insightful data

Future Buildings, Future Space

Improving the use of space at Rocky Bay with insightful data provided by EverSmart Space

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As part of their growth strategy, Rocky Bay, a specialist disability care and support provider in Australia, were looking for a solution that could help them make informed decisions about the spaces they operate and the expansion of their portfolio. With a focus on the care they offer, and the challenging  margins available in the care sector, space is one of the largest cost areas for Rocky Bay. Getting decisions right about existing buildings and future expansion is paramount to providing a financially efficient and enriched service to customers and staff.

“The room and desk monitoring solution from Microshare does for Rocky Bay exactly what was requested. But more than that, using the technology, we have created an IoT backbone at each of our hubs through which we can enable other property monitoring solutions – for a not-for-profit organization, the ability to understand how our assets are performing is immense” 

  – Nick Wells, Manager Property Procurement and Fleet at Rocky Bay

The Challenge

For a manpower-based organization such as Rocky Bay, the space required to deliver services can evolve quickly. Previously, decisions around the use of space was largely informed by anecdotal evidence, leading to inefficiencies and waste across the organization. In addition to this, the strategic goal for the growth of the business is to support any expansion of space through improved decision-making through the best use of data, process and systems. Rocky Bay needed a scalable data solution that could meet these needs.

The Solution

Working with the property team at Rocky Bay, we use easy to deploy, LoRaWAN battery-powered desk and room occupancy sensors to obtain anonymous data from multiple service delivery rooms across one of their hubs in Rockingham, south of Perth. Anonymous data is collected on room and desks to enable hot desking for staff, as well providing usage data to inform cleaning regimes. The data is delivered from the Microshare platform in clear, easy to understand dashboards enabling the property team to make real-time and future decisions about their buildings.

The Outcomes

Armed with accurate and consistent EverSmart Space data on the usage of their spaces, Rocky Bay were able to adjust desk availability and show an increase of between 2 and 3 times the number of staff who could use the desks. With the data driving decisions on the layout and optimal set up, the property team have been able to double the utilization of the space at the Rockingham hub. With a planned rollout to 5 other sites through 2022 and the implementation of additional sensing solutions on the new network, Rocky Bay now have the set up to drive future expansions.

Benefits include:

 Improved space design and facilities management

Data-driven rightsizing and growth of space

No disruption to existing building infrastructure (easy to install & retrofit)

Health and safety monitoring

Simple to deploy, LoRaWAN, battery-powered sensors

Sensors, gateways & dashboards:

Room & desk occupancy sensors tailored for client demand

About Microshare

Microshare® provides turnkey Smart Facilities data solutions at scale that bring safety, wellness, cost savings and sustainability to our clients’ vital assets. Our Sensing-as-a-Service model and global reseller network helped our clients get back to business quickly, safely and cost efficiently in 2020, all while shedding new light on the true performance and utility of their real estate holdings to prepare them for success in the post-pandemic future. Microshare is a leader in LoRaWAN applications and a proud member of the LoRa Alliance®.