For universities and colleges, the effective management of campus space is a critical and complex challenge. With a focus on enhancing the student experience, controlling operational costs, and meeting sustainability targets, estates teams and facilities managers need a way to move beyond guesswork and manual surveys. This is where smart campus occupancy technology, and more specifically, Switchshop’s OccuFi, provides a powerful solution.
OccuFi transforms your campus into a data-driven environment by leveraging your existing wireless network. Instead of investing in costly new sensors, cameras, or footfall counters, OccuFi uses the data your network is already generating to provide real-time, actionable insights into how your campus is being used.
How OccuFi Works for Universities and Colleges
Seamless Integration: OccuFi integrates directly with your existing wireless network. This means you can begin gathering occupancy data with no new hardware, no complex installation, and no disruption to your campus operations.
Real-Time Occupancy Data: The platform analyses the presence of wireless devices (laptops, smartphones, smartwatches) in flexibly defined zones across your estate.
This provides live, accurate data on occupancy levels in specific buildings, lecture halls, libraries, common areas, or even individual floors.
Data-Driven Space Optimisation
With OccuFi’s insights, you can make informed decisions to improve space utilisation. For example:
- Timetabling: Identify which lecture theatres are consistently under- or over-utilised to inform future timetabling decisions, ensuring resources are allocated efficiently.
- Study Space Management: Understand peak usage times in libraries and student hubs, allowing you to re-purpose underused areas or better manage access during busy periods.
- Movement Across Campus: Learn about common flows of movement across your campus, understanding how students move around and utilise facilities across large campuses.
Operational Efficiency
- Optimise cleaning schedules: by directing resources to areas with the highest footfall, rather than cleaning entire buildings at a fixed time, and monitor buildings for unauthorised presence.
- Sustainability: By understanding where and when people are on campus, you can intelligently adjust HVAC and lighting systems to reduce energy consumption and meet sustainability goals.
Privacy and Compliance
OccuFi is built with a strong focus on data privacy. OccuFi anonymises and encrypts all device data, ensuring no personal information is stored. This allows universities to comply with GDPR and other data protection regulations.
Insights for Multiple Teams
OccuFi benefits all campus users by enabling flexible building zoning tailored to individual team needs. With each WiFi access point assignable to up to three zones, OccuFi delivers insights customized to specific use cases.
OccuFi offers universities and colleges a cost-effective, privacy-conscious way to maximise their existing network, shifting campus management from reactive guesswork to a proactive, data-driven approach that supports a more efficient, sustainable, and student-friendly environment.
*OCCUFI is a registered trade mark belonging to Switchshop Limited.
