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In my recent post, “The Internet of Everything’s Impact on Hospitality, I discussed how the Internet of Everything (IoE) is currently transforming the hospitality industry to more effectively enhance the guest experience while ensuring operational efficiencies and sustainability for hoteliers.

Bringing the Internet of Everything to Life for Hoteliers

As we continue to move into a new age of mobile and connected things, IoE presents a number of advantages for hoteliers, increasing business value as well as securing customer loyalty through enhanced guest experiences. Hotels that leverage IoE capabilities are made possible through technologies such as Wi-Fi-enabled RFID sensors and Bluetooth LE.

Continue reading “Bringing the Internet of Everything to Life for Hoteliers”



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Antonio Dimilia

Industry Director - Hospitality and Travel

Business Transformation Team

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This is the final installment of a series on how retailers can address the challenges of becoming an omnichannel business. I’d like to wrap up by talking about a deceptively simple stumbling block – accepting that being an omnichannel seller changes how people work.  I spend much of my time talking to retailers, and this really is a big issue.

For example, I have seen stores install – and then turn off – Wi-Fi deployments because they worry that associates will waste time surfing the web. And, yes, some might. But consider the cost compared to customers knowing more than your salesforce because they’ve been doing online research. It makes your team look uninformed, lowers the quality of service, and impacts sales. Obviously, you don’t want workers to play games all day. Instead, train them to find and use online product information, social media, and reviews that will help improve response to customers – and deal appropriately with the exceptions.

Related to this are issues around Wi-Fi access for customers. If you provide it for employees, please just go ahead and extend this to shoppers. Universal store access allows you to optimize your brand with both employees and customers (and enables far more effective analytics). I guarantee that you will lose relevance over time as consumers learn your store is one of the few without mobile service.

As well, I’ve met retailers who won’t add Wi-Fi because they are convinced that the only outcome will be showrooming and ultimate desertion. It’s time to shed the fear of this increasingly common customer practice. Instead, leverage it as a new marketing tool. You can drive sales by being part of the customer’s social media experience, delivering your own identity, branding, and incentives. A recent Accenture study shows that younger consumers still want the in-store experience, but they also expect retailers to integrate personalized shopping across all channels.

Let’s talk more about this at the NRF Big Idea Sessions in New York, where I and Jon Stine, Lisa Fretwell, and Kathryn Howe will be speaking on Jan. 13 and 14.  Visit Cisco’s NRF website to learn more about these popular seminars, and stop by Cisco Booth #1954 to say hello.

The idea of omnichannel selling can be daunting, and getting the benefit may entail learning to manage a certain amount of risk. But you know – it’s just retail. The environment is becoming more device-driven and the way stores look is changing. But giving consumers what they want; interacting with, understanding, and nurturing them: It’s still the business of retail. And you know how to do that.



Authors

Rose Depoe

Executive Director

Consumer Products & Services

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New innovations in mobility are transforming our daily lives and the safety of our loved ones. As the growth of mobility enables more wearable devices and applications that include GPS and Wi-Fi features, it is becoming increasingly easier for parents to remotely monitor their children’s safety while managing their own daily tasks.

Gartner predicts that wearable electronics will be a $10 billion industry. This opens up many opportunities for organizations that can successfully respond to the rapidly changing mobile landscape by bridging enterprise and service provider networks through an architectural approach to mobility.

How will this increase in mobile data impact your infrastructure and security? Two common concerns that must be addressed are the issue of bandwidth and the potential for malware attacks. It is important that IT leaders consider how a stable and secure network can significantly impact the future of mobility.

Read the full Transforming Child Safety through Mobility blog to learn more.



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Cisco is dedicated to using our technology around the world to make a positive difference in the lives of people and local communities. This December, Cisco offices on 3 continents partnered with hospitals to use Cisco collaboration technology to help bring holiday cheer to sick children and their families. More than 60 hospitals in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Latin America and Australia participated this year in Cisco’s 7th annual “Connected Santa” program.

Picture courtesy of Children's Hospital of Michigan, USA
Picture courtesy of Children’s Hospital of Michigan, USA

Continue reading “Cisco Technology Brings Santa to Sick Children”



Authors

Jennifer Barr

Social Media Manager, Online Brand

Cisco Talent Acquisition

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With the adoption of the Internet of Things and Internet of Everything, advances in mobility and next-generation Wi-Fi are driving faster speeds, higher signal quality and more reliable connectivity. With the upcoming ratification of the two waves of the 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard, how are emerging Wi-Fi models creating new security features that are defining the next-generation Wi-Fi experience?

Next Generation Wi-Fi Models

Migration to the 5 GHz-only 802.11ac is quickly becoming a reality. In a recent article by Lisa Phifer, Chris Spain, Vice President of Product Marketing for Cisco’s Wireless Networking Group, discusses more about how this migration will drive a shift in mobile device support for 5 GHz. “An increasing percentage of new mobile devices provide dual-band capability, and they generally prefer the less congested 5 GHz band,” Spain said. New Wi-Fi models, like those listed below, can help drive mobile devices to the 5GHz band:

Continue reading “What Next-Generation Wi-Fi Models Could Mean for Secure Mobility”



Authors

Evelyn de Souza

Cloud Data Governance Leader

Chief Technology and Architecture Office

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Executive sponsorship is one of the most important non-technical aspects of a project. Everyone knows about the technical: do we have rack space, is there enough power, did fibers get ordered, did the equipment ship, are the cut sheets ready? But rarely is thought given to the people aspect of projects.

What is Executive sponsorship? Executive sponsorship by definition is a role in project management, usually filled by the senior member of the project board and often the chair. The project sponsor will be a senior executive in a corporation (often at or just below board level) who is responsible to the business for the success of the project. Each company has a different structure and it will mean something different in each case, but the concept is the same for the majority. At our company the primary sponsor was the CIO.Executive Sponsorship

Continue reading “The Importance of Executive Sponsorship”



Authors

Eric Paine

Information Technology Manager

Health Care System

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80% of survey respondents [administered by MIT/Sloan and Cap Gemini] believe that their companies need to go through a significant digital transformation. However, 63% of those respondents also believe that their current pace is too slow.

Sound familiar? Is your company moving too slowly? Are you moving at all?

I heard these stats while attending the recent Digital Leaders Summit in San Francisco. Aimed at those responsible for guiding their enterprises into the new digital future, the summit highlighted trends, best practices and case studies from a number of media and other companies including leaders from The New York Times, The Economist, Turner Broadcasting, Jump Associates, Coca-Cola, The LA Times, Politico, and others.

Digital Leader Summit

Continue reading “Digital Transformation: Is Your Company Making the Pivot?”



Authors

Mark Yolton

Vice President of Digital

Cisco Marketing

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In this week’s episode, everything you wanted to know about VSPEX but were afraid to ask. We’re talking VSPEX 101 with Chris Romano and Chad Dunn. They why, the how, and the use cases to back it up. