Designing a better in-office experience through smarter operations

Hybrid work is here to stay, but the office will only earn a commute if it feels as seamless as home. At the inaugural Pitney Bowes User Conference, Product leader Jamie Borg explored how operations teams can remove friction from the in-office experience by combining visibility, security, and convenience in practical ways. As Jamie put it, “we have to give people a reason to get up off the couch and go.”

The challenge is larger than space planning. Many organizations face fragmented workflows: packages marked delivered by the carrier but hard to locate once in the office, assets that wander without a record, and employees without dedicated workspaces, unsure their gear and personal items are safe. These gaps create frustration for staff and risk for the business. Thoughtful technology closes them by standardizing processes and data across shipping, receiving, and workplace services.

Jamie highlighted a global retailer that needed to make the corporate office worth coming back to. Thousands of employees across dozens of floors were contending with missing packages, loaner laptops with no chain of custody, and long treks to off-site post offices. The team began by restoring visibility. Incoming parcels were logged on arrival, expected-packages delivery reports helped mailroom staff appropriately, and employees received automatic updates as items moved from throughout the organization. A complete chain of custody for packages and high-value assets replaced timely searches with real-time status updates.

Next came security, both digital and physical. Platform-level certifications satisfied IT requirements, while durable smart lockers gave employees a safe, self-service place to stow belongings and receive packages when they were away from their desks. Finally, the client tackled convenience by adding a self-service shipping kiosks with integrated weight and dimension capture plus Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology to convert printed or handwritten shipping label information into machine-readable text for easier shipping.  Employees could conveniently ship or buy postage in minutes, without having to leave the building.

The lessons from this client apply broadly. Any organization can make the office feel seamless again by identifying where friction and uncertainty creep in, lost packages, unsecured assets, or manual processes, and closing those gaps with connected data and simple, consistent workflows. When employees have reliable visibility in their items, confidence in their security, and convenient, time-saving tools, the office stops being an obligation and starts becoming a place worth the commute.

And the improved experience doesn’t stop at the office door. Universities are using connected receiving and smart locker solutions to give students 24/7 access to deliveries and essential supplies, meeting their “always-on” expectations for convenience. Other organizations such as healthcare facilities are applying the same principles to streamline internal logistics and patient services, from securely managing lab specimens and medical equipment to enabling patients to collect prescriptions or personal items safely and privately. Across industries, visibility, security, and convenience translate into trust, time savings, and higher satisfaction for every stakeholder.

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