Our client turned to TDS to help with an office expansion to support 200+ new hires in NYC.–
Executive Overview
Our client is a high-growth alternative asset manager who invests in a wide range of global business to fund their growth using many forms of structured capital. Their 30+ years of experience and more than 2,000 employees across numerous offices allows them to move quickly to take advantage of favorable market conditions. With a new influx of investment capital to the firm, they needed to expand their NYC office footprint to accommodate more than 200 new traders and research analysts.
The Challenge
One of the challenges TDS faced with supporting this new growth initiative was helping our client get a more “standard workstation build” across the NYC environment. The objectives would be to give the existing professionals a better user experience & added functionality from new software solutions, while setting the platform for easier rollout out to the new users as they are onboarded.
Additionally, to accommodate the planned hiring spree, the NYC office footprint would need to be expanded. After looking at multiple locations across the city, our client was able to secure a new floor in their existing building which would better help maintain the culture of the NYC firm.
The Solution
Working with the IT and Facilities team, TDS started developing the design and build-out plan for the new office. Given the extended lead times for procuring much of the required materials, we needed to work very closely with the outside vendors to ensure the new office build was proceeding on schedule and on budget. Another critical requirement was getting both permission & access from the building owner to allow us to “tie” the new floor to our client’s current office environment to enable the firm to operate on one network – making it easier to monitor and maintain.
While the office build continued progressing, we conducted user interviews with every type of employee in the NY office: traders, analysts, senior executives, support personnel, etc. This allowed us to work with the IT and Network team to develop three standard workstation builds/upgrades to rollout. As part of the planned user-experience upgrade TDS also helped with a technology refresh in the conference rooms and common spaces – larger LCD screens, updated video and audio platforms, and leading-edge unified communication services.
The Results
With a move-in date scheduled for the new office, TDS was able to work alongside the interior vendors to finish up their work while we ensured the technology infrastructure was in place, tested and ready for users: network access, WiFi, low voltage cabling, building management systems, etc.
Using the newly developed onboarding platform, TDS and the client’s systems & procurement teams worked closely together to welcome the newly hired professionals over the course of multiple hiring waves. TDS remained on site for ad-hoc support as well as to schedule weekly training sessions with professionals to demonstrate new features in both the new workstation builds and the conference rooms. Finally, the new platform allowed us to publish user guides, FAQs and best practices for the professionals to “self-serve” as needed through their corporate intranet.
Today TDS remains on-site in the NYC office providing a level of continuity and support that the client now considers critical to their business operations.