Taking the risk out of retirement
Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC) has a single purpose: to pay the pensions of its current and future policyholders.
PIC looks after around 400,000 policyholder pensions in the UK. Continually investing in its people has helped PIC achieve a remarkable 99.3% customer satisfaction rate. PIC policyholders are its priority.
Since 2017, PIC has worked with ServiceNow as a strategic partner. The ServiceNow AI Platform and workflow solutions enable its teams to devote their time and energies to ensuring that families throughout the UK enjoy a comfortable and secure retirement.
A unique opportunity in London’s beating heart
Around 99% of PIC's employees use ServiceNow every day, whether to self-serve an IT requirement or access any one of many ServiceNow applications adopted across the business, including several bespoke applications. ServiceNow allows PIC's diverse teams to work quickly and efficiently, and to seamlessly collaborate with colleagues.
In 2022, PIC extended its use of ServiceNow with the addition of Workplace Service Delivery (WSD). The goal was to create a modern, connected employee and visitor experience to streamline and maximise the value of its workplace and drive cost savings and efficiencies.
Shortly after deploying WSD, the company decided to move to a brand-new office within the City of London to enhance the employee experience and provide a launchpad for the next phase of PIC's upwards trajectory.
The purpose-built office building at 22 Ropemaker Street—with its own entrance, reception and 3600 views across London—provided the perfect opportunity to create a new and unique workplace, meeting all the company's needs whilst remaining aligned to its purpose. Crucially, it was also the ideal platform to take full advantage of everything WSD has to offer.
"This was a huge opportunity to totally redefine what a workplace should be—not just its technology but embracing all aspects of the experience", explains Philip Conroy, Head of IT Operations at PIC.
"WSD aligns perfectly with our ServiceNow and IT strategies. It already delivered 80% of our requirements and we have faith in ServiceNow as an enterprise platform that's constantly developing. We have an important strategic alignment with ServiceNow and, working with the project and internal ServiceNow teams, its Impact and Expert Services teams did an amazing job of helping us to get where we wanted to be".
Creating a unique employee and visitor experience
PIC's decision to use WSD was rooted in its ServiceNow heritage and its long experience of capitalising on the benefits of a single, unified AI platform for digital transformation and a consistent—yet endlessly flexible—user experience.
"It had to be cutting edge but easy-to-use, allowing us to maintain some PIC flair to really make it our own", explains Paul Lockwood, Senior IT Operations Manager at PIC. "With WSD we could provide a single touchpoint, a singular way of interacting with the building and with the ability to make automated data driven decisions."
PIC decided on a fresh implementation of WSD that reflected the makeup of the new building and the evolution in its use. For example, 22 Ropemaker Street has 66 meeting rooms of various sizes, compared to just 14 in PIC's previous office, along with an event space and restaurant.
With the single WSD user experience PIC had in mind, it launched a new ServiceNow portal leveraging Employee Center, branded 'PIC Now', available on desktop, tablet and the newly PIC-branded ServiceNow mobile app.
As the layers of the solution took shape, WSD's ability to integrate with multiple, best-in-class proprietary systems, selected for specific requirements, was a key enabler.
While Outlook remained the go-to system for all room bookings, everything was integrated with WSD, including visitor management and catering requirements. Poly room booking panels and AV equipment were selected for all meeting rooms, seamlessly connected to WSD for management functionality, and using a traffic light system to display room availability. Digital signage was also selected both for its engaging communications techniques and its ease of integration with WSD.
Similarly, sensor technology monitoring spaces, people movements and the ambient environment all contributed to the ideal user experience thanks to the ability of suppliers XY Sense and Kaiterra to instantly share data with WSD.
For example, sensors detecting an empty though reserved meeting room would automatically release the space back to available status. A WSD desk booking service—"PIC-a-Desk"—was a key enabler of the company's aspirations for flexible working arrangements, with sensors also deployed to ensure an accurate, live status of desk usage and availability. More than 28,000 desks have now been booked since the move to Ropemaker Street.
Integrated data layer drives continuous improvement
The building data management layer, KODE Labs, was also added, with an API integrating huge volumes of live building and sensor data between PIC's building management system and WSD. Completing the extended supply chain was SwiftConnect, enabling secure building and floor access, using digital credentials presented on iPhone and Android smartphones.
To extend WSD's single touchpoint principles, the same digital passes were used to access employees' lockers and multifunctional printers—the latter enabling detailed usage analysis to inform working practices that align with PIC's security and sustainability standards.
PIC's employee experience philosophy also extends to visitors attending meetings in its new home. WSD's visitor management functionality enables guests' entire visit to be carefully choreographed, beginning with a personalised welcome by PIC's friendly, professional reception team.
From complexity to simplicity
"We moved into our wonderful new home in December 2024, and it's been an incredible success", says Paul.
"WSD is now utilised by PIC's employees every day, with desk and room booking at the forefront of that experience—desk bookings have increased by 550% per week across the company and we've seen a 240% increase in workplace case resolution. Overall, our smart building has turned our user experience from complexity to simplicity, with WSD at its core.
"Continuous improvement is one of our foundation stones and we're already brokering exciting conversations between our ServiceNow partners and our supply chain to develop additional features and functionality. It's been great working alongside the WSD product team to develop improvements and ideas—ServiceNow has repaid the confidence we had in them."