{"id":15346,"date":"2024-07-18T09:00:55","date_gmt":"2024-07-18T16:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/?p=15346"},"modified":"2024-07-24T11:47:25","modified_gmt":"2024-07-24T18:47:25","slug":"enhancing-space-management-internally-at-microsoft-with-wi-fi-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/insidetrack\/blog\/enhancing-space-management-internally-at-microsoft-with-wi-fi-data\/","title":{"rendered":"Enhancing space management internally at Microsoft with Wi-Fi data"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nSpace management and employee engagement are two critical aspects of any modern workplace, including internally here at Microsoft.<\/p>\n
Figuring out how to get both right leads to important questions:<\/p>\n
How can organizations understand the best use of their building spaces, including offices and common spaces, while providing better experiences for their employees? How can they reduce the cost and complexity of installing and maintaining IoT sensors to measure people density in different areas? How can they protect the privacy of employees and their devices and comply with privacy regulations?<\/p>\n
This is what we asked ourselves when we set out to enhance both space utilization and the experience our employees have when they go into the office in our brand-new buildings here at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington.<\/p>\n
We in Microsoft Digital, the company\u2019s IT organization, knew that each new building would come with a wireless access point (WAP) system that employees use to access Wi-Fi. We knew the data from the access points could be used to measure the people density in different areas. The question was, how could we use this data to provide real-time insights to employees and facility managers privately and securely?<\/p>\n
We identified an opportunity to reuse the existing devices and the data that we already had from these devices. It was a cost-optimized way of handling our requirements.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Nritya Reddy, senior product manager, Microsoft Digital<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Using WAP data to measure space utilization<\/h2>\n