Estimote, Knoll Partner To Bring iBeacons Into Office Space Planning

Betaworks-backed Estimote has today announced a partnership with Knoll to bring its iBeacon platform to the office space planning company.

Estimote, a Disrupt and YC alum, offers a platform for developers to easily integrate iBeacon tech into existing apps and services, and at NeoCon 2014 (a trade conference for interior design) Knoll debuted one of the first retail installations of iBeacon technology paired with the Bounce app.

Knoll is a well-established office design and office space planning firm. The team realized that one of the core difficulties with planning an office space is that there is a level of uncertainty around which investments will pay off. Using the Estimote iBeacon platform, Knoll planted seven iBeacons in their showroom that would give attendees a chance to look at occupancy levels at different stations.

The idea is that Knoll clients could install iBeacons around their own offices and look at potential upgrades to the space that would maximize efficiency. With the Bounce app, these clients could ensure that any investment they made to change their office space — perhaps by splitting one large conference room into two — would actually be useful for the way the office functions.

The Bounce app also added layers of information about products through a push notification sent from other iBeacons around the space. Generally speaking, this is the most common way we see iBeacon technology playing out at first. The expectation is that retailers will advertise an app that will offer location-based content and coupons within an actual store, bringing immeasurable value to the retailer but begging the question of what’s in it for the consumer.

But Estimote has over 20,000 developers working on interesting ways to integrate iBeacon technology in a manner that is valuable to the end-user. For example, Estimote envisions a world in which you don’t stand in line at the airport or check-in to your flight with an ID — the airport will have already verified that it’s you boarding a certain flight.

This latest partnership with Knoll is yet another example of how iBeacon technology can be used for purposes beyond simple location-based coupons.