by Brianna Crandall — June 14, 2017 — Electric Imp, a global platform provider for Internet of Things (IoT)-secure connectivity and application middleware, announced last week that London-based Workplace Fabric, a solution provider for the agile workplace, is using Electric Imp’s IoT connectivity platform to improve worker productivity and health for customers in the United States, Europe, and Asia.
Workplace Fabric’s flagship Freespace solution is a cloud-based analytics solution that analyzes real-time data collected from 1000s of sensors deployed across high rise and distributed office spaces to improve tenant satisfaction. Freespace addresses the challenges of the modern office, which is increasingly impacted by a more connected and mobile workforce that requires flexible spaces designed for collaboration.
According to Oliver Hutaff, COO/CFO at Electric Imp:
At any point, corporations or property owners using Workplace Fabric’s insights can see how their spaces are performing and react accordingly. Bridging the gap between human actions and intelligent automation on a distributed scale clearly illustrates the value of IoT. We’re very pleased to work with Workplace Fabric so they can focus on creating the best agile workplace experience for their customers while we deliver the computational heavy lifting and certified-secure connectivity.
Electric Imp recently announced that it is the world’s only IoT connectivity platform that is UL 2900-2-2 Certified for cybersecurity. Independent testing by trusted certification authorities like UL is an asset to Workplace Fabric’s clients, which include banks, financial firms, government agencies and real estate companies.
Raj Krishnamurthy, chief executive officer of Workplace Fabric, who is a ten-year veteran of advanced analytics and information systems technologies, stated:
Freespace helps users discover the best suited available space across the office in real time while providing facility managers with the usage data they need to cut costs and improve tenant satisfaction.
According to CEB Global, a typical employee spends 27 hours a year looking for a location to work, which can cost the average company $31 million in productivity annually. Using the cloud-based Freespace IoT connectivity solution, employees can identify available workspace in real time. In addition, Workplace Fabric estimates that just a 10 percent improvement in office space usage could save a 500-person company nearly $700,000 per year in the United States, and more than $1.35 million annually in prime office space locations such as London or New York.
Krishnamurthy added:
Our customers want immediate insights and great service. Freespace uses existing WiFi infrastructure and has an ultra-low network footprint. We have leveraged Electric Imp’s in-built security and device management to create a smart furniture platform to deliver contextual insights on availability, comfort and ambiance. Electric Imp has made it easier for us to hide the complexity from our customers while delivering capability to scale globally.
Located in Los Altos, California, and Cambridge, England, Electric Imp helps more than 100 manufacturers and enterprises transform the world through the power of secure IoT connectivity. Over a million IoT devices have reportedly been built on its highly secure platform as a service, with devices deployed in 105 countries. The company’s unique solution — featuring fully integrated device OS and hardware, UL-certified security, APIs and cloud services purpose-built for the IoT — is designed to dramatically decrease cost and time to market while increasing security, scalability and flexibility.
