Many businesses have existing infrastructure that can be repurposed to meet the needs of the COVID world and beyond
2020 has changed the way we interact with physical spaces forever. Whether that be changes in the workplace such as employees only visiting the office once or twice a week as opposed to the traditional 9 ‘til 5 or having to wait in line at the grocery store because it’s at full capacity.
If human behavior is changing, businesses need to change with it.
On the face of it, this could be quite a daunting task. It doesn’t need to be though. Many organizations are more prepared for change than they actually realize. And that’s because they’ve already got some key infrastructure in place which was implemented for other purposes but can quite easily be repurposed to meet the needs of the world in which we live.
History isn’t short of examples of products being repurposed from their original use from slinkies which were first intended to stabilize sensitive equipment on ships to Coca-Cola which was invented to treat morphine addiction.
So to cut to the chase. Pretty much any company across the globe has CCTV installed for security purposes and they’ve also got WiFi installed for connectivity. What many people don’t realize is the amount of raw data that the hardware is emitting is immense and potentially extremely powerful. But it’s about turning this raw data into information and insights.
How does this relate to the new COVID world?
Well, with just a simple software overlay this existing infrastructure that has already been deployed and probably for a significant cost, can be transformed to start providing businesses with insights into their occupancy and how their space is being utilized.
What does this mean for businesses?
It means that companies now have an accurate count of how many people are in any of their locations and how they’re moving around each area, zone, floor of any of their locations.
Why is this important?
I’ve only highlighted a few different examples here but in reality nearly all organizations with physical locations would benefit from knowing how their space is being utilized.
Corporate offices – Real estate is the second biggest cost after people for businesses. If the majority of people are going to be working from home most of the time. How are offices being used? Is space being utilized or is it being wasted? How do you ensure that there’s not too many people in the office at any one time?
Retailers – In the short term, retailers need to know how many people are in-store to maintain social distancing. They can potentially save millions from automating their occupancy management as opposed to paying employees to manually count people. Mid to long term, knowing exactly how people move around the store means that merchandising decisions can be data driven and based on science.
Transport – Preventing overcrowding and improving safety on subway platforms to having real-time occupancy counts for buses or trains to drive operational efficiencies. Disaster planning for emergencies and having accurate counts of how many people are present on-board or within a station.
Manufacturing – Accurate real time count of how many people are present within different areas of a facility which can be used in case of emergency evacuation and ensuring that everyone has reached a place of safety.
So how do they do it?
Purple has developed a solution that allows organizations to repurpose and adapt their existing infrastructure for the post-COVID world and beyond. To find out more, click here or if you want to speak with one of our intelligent spaces experts click here.