How it works
SpaceOps sits between daily workplace operations and long-term real estate strategy. Workplace operations, sometimes called WorkOps, runs the office every day: bookings, check-ins, visitors and floor plans. That activity produces data on attendance and occupancy, and SpaceOps uses the data when the workplace needs to change.
The work follows a cycle. Teams model options with scenario planning, place the chosen option on floors with a stack plan, go down to seat-level layouts, and then carry out the moves. Each step uses the same data on headcount, attendance and capacity, so the plan is not rebuilt in a new tool at every stage.
Because attendance, headcount and teams keep changing, SpaceOps treats planning as continuous rather than a project every few years. The approved plan feeds back into daily operations, where new neighborhoods and desk assignments go live, and new occupancy data starts the next cycle.
How to measure it
- Time from a change request, such as finding space for a team, to an approved plan.
- Peak occupancy by floor after a change, compared with the plan.
- Space released or absorbed by each change.
- Moves completed without rework or complaints about where people ended up.
Examples
- A workplace team asked to release two floors models three options, chooses the one that keeps connected teams together, and publishes the new neighborhoods before the move.
- A team adding new starters is placed on a floor with spare capacity instead of the company taking new space.
Common mistakes
- Planning in spreadsheets that are out of date by the time the plan is approved.
- Separating planning from operations, so the approved plan never reaches the booking system.
- Using bookings or headcount as the baseline instead of measured occupancy.
How Kadence helps
Kadence SpaceOps is an add-on to any Kadence plan. It includes stack planning with auto-stack, side-by-side scenario planning, seat-level space planning on real floor plans, guided workflows to restack a building, consolidate floors or find space for a team, and an AI planning agent that builds or changes plans from plain-language requests. Plans use WorkOps attendance and occupancy data, and approved plans publish back into WorkOps as live neighborhoods and assignments.
SpaceOps · Kadence platform guide · Scenario planning
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between SpaceOps and WorkOps?
WorkOps runs the workplace day to day: desk and room booking, check-ins, visitors and floor plans. SpaceOps plans and carries out change to the workplace over time: restacks, consolidations, moves and growth. WorkOps produces the occupancy data that SpaceOps plans with, and SpaceOps sends approved plans back into WorkOps.
What does a SpaceOps platform do?
It brings floor plans, headcount and occupancy data into one place so teams can model scenarios, build stack plans, assign seats and prepare moves without rebuilding the plan in separate tools. The best platforms connect the approved plan to the systems people use to book and find space.
Who uses SpaceOps?
Corporate real estate, workplace and facilities teams responsible for how space changes: heads of real estate planning consolidations, workplace leads restacking floors, and space planners placing teams and new starters. Finance and HR leaders often review the scenarios before a decision.
How is SpaceOps different from an IWMS?
An integrated workplace management system (IWMS) is a broad system of record for real estate, leases, maintenance and space. SpaceOps focuses on workplace change: modeling scenarios, building stack and seat plans from live occupancy data, and pushing approved plans into daily operations.
Related terms
- Workplace operations (WorkOps) The day-to-day running of an office for the people in it: space, bookings, visitors, services, policies and the data they produce.
- AI space planning Using AI to draft and test stack plans, seating plans and scenarios from headcount, occupancy data and floor plans.
- Stack planning A floor-by-floor plan of which teams occupy which floors and buildings, used to test moves and consolidations first.
- Scenario planning Modeling several possible futures for space, cost and teams, and comparing them side by side before committing to one.
- Restack Reassigning teams across the floors of a building to free space, absorb growth or improve adjacency, done as a sequence of moves.
Kadence editorial team · Last reviewed