See what a pilot can turn into
Start with the teams that need it most. If it works, scale it.
How Quebecor Went Company-Wide After a 304% Booking Jump in the Pilot
In early 2023, Quebecor ran a pilot with elia in 2 Montreal offices. It went well enough to take company-wide. By 2024, elia was live across headquarters and subsidiaries.
At a glance
2 pilot offices
in 2023
304% increase
in reservations during pilot
Leases released
after space consolidation
LOCATION
Montreal, QC, Canada
INDUSTRY
Telecommunications
SIZE
10,000 employees
company overview
Quebecor is a Canadian telecommunications, entertainment, and media company. Its brands include Videotron, TVA, Le Journal de Montréal, and Le Journal de Québec. Over 10,000 people work across the company, with headquarters in Montreal.
Quebecor had a workspace booking tool that was only partially used by employees. With 10,000 people across multiple offices on a hybrid model, low adoption meant the real estate team had no reliable picture of how space was being used.
The company needed a replacement with two jobs: simple enough that employees would actually book, and detailed enough to give administrators real visibility into office activity across a large portfolio.
The challenge
Quebecor's requirements went beyond getting people to reserve desks. The team needed usage data to make decisions about its office portfolio, and any new platform had to drive adoption quickly across a large, varied workforce:
- replace a booking platform with low adoption
- give employees visibility into when colleagues were coming in
- give real estate administrators reliable data on space usage across locations
- deploy quickly across a large organization
How the pilot started
In early 2023, Quebecor and elia launched a pilot across 2 Montreal offices with selected teams. The focus was on adoption: whether a simpler, more visible platform would change how employees used the office.
Workstation and meeting room reservations went up 304% within a few months. Employees could see when colleagues were planning to come in and book a nearby desk. No training needed.
Those results made the decision to scale straightforward. Currently, elia is live across Quebecor's headquarters, additional administrative buildings, and its subsidiaries: 7 active sites and 1,922 bookable desks.
How elia Helped
Quebecor deployed elia to improve the booking experience for employees and give the real estate team the data to act on.
Visibility for administrators
THE ISSUE
The real estate team needed more than headcounts. They needed to know which buildings were being used, when, and at what rate.
ELIA'S SOLUTION
Through elia's statistics dashboard, administrators track desk and meeting room booking rates across all sites, filtered by date and workspace. That gave the team a consistent read on activity across 7 locations.
Booking and colleague visibility
THE ISSUE
Employees needed a reason to check the platform before deciding whether to come in.
ELIA'S SOLUTION
Staff could see who had booked before leaving home, reserve a desk near their team, and plan office days around the people they needed to see. The floor plan was visible on screen and booking took a few clicks. Adoption was immediate across both pilot offices.
"elia's booking system is so simple! There's no need for user training, the floor plan appears and all you have to do is select the workstation you want. The few times we needed support during the rollout, the team was always easy to reach and responded very quickly."
The results
- 304% increase in workstation and meeting room reservations during the pilot
- full company-wide rollout in 2024, across headquarters and subsidiaries
- 7 active sites, 1,922 bookable desks
- leases released on underutilized office buildings
- administrative teams centralized at the main Montreal office
- reduced energy consumption and carbon footprint across the portfolio
From pilot to portfolio decisions
As occupancy data came in, the real estate team got a clear picture of which buildings were consistently underused. That data supported a decision to centralize administrative teams at the headquarters on Rue Saint-Jacques. Teams working in quieter locations moved to the main office. Leases on underused buildings were released, and energy consumption and carbon footprint came down across the portfolio.
Why it matters
Quebecor's case is a useful example of what a workplace platform can do beyond reservations. The pilot proved adoption was possible at scale. The occupancy data made real estate decisions defensible. The two things together gave the company a better picture of its offices than it had before.
