On the surface, space planning seems relatively simple. It’s a math problem, right? You have X square feet of usable space and Y employees. But there’s always more than one way to solve the problem, and the larger your business and the more locations you have, the more complicated that problem becomes.
Space planning software gives you dedicated tools to visually investigate, analyze, and solve your organization’s space-related problems at whatever scale you operate. It helps you discover underutilized space you can repurpose, new configurations that could conserve space, and solutions that satisfy a wide range of criteria, so you can plan around your business goals.
But while there are numerous types of tools and vendors that can improve your space management, they’re not all the same—even if they share many of the same basic capabilities.
In this buyer’s guide, we’ll show you the features to look for, questions to ask vendors as you narrow your list and demo products, and why Tango Space is the best space planning software for enterprises.
Key takeaways from this buyer’s guide
Here’s the TL;DR.
- Not all space planning software has the same features. Some solutions separate space planning from space management and occupancy analytics, but these processes are highly related, with data and decisions from one workflow leading into the next. Integrations work, but if you have one system that does all three, that’s even better.
- Features aren’t the only thing to consider. It’s worth asking vendors about how many versions of their software they support (more isn’t better), how they roll out updates to users (and how frequently), how their software integrates with other data sources and IWMS modules, and how much expertise is required to master their software’s capabilities.
Evaluating essential space planning software features
Most space planning software solutions share the same high-level capabilities like scenario planning and CAD integration, but there are often major differences in how they’re implemented. Different solutions may check the same general boxes, but as you dig deeper you find that some are more robust than others.
The best space planning software provides sophisticated scenario planning features that leverage AI and let you explore numerous scenarios at once, along with the space management capabilities you need to implement your plan, and occupancy analytics to ensure your planned layout fits with projected demand for space.
Scenario planning
Scenario planning turns ideas into floor plans through “what if” explorations. What if we remove 100 workstations? What if we increase our office density per person? A generic space planning software is a problem-solving workspace for these types of questions, but the best space planning software includes additional tools to help you answer them.
While experience and intuition can lead you to some great office layout options, you can’t possibly analyze every configuration manually. Which is why space planning software like Tango Space uses AI to do the heavy lifting for you. You input your parameters, and AI analyzes the possibilities to show you the layouts with the best possible outcomes.
It’s also important to think about how many scenario plans you can create and how they’ll be visible in the system. Ideally, you should be able to build unlimited scenarios, present multiple and once, and save them separately from your live scenario in a way that you can easily revisit in the future. You should also have full control over who can see which scenarios to reduce the risk of plans and ideas being leaked.
Over time, your space planning software should become an archive of plans your organization has implemented, considered, and ruled out—so every future plan can build on historical data.
What to look for:
- Unlimited scenario building
- AI-powered modeling
- User-based or role-based access control
- Ability to present multiple scenarios
CAD integration
CAD integration is a staple of space planning software, with different levels of support.
File type support
Some solutions can only view certain kinds of CAD files. Others can only edit specific layers or components of certain file types. Advanced space planning software can fully access and edit each file type.
Other limitations
Some space planning software will only let you change CAD files associated with your current floor plan, and keeps these files connected—making it difficult to test options and plan scenarios. Ideally, you should confirm that the solution you’re considering saves CAD files and scenario plans separately, and lets you freely edit the files associated with a scenario.
What to look for:
- Full editing support for all CAD file types your organization uses
- Ability to edit CAD files associated with a scenario without impacting your current scenario
Stack planning
Stacking and blocking visually arranges your physical space into color-coded blocks defined by characteristics like space type, line of business, or utilization level. When you need to reconfigure space for entire floors, buildings, locations, or your broader portfolio, stack planning helps you see these spaces in relation to each other, making it easier to recognize more possibilities and see how your plans affect the rest of your space.
Stack planning can be a distinct space planning process, but the best space planning software also syncs stacking and blocking with your scenario plans—so you don’t have to rebuild your plan every time you switch to a new visualization process.
