Technology

The pandemic has changed how we've worked for the foreseeable future. Companies are determining how, when and why they'll return to their office space. 

We’re now six months into a global pandemic. Spring lockdowns gave way to gradual reopenings, and now the threat of closures loom large again as case numbers in many regions creep upwards. 

It’s not long since “digital transformation” first became a business buzzword. In the 90s and 00s, the concept spoke to the opportunity to digitize an organization, to shift from manual input, to bring a business online, to deploy the latest e-solutions. Digital transformations often moved entire industries into the digital era; Uber forced taxi companies into apps,  Amazon led to online stores, and shipping being a defacto standard for businesses large and small. Banks raced to catch up with each other to provide mobile banking solutions after the advent of online-only banks like Tangerine. 

Whether an office has already re-opened, is planning to re-open, or never fully closed during the COVID-19 crisis, each business shares two common goals: 1) keep employees and visitors safe; 2) keep the doors open. 

COVID-19 has thrust health-care workers to the front lines, caused personal tragedy, and redefined what jobs are “essential.” Economically it has imperiled industries, triggered layoffs, and all-but-stopped life within office complexes, malls, stadiums, and urban hubs.  Now, governments face the question of how to lift their finger off the pause button. Any strategy to do so will long predate any vaccine – and its main measure of success will be how it enables officials to track COVID-19 infections and contain the pandemic. It is imperative that these strategies come far sooner than when someone arrives in the ER, or receives a test. 

A popular question as we think about going back to the office is: how will I know if someone I work with has been infected? For the executive team, the question becomes: how do I avoid shutting down my business should one of my employees become ill?

This is the final article in a three-part series exploring what lays on the other side of COVID-19 for businesses. Click here for part 1 and part 2.

In cities across America, office towers are vacant. Museums are empty. Sports are cancelled. Live events postponed. Many of us, the ones who can, have put outdoor adventures and office life on hold to help stop the spread of an extremely contagious virus. The escalating health and economic consequences of COVID-19 are ones we will talk about for a very long time. 

InnerSpace Offers Indoor Monitoring Solution Free of Charge to Retailers During COVID-19 Pandemic WiFi powered indoor location platform provides people analytics to support social distancing, store layout and staffing strategies

The questions ‘Are we doing enough?’ and ‘Did we move fast enough?’ are running through everyone’s mind as we continue to receive news reports that the coronavirus COVID-19 continues to spread. 

InnerSpace Introduces Public Health & Safety Monitoring Solution  Indoor location platform provides municipalities with emergency response and public safety solutions on existing WiFi networks Toronto, Canada - March 30, 2019 - InnerSpace, the world’s most accurate WiFi-based indoor location intelligence platform, today announced its product capabilities to support all levels of government to analyze the patterns and movement in public spaces using existing WiFi networks. The platform is ideally suited to understand the movement of people inside public spaces and can support emergency response strategies, social distancing programs, and help Smart Cities implement effective security and public safety measures.

InnerSpace Appoints Cerys Goodall to President & Chief Operating Officer Goodall to steward company in new markets and bolster client experience Toronto, Canada - March 30, 2019 - InnerSpace, the world’s most accurate WiFi-based indoor location intelligence platform, today announced the promotion of Cerys Goodall to the role of President & Chief Operating Officer. In this role, Goodall will support the investment strategies for the company while continuing to oversee the entire customer journey. Goodall’s responsibilities include leading sales and marketing, client delivery, professional services and data science programs as the company moves to a software-based platform and enters new markets including public safety and security. 

Innovation and the P word, Part III: Amidst a Pandemic In the first and second posts in this now three-part series, we looked at how InnerSpace prioritizes privacy through its technology, and the value exchange of privacy and innovation through the lens of Sidewalk Labs. Now, amidst a global pandemic, we are revisiting privacy in a time that demands heightened well-being and safety. 

Mist Expands Vision of Universal Standards-Based Indoor Location

Throughout the evolution of corporate America, buildings didn’t tend to inspire much outside the ordinary. Apart from the shifting designs that reshaped cityscapes over the years, inside those buildings, the systems remained more or less the same. One decade after the next. 

The new rollercoaster. A book signing. The emergency department. The latest Johnny Cupcakes t-shirt release. 

The indoor location market has been one that analysts like Gartner have been studying for years. Expected to reach $41.0 billion by 2022, companies around the globe are bringing forward new technologies that make indoor location more accurate and useful. Recently InnerSpace was named a company to watch in the Magic Quadrant for Indoor Location Services, and included in the Market Guide for Indoor Location Application Platforms. Needless to say, we're excited about the momentum. But what has been challenging this market? 

It’s time we all have a heart-to-heart conversation about meeting rooms. No, really. They are the piece of working in an office that never quite fits the puzzle, the headache that never quite subsides, the element whose coordination always takes longer than it should. 

Last fall, the world’s largest coffee chain opened a new concept store in Manhattan. At “Starbucks Pickup”, customers must use the app in advance to order and simply pick up their beverage. A second such grab-and-go model just opened here in InnerSpace’s home city of Toronto.

