Case Study: Sutter Health achieves up to $21M in potential real-estate cost savings with FM:Systems

How Sutter Health is using FM:Systems workplace sensors and analytics to aggregate utilization data, produce cost savings among its premium northern California real estate, and enable new work models

Sutter Health, a Sacramento‑based not‑for‑profit serving over 3 million Californians with 55,000+ employees across 200+ clinics and 24 hospitals, faced rising affordability pressures and an urgent need to right‑size expensive Northern California administrative real estate. COVID‑19 accelerated a shift from assigned desks to remote and hybrid work, and legacy manual tracking (walkthroughs and spreadsheets) showed only about 30% historical utilization—leaving leadership uncertain which spaces to retain or repurpose.

After vetting 11 vendors, Sutter selected FM:Systems for its scalable workplace sensors and analytics and broad suite of workplace management solutions. FM:Systems was deployed across 15 sites in early 2021 to deliver automated, privacy‑protected utilization data (PII stripped/hashed, encrypted, GDPR‑compliant), enabling faster contracting and decision‑making. The insights have identified roughly 700,000 sq ft of administrative space that could yield an estimated $21 million in savings, while giving Sutter a flexible platform to add modules and adapt to future workplace models.

Sutter Health

Emily Laughton

Principal Architect