Demand for sensor-based technology is expected to increase as large firms juggle the twin tasks of safely returning their staff to the office and assessing their future workspace needs in a post-pandemic world.
XY Sense – a Melbourne-based technology start-up that offers clients sensor hardware and a subscription-based analytics platform to monitor the use of the workspace in real time – is reporting an increase in demand for its “sensor as a service” platform from companies with 500-plus employees.
Co-founder and chief executive Alex Birch said companies were integrating the platform into their COVID-19 safety planning as well as their long-term strategies.
Using sensors that can detect people’s positions, accurate to within one metre every two seconds, the company is pitching its monitoring software as an ideal way to identify social distancing breaches in real time, as staff return to the office.
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“We can send social-distancing alerts if we detect somebody has been in close proximity to someone. There’s also the ability for people counting, so understanding how many people can enter into spaces,” Mr Birch said.
Practical applications for this “people counting” function included positioning a sensor in high-traffic areas outside bathrooms and “showing a green light or red light above the bathroom entry to let people know whether it is safe for them to enter”.
The data could also be used to book desks, provide a heat map of high-traffic areas that require forensic cleaning, and creating a socially-distanced floor plan.
Downsizing data big business in post-COVID-19 world
Mr Birch said following an initial slump in inquiries as many businesses transitioned to work-from-home arrangements, inquiries for the technology had picked up in the past few months as employers grappled with a new-look workplace where fewer employees might be visiting the office and with less frequency.
“We don’t believe the office is dead,” he said. “We’re just seeing a different way of using the office.
“Now we’ve got a workforce that’s enabled to work from home and work remotely and in the past there was nothing like that so now we’ve got a different dynamic, a different makeup of people using the workplace.”
Conceding that many companies would now be looking to downsize their office requirements in the coming months and years, Mr Birch said XY Sense could help companies make informed decisions.
“It’s about how to downsize, by how much and [finding out] exactly what are people doing in the workplace,” he said.
“We’re launching our advanced workplace sensor system to deliver real-time, pinpoint-accurate data to these teams, so that they can measure utilisation before they act on workspace changes or real estate downsizing in response to COVID-19.”
The start-up recently finalised a $5 million funding round, including Australian venture fund Blackbird Ventures, which it said would help it fast-track sensor production in response to the increase in demand.
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