There was a time when "office optimization" meant counting heads, dividing by desks, and hoping the math worked out. You paid rent on 1,500 desks because that's what you'd always paid. You ran HVAC 24/7 because someone might be working late. You installed meeting room displays by calling electricians, drilling walls, and waiting for IT to configure everything. That was expensive. That was normal.
Now there's a Dutch software company that can tell you exactly which 450 of those desks nobody's using, calculate the million-pound savings if you cut them, and give your building owners sensor data that pays for itself in energy savings alone. No hardware sales. No installation crews. Just software that connects people to buildings and buildings to people—and makes both sides more valuable.
The office infrastructure problem didn't get solved with better hardware. It got solved when someone made the building itself intelligent enough to prove what it's actually worth.
The Problem: You're Paying for Office Space Nobody's Using
GoBright is a Dutch Smart Workplace software company established in 2016 that helps building owners optimize office space through sensor-driven analytics, room and desk booking, and building management tools. The platform integrates with Microsoft 365, Teams, and Google Workspace to provide real-time occupancy data, energy monitoring, and space utilization insights that enable companies to cut unnecessary real estate costs—in some cases saving over $1 million annually. GoBright operates through a 100% partner-driven model, working with AV integrators who handle hardware sales and customer relationships while GoBright provides the recurring software platform.
Walk into most corporate offices managing 1,500 employees and you'll find roughly 1,050 desks—70% coverage, which used to be the standard. But with hybrid work, those desks sit empty most days. You're still paying rent on them. You're still running power to them. You're still cleaning around them.
Chris Wiegeraad, CCO, from GoBright, is direct about the math:
"If you have an office with 1,500 employees, you probably have 70% coverage of desks. That's 1,050. I dare to say that without tools, you can cut back 450 desks to 600 because you don't need them anymore."
The European norm requires five square meters per desk. In expensive cities like London, office rent runs $300-400 per square meter. Do the math: 450 desks × 5 square meters × $400 = over $1 million in annual savings on office rent alone.
But here's the problem: without data, you're guessing. Facilities managers don't know which desks are actually unused versus occasionally used. They don't know which meeting rooms are booked but never occupied. They don't know where the energy waste is happening.
GoBright solves this by turning your office into a data-generating asset.
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From Booking Tool to Building Intelligence
GoBright started in 2016 as a booking platform—rooms, desks, parking, spaces. That's still the foundation. But the platform evolved into a building management solution that uses sensor data to optimize how the entire office operates.
"We connect people to the building and the building to the people. If you have a building management solution with all kinds of sensors, nobody's reading the data. But if you can give the data back to the users, they know how to use the building correctly. And if you use the data from the users—how they book, where they book, their favorites, when they come in—we can utilize the building better and save lots of money."
Wiegeraad explained.
The platform now includes room and desk booking integrated with Microsoft Outlook, Teams, and Google Workspace; sensor data for occupancy measurement, people counting, humidity, CO2, and temperature; energy monitoring that tracks power consumption of unattended desks and screens, cutting power automatically when spaces aren't in use; digital signage; and analytics that help building owners optimize cleaning schedules, reduce HVAC costs, and prove ROI.
The ROI on GoBright's platform is high because it's not about adding infrastructure—it's about making the infrastructure you already have work smarter.
Why GoBright Doesn't Compete with Integrators
Most software companies want to own the customer relationship. GoBright does the opposite. The company is 100% partner-driven, meaning it works exclusively through AV integrators, resellers, and installation partners who handle the customer relationship, invoicing, hardware sales, and ongoing support.
"We do talk to end customers, but we always introduce a partner to do the invoicing, help out with the installation, maintain the contacts. They need to sell the hardware products. If we have room booking software, we don't sell the room booking panels. That's where the partner comes in."
Wiegeraad said.
This model works because it aligns incentives. AV integrators have spent decades selling hardware with shrinking margins and one-time revenue. GoBright gives them recurring software revenue on top of the hardware they're already selling.
For a company managing 1,500 employees, GoBright might charge $50K in software licenses. The integrator sells the hardware, installs the system, and maintains the relationship. The customer gets a comprehensive solution. The integrator gets recurring revenue. GoBright scales through partners without needing its own sales and installation infrastructure.
"In our business of Smart Workplace solutions, there's a lot of consolidation these days. There's a lot of equity coming in, because we seem to be the new gold, especially for AV integrators, because we add software, recurring business to the hardware people want to sell."
Energy Savings, AI Integration, and Cisco Partnership
At ISE 2026, GoBright showcased its latest product roadmap, which extends the platform beyond booking into environmental monitoring and energy optimization.
The new features include a gateway and sensors for people counting, humidity, CO2, and temperature monitoring; energy-saving capabilities that monitor power consumption of unattended desks and screens, automatically cutting power when spaces aren't in use; integration with Cisco and WebEx; an AI chatbot within Teams that allows employees to book spaces conversationally and learns preferences over time; and integration with utility device management platforms so that if a booked meeting room has a broken screen, the system automatically rebooks the employee.
The energy-saving features alone create ROI. If you have 400 unattended desks with screens and docking stations on standby, the power consumption is significant. With proximity card tap-in at booking devices, power only comes on when someone actually uses the desk. The investment pays for itself in four years through energy savings.
"If you have 400 desks unattended, but there are two screens on and a docking station on standby, the power consumption is huge. You can monitor that. We can cut off all the desks. As soon as you come to the desk with your proximity card, you tap into our booking device. The power comes on. The little investment for that you earn back in four years."
