
- Audit what you’ve got. Are your current tools reaching everyone – including frontline and mobile workers? Look for the gaps you’ve stopped noticing.
- Stop adding point solutions. Before buying the next single-purpose app, ask whether a unified platform could do the same job – better. Every new standalone tool is another login, another silo, another source of friction.
- Be deliberate about AI. Start with the problem you’re trying to solve, then find the tool that solves it. Not the other way around. The best AI in a workplace platform is the kind employees don’t notice – it just makes things work.
- Pilot for insight, not just implementation. Pick one area – space utilisation, comms engagement, visitor flow – and let the data tell you where to optimise before you scale.
Then go and talk to the people in your organisation who own the other pieces. Because when people can find information, access services, reserve spaces, and complete everyday tasks without friction, work just works better.
What this looks like in practice
Want to see what this looks like in practice? Our recent 30-minute webinar covered what the Magic Quadrant™ found plus you’ll see a live demo of a workplace experience application in action.
Frequently asked questions
>What does Workplace Experience (WEX) mean?
Workplace experience is how people get work done across spaces, tools, and communication.
What is a workplace experience application?
It manages that experience from one platform. So instead of juggling separate tools, organizations can coordinate work across the entire workplace – and have a better overview of how the system’s working so they can make informed improvements.
What’s the difference between a workplace experience platform and the tools I already have?
Most organizations already have desk booking, an intranet, digital signage, and messaging tools – but they’re running as separate systems. A workplace experience platform brings all of that together, so your spaces, communications, and workflows are connected. The difference isn’t just convenience; it’s the data. When everything runs through one platform, you can see how your workplace is being used and make smarter decisions.
Do I need to replace all my existing tools to get started?
Not necessarily. The best workplace experience platforms are designed to integrate with the tools your organization already uses – including Microsoft Teams, Outlook, and systems like Workday, ServiceNow, or your existing HRIS and facilities management tools. A good starting point is auditing where the biggest friction is for your employees and building from there, rather than trying to overhaul everything at once.
Want to find out more?
→Download the first-ever Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Workplace Experience Applications
Hear from Appspace CEO, Peter Schmied, and why he thinks Gartner just validated the bet we made years ago.
