How Bayer rolls out desk sharing across many sites with Seatti

Key takeaways

Bayer runs desk sharing at many sites. After several years with a rigid booking solution, the Corporate Real Estate team wanted a tool that adapts to Bayer, not the other way round. In the pilot, Seatti stood out mainly for its flexibility and speed. Since 1 January 2026, desk booking has been in regular operation, directly in Microsoft Teams and on smartphones. In the very first month, more than 4,000 employees booked at least one desk. More countries are now following.

Starting point: desk sharing needs a booking tool that grows with you

Why is a booking tool mandatory for desk sharing at Bayer?

After Covid, Bayer made its workplace model more flexible. Today the guideline is two to three days in the office, trending towards three. For desk sharing to work and to make sure nobody is left without a seat, a booking tool is a prerequisite. It is a fixed part of the workplace concept, not an add-on.

What was missing in the previous solution?

The previous tool ran for several years but hardly evolved and was difficult to adapt to new requirements. After a tender that also considered cost and market conditions, three vendors remained. Seatti won.

Selection: why Seatti won

Which criteria decided the vendor choice?

Bayer assessed usability, scalability and integration capability, for example for the parking system to be connected later. Flexibility made the difference. The pilot started in summer 2025, and it became clear early on how quickly Seatti responds to feedback.

“I think within two or three weeks the whole frontend was basically changed, and it was clear to us right then: OK, this is a flexibility you won't find elsewhere.”

– Timo Freitag, Central Expert Corporate Real Estate at Bayer

Requirements from co-determination could also be implemented at short notice, for example around favorites and the visibility of colleagues. Seatti made these adjustments in dialogue, without Bayer having to commit in advance.

Rollout: go-live without a service provider for floor plans

How does a booking tool rollout across many sites work?

Bayer switched to Seatti in December and January, with productive use from 1 January 2026. A small team of two to three people prepared the floor plans themselves with the drag-and-drop editor. Previously, an external service provider had to be commissioned for this at high cost. From Bayer's perspective, there was practically no implementation in the classic sense with Seatti.

The only hurdle was the source data: many floor plans existed only as PDFs. The Seatti team helped with the conversion, and according to Bayer the collaboration was smooth.

How did employees get started?

Adoption came quickly. One article on the intranet was enough as an announcement, and complaints only came in during the first two weeks. Two things were especially well received: booking on the smartphone and the native integration in Microsoft Teams.

Results: visibility motivates people to book

What has changed in everyday office life?

Employees book their desk, and many first check which colleagues will be on site. This visibility is a real reason to come in. Anyone who knows their team is there plans their office day accordingly. Bayer measures success through the number of active users and feedback from the site clusters. The feedback is positive.

How does Bayer use the data from Seatti?

Bayer measures actual occupancy mainly through Wi-Fi usage, because it also covers people who do not book. Seatti adds booking data. It helps in daily operations, for instance with poorly booked desks: a corner desk with a technical problem that had never been reported was discovered, fixed and is well booked again. You can find more on reporting under analytics and dashboards.

Outlook: more countries, more modules

What comes next?

The Spanish sites follow next, with a train-the-trainer approach and around 350 resources to be mapped. Further regions are planned after that, including India and Latin America. Bayer also plans to move parking and visitor management to Seatti. Looking at the next three years, the team expects more presence in the office.

“…that when you have adjustments, you meet open ears and not closed doors.”

– Timo Freitag, Central Expert Corporate Real Estate at Bayer

Lessons from the rollout

Flexibility beats feature lists

In the comparison, Bayer was not convinced by the longest feature list, but by the ability to implement requests quickly. Large vendors adapt slowly and expensively, which is seen internally as a risk.

Clarify floor plans early

If plans only exist as PDFs, start the conversion early. Building in the editor is fast afterwards.

Empower site teams themselves

When small local teams maintain the plans themselves, it saves service providers, time and coordination.

Measure occupancy with several sources

Bookings show who plans. Anyone who wants to know how a site is really used adds presence data such as Wi-Fi or IP.