Penguin Location Services is excited to announce its strategic technology partnership with Cisco Meraki and is now proudly featured on the Meraki.io app store platform, advancing digital workplace transformation through cutting-edge indoor positioning solutions.

“We recently launched our indoor positioning solutions with Cisco DNA Spaces and today we continue to expand our collaboration with the extended Cisco ecosystem by offering comprehensive location-based application use cases through the meraki.io app store marketplace.”

Penguin Location Services delivers AI-powered location intelligence through three product suites: PenNav (indoor navigation), PenTrack (RTLS tracking and workflow), and PenSafe (enterprise safety). This page covers how Penguin’s RTLS platform works alongside Meraki network infrastructure.

This page is published as an official documentation reference for Penguin Location Services’ listing on the Cisco Meraki Marketplace. If you arrived here from the Meraki Marketplace or are evaluating Penguin as a Meraki-compatible RTLS partner, this section is for you.

Use Cases Supported on Meraki Infrastructure

The strategic partnership with Cisco Meraki offers existing and future enterprise clients access to comprehensive location-based applications. These include:

RTLS technology powers five primary categories of enterprise applications. Understanding how these work — and how they interconnect — is the foundation for evaluating any location intelligence platform.

Real-time location data becomes exponentially more valuable when artificial intelligence is applied to it. AI does not replace the location engine — it sits on top of it, continuously learning from movement patterns, operational rhythms, and environmental signals to surface insights, predict problems, and recommend actions faster than any human analyst could.

Penguin Location Services has built AI-powered analytics directly into its platform, making Operational Intelligence available not as an add-on but as a core capability.

Healthcare is the most data-rich, operationally complex, and high-stakes environment where RTLS operates. Hospitals run 24 hours a day, manage thousands of assets, serve hundreds of patients simultaneously, and operate under regulatory scrutiny that demands documentation of nearly every decision. AI-powered RTLS is uniquely positioned to make hospitals safer, more efficient, and more responsive.

When RTLS location data combines with clinical data feeds — from EHR systems, nurse call platforms, and monitoring devices — AI can identify early warning patterns that predict patient deterioration. If a patient who has been stationary begins showing movement patterns consistent with disorientation, combined with vital sign deviations, an AI layer can flag this for immediate clinical review before a fall or adverse event occurs.

AI-powered asset tracking goes beyond showing where an IV pump is right now. It learns the utilization patterns of every asset category — which pumps get used on which floors, at which times, across which patient populations. Over time, it can predict when a shortage is likely to occur on a given ward before it happens, automatically triggering restocking workflows or flagging underutilized equipment elsewhere in the facility.

Nurse burnout costs the healthcare industry billions annually in turnover and diminished care quality. AI-powered RTLS can analyze staff movement patterns — time spent on high-demand tasks, frequency of interruptions, time pressure across shift cycles — to identify early indicators of burnout risk at the individual and team level. Managers receive actionable intelligence to intervene before staff reach the point of crisis.

Download the Penguin white paper on AI and nurse burnout prevention →

AI analysis of hand hygiene data goes far beyond compliance percentages. By correlating staff movement patterns, dispenser interaction data, patient room assignments, and infection event logs, AI can identify which specific behavioral patterns correlate most strongly with HAI transmission risk — and target intervention at exactly the right touchpoints rather than applying blanket protocols uniformly.

One of the most transformative applications of AI in healthcare RTLS is real-time capacity intelligence. By modeling patient flow across the entire facility — from emergency department triage through to discharge — AI can predict bottlenecks before they form, suggest dynamic bed reallocation, and alert administrators to emerging capacity constraints hours before they become crises. The result is a hospital that does not just react to operational problems — it anticipates and prevents them.

Selecting an RTLS provider is a significant investment. The following dimensions are critical to evaluate when comparing platforms and vendors.

• Accuracy and technology foundation: Understand the underlying technology (BLE, Wi-Fi, QR) and verify accuracy in environments similar to your own.
• Infrastructure requirements: Assess hardware installation scope, density requirements, and total cost of ownership across the full lifecycle.
• Software and dashboard capabilities: The software layer is where operational value is delivered. Evaluate map management, analytics, alert configuration, and API availability.
• Integration ecosystem: Verify the vendor’s track record integrating with EHR, CMMS, nurse call, BMS, access control, and HR systems.
• Scalability: Can the platform expand to additional buildings, use cases, and tags without architectural change?
• Deployment and support model: Evaluate implementation methodology, project management, and post-deployment support — especially for live hospital or industrial environments.

Penguin Location Services is a specialist location intelligence provider built on a unified AI-powered location engine. Our three product suites — PenNav, PenTrack, and PenSafe — share a common infrastructure and data layer, enabling organizations to deploy one solution and expand to others without replacing their foundation.

· Deployed across 4M+ sq ft · 10+ multi-campus environments · 70+ experts worldwide

The following questions represent the most common queries from healthcare administrators, facility managers, procurement leaders, and technology teams evaluating real-time location systems.

What is RTLS and how does it work?

RTLS — Real-Time Location System — is a technology platform that tracks the precise location of people, assets, and equipment inside buildings in real time. Unlike GPS, which uses satellites and works outdoors, RTLS is designed specifically for indoor environments where satellite signals cannot reach.

Small wireless tags attach to assets or are worn by people. These tags continuously broadcast a signal — typically using Bluetooth Low Energy or Wi-Fi. Fixed sensors installed throughout the building receive these signals and calculate each tag’s location. A central software platform processes all of this data and displays it as a live map, updated in real time.

More advanced RTLS systems — like Penguin’s — layer artificial intelligence on top of this location engine. Rather than just showing where things are, the AI analyzes movement patterns, identifies anomalies, predicts problems, and delivers operational intelligence that informs smarter decisions.