What to look for:
- Scenario-based stack planning
Occupancy analytics
You can’t optimize your office space without knowing how it’s being used. Occupancy data dispels assumptions about utilization and needs to be at the foundation of your space planning process—but some solutions don’t have the necessary integrations or occupancy analytics capabilities to forecast demand for space and ensure your plans fit with historical usage patterns.
But you also buy a space planning system to make decisions, not to track data. The software’s analytics and reporting capabilities should be incorporated throughout its tabs, dashboards, and functions—not isolated to a separate location. For space utilization data to drive your decisions, it should be embedded in the processes you use regularly in ways that are relevant to the task at hand.
Many space planning software solutions separate space planning and occupancy analytics, forcing you to duplicate work and manually import databases like badge scans, sensor data, or reservation history from disparate systems. That means basic processes take more time, which can discourage some people from using occupancy data to inform their space planning.
What to look for:
- Built-in occupancy analytics dashboards
- Occupancy data incorporated into space planning workflows
- Predictive modeling capabilities to forecast demand for space
- Integration with every occupancy data source you have or plan to have
Move management
Every time you alter your floor plan and select a scenario, a series of moves, adds, and changes have to be made within your IWMS software and throughout your space. Space planning and space management go hand-in-hand, but unfortunately, a lot of space planning software solutions keep them separate. Coordinating MAC requests is a key component of executing your plan, and once you’ve selected a scenario, your software should enable you to carry it out.
What to look for:
- Built-in system for handling MAC requests and documenting space inventory
- Automated MAC request generation for activated scenario plans
- Ability to delegate specific parts of the MAC request process to managers and other roles
Evaluating space planning software vendors
Choosing space planning software isn’t as simple as checking boxes to make sure it has particular features. It’s important to consider what your actual experience will be like—with the software itself, and with the vendor. Before you commit, you want to be confident that you’re choosing the right tool and the right partner. The following questions can help you evaluate vendors on your shortlist.
How much expertise does it take to master your software?
If your space planning software isn’t easy to use, no one will use it. Mouse clicks count, and visuals matter. You want all user types to be comfortable accessing the software, not just power users. Whether someone is an executive who only uses it before making major decisions, an administrator who occasionally needs to retrieve information, or a facility manager who relies on the software daily, the UI should enhance—not inhibit—their activities.
Poor UI and overly technical workflows create constant friction between the software and the people who need to use it. And you’re never going to maximize the utility of a tool if people are intimidated or frustrated by it. As you watch demos of space planning software solutions, pay attention to how the dashboards are organized, where key information is stored, and how many clicks it takes to answer simple questions or explore basic lines of inquiry.
Can you imagine yourself using it? What if several people from each of your locations need to learn it? Are there enough training materials and support articles that you can reasonably expect people to find the information they need? How intuitive are the dashboards?
At the end of the day, even the most powerful space planning software won’t help your organization if your employees avoid using it (or don’t know how).
How do your integrations actually work?
With modern software, it’s easy to feel like “integrations” is just a box you have to check. But there’s a big difference between having integrations and having useful, reliable integrations. There are multiple methods for building integrations, and how your space planning software handles them has a huge impact on whether or not they’re even helpful to your organization.
For example, an ideal solution should offer more than one option for data syncing, such as standard nightly, where the data is shared between software programs every night, and real-time synchronization through an API. If your organization has developers available to build and maintain an API integration, that’s often ideal, but if you don’t have resources to devote to this process (or don’t want the responsibility of ensuring the integration works), you don’t want to get locked into a software that only offers integration via API.
Your space planning software may need to integrate with tools from other departments like HR, finance, or lease. But many major vendors still struggle with even these basic integrations, “offering” them but creating constant headaches for organizations that rely on them. And if your tools can’t talk to each other, you’re forced to either make decisions with less context or make them significantly slower.
How does it support a hybrid workplace?
Increasingly, modern businesses have to manage variable demand for space on a daily basis, as at least some of their workers only come into the office on certain days. These hybrid workplaces have unique needs when planning how their space will be used, and plans may be more fluid.
While hybrid workplaces still need tools to facilitate traditional Move-Add-Change (MAC) processes, they also need hybrid options like Flex and Shift to designate the different ways that space and assets are being allocated.
Space planning software should enable you to manage things like lockers, parking spaces, and reservable equipment for your hybrid employees, allowing them to be assigned to different departments, individuals, and purposes throughout the week—or even throughout the day.
For some businesses, hybrid work was a temporary solution to a temporary problem. For others, it’s simply the way their organization operates now. If you foresee your company adopting a hybrid work model in the future, be sure to choose a solution that will still meet your needs in the years to come.
How many versions of your software do you support?
You might find it encouraging to hear that a space planning software vendor continues to support outdated versions of their product—but it can actually be a bit of a red flag. It means updates have to happen in multiple places, and their support resources will be divided across each of these versions of their code based on the percentage of users who rely on each version.
This translates to a slower turnaround time for bugs for everyone. Even investing in more support infrastructure won’t completely alleviate the challenges that managing multiple software versions creates. The more versions of the software a vendor supports, the more resources and organization it takes to stay on top of support tickets and ensure you get help quickly.
Is it multi-tenant or single-tenant?
Until recently, almost all space planning software vendors developed single-tenant software solutions—meaning that each customer had a separate instance of the software and dedicated resources. Every time an update went live, it had to go out to each individual instance of the software, and every customer’s version may have custom code or components—making support more complicated.
Today, you should look for space planning software that operates on a multi-tenant system, meaning that all customers use the same instance of the software, so a single update goes live to everyone’s software at once, and support doesn’t have to resolve the same issues for every customer separately.
Vendors with single-tenant solutions may boast that you have more control over the software environment—but that also means you have more responsibility to maintain and manage it. With multi-tenant solutions, that burden falls solely on the vendor. Not to mention the cost and time to implement the software is significantly less.
How often do you upgrade your software or release updates?
Some space planning software providers go long periods without releasing updates or making major upgrades to their product. Ideally, you want a solution that receives updates at least once per week and pushes quick fixes live as needed. When a known issue is identified, how long does it take for the company to provide a fix?
When someone has the perfect family recipe, it should stay the same for years. But perfect code? It’s only perfect if it evolves over time, embracing new best practices and solutions, responding to the data and user interactions, and exploring new possibilities.
Frequent updates ensure your space planning software will remain secure and viable for as long as you need it, and it signals a provider’s willingness to continue innovating and improving.
What does support look like after we go live?
Lack of support is one of the biggest reasons organizations change space planning software providers. Before you commit to a system, make sure you’re not going to be left out to dry after becoming a customer.
If there are public forums, reviews, or support pages, see how responsive the vendor is to their current customers, and in demos, ask how many support tickets they typically have open (and how long they remain open for). It doesn’t matter how good a piece of software is if it doesn’t come with good support—sooner or later, you’re going to need help.
As an enterprise customer, you should expect a vendor to provide 24/7 access to technical support. They should have few tickets and close them quickly. Most of all, they should value their relationship with you and provide efficient, quality service.
Choose the best space planning software on the market
Tango Space is the best space planning software for enterprises because it combines space planning, space management, and occupancy analytics into a single comprehensive solution. Hundreds of leading brands have trusted Tango to help them plan, optimize, and manage their workplaces. Whether you have a dozen locations or tens of thousands, our space planning software has everything you need to make the most of your space and make your workplace more efficient.
Tango provides robust, intuitive tools for workplace planning, strategy, and analysis. We offer multiple integration options to connect your tech stack in the ways that work best for your organization. And our space management and desk booking tools are part of the same system, so changing information in one place syncs with the other. We maintain a single, unified version of the software in a multi-tenant model—so everyone always has the latest version.
Want to see what Tango Space can do for you?
