Reducing compliance costs by 70% by managing evacuation diagrams in-house with Deakin University

Overview

Deakin University is a leading Australian institution with a strong focus on research, innovation and real-world impact. Operating across multiple campuses in Geelong, Warrnambool and Melbourne, alongside specialised research facilities and co-located sites, the university manages a large and complex property portfolio.

With responsibility for approximately 230 buildings, supporting more than 5,000 staff and over 30,000 students, maintaining accurate, compliant digital floor plans and the evacuation diagrams generated from them across the estate is a significant operational undertaking.

For Deakin, ensuring over 2,000 diagrams are up to date, accessible and aligned with Australian Standards is not just a compliance requirement, it's critical to maintaining safety, audit readiness and organisational confidence.

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The challenge

Prior to PlanStudio®, evacuation diagram management was delivered through a largely externalised model, supported internally by a single resource.

While this approach supported delivery, it created a number of constraints at scale:

• Turnaround times were slow and difficult to predict – only 300 per year
• Costs were very high across a large and growing portfolio
• Maintaining consistent accuracy and coverage required ongoing oversight
• Internal visibility and control over updates was limited

"It was being managed by one person dealing with an external contractor… it was the bottleneck of time, the accuracy, and just the overall level of care – and the cost involved."‍

Glenn Stickland, Senior Officer, Emergency Management, Deakin University

As the university's footprint evolved, the model became harder to sustain, particularly with increasing compliance expectations and the need to keep diagrams consistently up to date. More broadly, the university lacked a scalable, systematised way to manage building information across its estate.

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The solution

Deakin brought the management of compliant digital floor plans in-house, enabling a more controlled, scalable and cost-effective approach.

With prior experience using the platform, the Emergency Management team quickly identified its potential to improve efficiency without significantly increasing workload.

"When we looked at the overall price and what we'd be saving across the board, PlanStudio® won hands down – and it didn't really add too much to my workload."‍

Glenn Stickland

Today, the university manages digital floor plans centrally, enabling evacuation diagrams to be generated and updated more efficiently, with AI-assisted workflows supporting speed and consistency. This allows Deakin to maintain a growing portfolio of diagrams while responding quickly to building changes and compliance requirements.

An additional aspect which has just commenced is that their Fire Services Contractor is now accessing PlanStudio® for specific sites and will be inputting all the equipment they are responsible for looking after extinguishers, hose reels, hydrants, FIP, EWS and other equipment directly into PlanStudio® and will maintain their locations. This improves asset and equipment visibility, data accuracy, compliance confidence and efficiency.

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Outcomes

The move to managing digital floor plans centrally has delivered measurable improvements:

1. 70% reduction in diagram production costs

Bringing digital floor plan creation and diagram management in-house has significantly reduced costs across the program, enabling more efficient use of budget across the estate.

"On average, with me doing it, we're looking at about 30% of the cost we were being quoted before."

Glenn Stickland

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2. 6.5x increase in evacuation diagram management and portfolio scale

The team has moved from limited annual output of 300 per year, to managing a large and growing portfolio of over 2000 diagrams across the university per year.

"At the moment we're looking at about 2,000 diagrams across all our buildings, usually adding more as we go."

Glenn Stickland

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3. Faster turnaround for updates and new works

Diagram updates can now be completed quickly, supporting project work and ongoing building changes without delay.

"If there's project work or building works, I have the ability to turn them around and get something new out quickly."

Glenn Stickland

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4. Near instant updates for existing diagrams

Once buildings are in the system, managing updates become significantly faster and easier.

"When nothing's changed, it's literally a matter of changing a date, printing and putting the next version up."

Glenn Stickland

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5. Stronger compliance confidence and leadership assurance

With accurate, up-to-date diagrams across the estate, leadership has greater confidence in compliance and audit readiness.

"We know it's compliant with the Australian standard… the director is much happier and able to provide reassurance to our risk team."

Glenn Stickland

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6. Improved quality and consistency across outputs

Internal ownership has led to more consistent and reliable diagram outputs across the portfolio.

"It's given confidence… to know that the diagrams are going to be accurate."

Glenn Stickland

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On recommendation

Deakin is already sharing its experience with peer institutions through emerging emergency management networks across the university sector.

"There's more collaboration now between universities, and everything I've spoken about – cost, efficiency, control – that's why I'd recommend it."

Glenn Stickland

See PlanStudio® in action in our short recorded demo today.