In the lead-up to a big game or high-profile concert, city stadiums can see an influx of tens of thousands of people, often arriving en masse. For fans, picking the “wrong line” isn’t cut and dry and, as we all know, wait times have a direct link, whether positive or negative, to the fan experience. 

InnerSpace Awarded Patent for Automated Indoor Map Generation Capabilities US Patent Office recognizes indoor location platform’s technology to support maps for indoor navigation

How One Major Coffee Chain Used Indoor Data to Improve Service, Slash Wait Times: An InnerSpace Study  

Indoor location platform enhanced citizen safety and first-responder speed-to-response

In the first post in this two-part series, we looked at how InnerSpace prioritizes privacy through its technology. Here, we take a deeper dive into the wider world of privacy and innovation. 

In 2002, a film starring a certain Tom Cruise which was based on a 1950s short story, the future was imagined as a somewhat dystopian police state that featured an extreme lack of privacy. It’s not hard to see how plots like that of Minority Report can influence how people perceive indoor “tracking” technology and what it actually entails.

Anyone who’s worked in an office can attest to the fact that meetings can sometimes be a waste of time. But as it turns out, trying to find space to even hold a meeting can be wasteful on a far greater level. Client calls that go long and delay the next meeting; three people taking up a 15-seat boardroom; unannounced issues that require private space to chat – the reasons are varied and often frustrating.

Satisfaction in any company’s product or service often boils down to one key factor: ensuring an excellent experience. Looking after all the details that lead to happy people –  while simultaneously managing deliverables and operating costs – is both tricky and critical to a company’s success. Yet knowing what and where to tweak and improve can be difficult to discern on a day-to-day basis – and relying on customer feedback alone can prolong percolating issues, or be misleading altogether.

Tech titans like Google and Apple have made significant investments in mapping and navigation. They’ve taken their expertise in location data and started applying its value to the indoors. And over the last few years a number of startups have emerged to provide insights around indoor location data - primarily in retail. All claiming to have built breakthrough solutions. But yet, indoor data isn’t ubiquitous. Adoption of indoor location to create Smart Buildings remains highly customized and consultative. 

Parades through the streets of Toronto and St. Louis brought a celebratory conclusion to the NBA and NHL seasons. While millions of basketball and hockey fans watched on screens, stadiums that hosted this stretch of playoffs welcomed sell-out crowds that streamed through their gates. 

This past week has been a blur! The global tech community had their eyes on Toronto as Collision marked its first year in our gorgeous city. Hosted at the Enercare Centre, the conference hosted the likes of Prime minister Justin Trudeau, Seth Rogan talking about Houseplant, Joseph Gordan-Levitt from HITRECORD, and more. Designed to be the perfect intersection between tech, investors, government, and media, Collision didn’t disappoint!  

For thousands of years, people have flocked to stadiums and arenas to see exciting live events, and in those thousands of years—virtually no major updates have been made. Whether an ancient Roman at the Colosseum or a loyal Cubs fan at Wrigley Field, the experience is more or less the same. You arrive at the venue, find your seat, then and watch the action in front of you unfold.

 One of the questions we often get here at InnerSpace is why did we create our own sensor, why not use beacons? It’s a great question…

Today we introduced the full InnerSpace platform - sensors, inFINITY, and workplace solutions - designed to improve business operations. Indoor location to-date, has largely been focused on wayfinding and retail marketing, but we know the technology has bigger ambitions. 

Location-based technology has played a vital role in changing the way we operate. With Google Maps and Waze, the days of people walking or driving around with paper maps are almost gone. People can travel to a foreign place or country with fewer worries about getting lost. New customers can find businesses and services anywhere in the world. Furthermore, location mapping has helped create new business models like Uber, Tinder and Pokemon Go.

Indoor maps and location data has never been so in-demand. In sectors as varied as retail, health care, and warehousing and logistics, decision-makers are recognizing the incredible value this information provides. Applications include wayfinding, labour optimization, asset tracking, and more.

For those who don’t work in rescue services, it’s not always clear what to do in an emergency. But there’s one action that’s ingrained in all of us: call 911.

At InnerSpace, the applications for indoor mapping and location data never cease to amaze us. The last year was full of new discoveries—and opportunities. We’ve evolved, achieving a more complete understanding of our users and the value of our technology.

This is "Johnny." He's the InnerSpace Sensor that digitizes indoor spaces - instantly and in real-time. Using WiFi, Bluetooth, LiDAR and a variety of other technologies, when combined with our proprietary algorithms, Johnny is a powerful solution that:

Deloitte recently released their 16th edition of Predictions for the Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) sectors that included their predictions for indoor navigation. As a technology company focused on cracking the code that enables this market to scale, Deloitte's thoughts are a strong proof point we are on the right track.

Imagine you could use your Smartphone to figure out where you are and search for where you want to go when you're indoors. That was the message to consumers back in 2010 when it was announced that indoor maps were arriving to our phones. 

Low capital cost, low operational cost, high location accuracy. With beacon-based indoor location, you get to pick only 2.

“Indoor location technology has been around for a while. What new problem are you solving?”