Helping one of Australia's major universities use IoT and data visualization to transform their office spaces for flexible working.

Summary:

  • A consulting engagement to identify Deakin’s technology requirements and scope out a solution proposal
  • Installation and integration of IoT sensors to monitor occupancy of desks, meeting rooms, kitchens, and other communal areas
  • Development of a custom web application that enabled staff to book desks, meeting rooms and check-in on arrival
  • Live Power BI reporting with data visualisation on space and asset usage for analysis by a client administrator

The challenge

Deakin University (Deakin), one of Victoria's largest universities, has embraced a flexible working model where office buildings are utilised by different staff on interchangeable days with varying schedules.

With a finite number of desks, meeting rooms, and other communal areas, they needed to find a solution that ensured their existing workspaces could support a dynamic and growing workforce. This included the ability to forecast how many desks they would need for staff on an ongoing basis.

Failure to do so would result in a costly process of expanding their office facilities and an inefficient use of space across their facilities. 

The solution

We initiated a consultation engagement with Deakin that identified the best way forward for our client would be to implement hot desking as a workplace practice and integrate SMART spaces solution with asset booking and people counting capability.

Both parties identified that this solution would have to be scalable and transferable to other shared spaces such as libraries to accommodate for future growth.

Our solution consisted of three major parts that solved Deakin’s problem of supporting a flexible workforce whilst optimising space usage of the building, including:

  • Installation and integration of IoT sensors to monitor occupancy of desks, meeting rooms, kitchens, and other communal areas
  • Development of a custom web application that enabled staff to book desks, meeting rooms and check-in on arrival
  • Live Power BI reporting with data visualisation on space and asset usage for analysis by a client administrator

By adopting our proposed technology solution, Deakin was able to accurately forecast their workforce space and asset needs. This has driven a significant reduction in costs and optimised office space usage. Our platform also played a crucial role in enhancing the employee experience and supporting a flexible workforce model via our booking application.

The project referenced in this case study was delivered by Unico, which CGI acquired in March 2022.