RTLS answers three questions no other technology can answer at scale: Where is it right now? Where has it been? What does that pattern mean for my operations?

What is staff duress — and why does it matter in healthcare?

Staff duress refers to a situation in which a healthcare worker is under threat — facing verbal aggression, physical assault, or a dangerous emergency — and needs to summon immediate help. In hospitals and healthcare environments, workplace violence against clinical staff is a serious and growing problem.

A staff duress system allows a worker to trigger an emergency alert instantly and discreetly, typically by pressing a button on a wearable badge. The moment that button is pressed, designated responders receive an immediate alert — and the system displays the precise real-time location of the staff member who triggered the alert.

This combination — instant notification plus exact location — is what makes RTLS-powered staff duress fundamentally different from older systems like pull-cord alarms or manual radio calls. Responders do not have to search. They know exactly which room the staff member is in. Response times drop from minutes to seconds.

Staff duress systems also serve a compliance function. Regulations in several jurisdictions — including healthcare accreditation bodies and occupational health and safety standards — increasingly require facilities to demonstrate active measures to protect staff from workplace violence. For a full breakdown, see our guide on RTLS staff duress in hospitals.

What is indoor navigation and what is indoor wayfinding?

Indoor wayfinding is the broader concept — any system that helps people orient themselves and find their way through a physical indoor space. This can be printed directional signs, static floor maps, digital wayfinding kiosks, or QR-based maps.

Indoor navigation is a more specific and sophisticated capability: the technology knows where the user currently is and provides dynamic, real-time, turn-by-turn directions — adapting as the user moves. This is the indoor equivalent of how Google Maps works outdoors.

The practical difference matters for deployment decisions. QR-based wayfinding (like PenNav Q) establishes the user’s starting point from the QR code location and provides a static route. Beacon-based indoor navigation (like PenNav Pro) tracks the user’s position continuously as they move and updates the route in real time. For most healthcare facilities, the right answer combines both approaches.

Can RTLS be affordable? How do you deploy it without a massive infrastructure investment?

Yes — and this is one of the most important shifts in the RTLS industry over the past several years. RTLS was historically associated with expensive, proprietary hardware and long payback periods. That perception is outdated.

Several factors have fundamentally changed the cost structure of RTLS deployment. Modern RTLS platforms work with the Wi-Fi and BLE infrastructure that most enterprise facilities already have installed. Instead of expensive proprietary tags, modern platforms use commodity BLE tags that cost a fraction of what proprietary tags cost a decade ago. QR-based wayfinding solutions like PenNav Q require no beacon infrastructure at all. SaaS pricing models spread cost over time and align with operational budgets. Modular deployment means you can start with asset tracking in your highest-value area, demonstrate ROI, and expand from there.

The ROI case makes affordability a relative question. A hospital that deploys asset tracking and reduces equipment rental costs by even 20% typically recovers the full cost of deployment within 12 to 18 months.

Why is RTLS asset tracking important?

Healthcare facilities are among the most asset-intensive environments in the world. A typical medium-sized hospital manages thousands of mobile medical devices that move constantly between departments, floors, storage rooms, and patient areas. Without RTLS, clinical staff spend 30 to 60 minutes per shift searching for equipment. Facilities over-purchase because they cannot account for what they already own. Equipment sits idle while other departments rent additional units at high daily rates.

RTLS asset tracking solves all of these problems simultaneously. Every tagged asset is findable in seconds. Utilization analysis reveals which assets are chronically idle and where the mismatches exist between supply and demand. PAR level alerts notify staff when counts drop below configured thresholds. Chokepoint alerts trigger when assets approach exits or restricted zones. For detailed ROI documentation, see our healthcare asset tracking ROI guide.

What industries use real-time location systems?

RTLS technology is deployed across a broad range of industries. The common thread is complexity — large physical environments where people, equipment, or assets need to be located, managed, or guided efficiently.

Healthcare is the largest and most mature RTLS market. Hospitals use RTLS for asset tracking, patient flow management, staff safety, infant protection, wander prevention, and hand hygiene compliance.

Oil and Gas and Industrial facilities use RTLS for worker safety monitoring, permit-to-work compliance, hazardous zone enforcement, emergency mustering, and equipment tracking.

Education institutions deploy RTLS for automated student and staff attendance across large multi-campus footprints, campus navigation, and space utilization analytics.

Airports and Transportation Hubs use indoor navigation to reduce passenger confusion, decrease missed boarding events, and reduce pressure on ground staff answering wayfinding questions.

Enterprise and Commercial Real Estate campuses use RTLS to manage hybrid workplaces — hot-desking, meeting room management, and space utilization reporting.

Retail and Hospitality environments use indoor navigation to guide shoppers and guests, analyze foot traffic patterns, and manage staff deployment across large floor areas.

Does Penguin integrate with Cisco Meraki?

Yes. Penguin Location Services is a listed partner on the Cisco Meraki Marketplace, and our RTLS platform is designed to operate on top of existing Meraki network infrastructure.

The core principle is simple: rather than requiring you to install a separate, proprietary wireless network, Penguin leverages the Meraki infrastructure you already have. Your Meraki network continues to function exactly as it does today — same configuration, same management, same security posture. Penguin adds a location intelligence layer on top of it without modifying anything in your Meraki environment.

Use cases supported on Meraki-connected facilities include asset tracking, indoor wayfinding (PenNav Q requires no additional hardware), staff safety and duress alerting, automated attendance, and workflow analytics. For detailed technical integration documentation or to discuss deployment in your specific Meraki environment, contact our team.

© Penguin Location Services | penguinin.com | Published as a documentation reference for Cisco Meraki Marketplace partners | penguinin.com/documentation-meraki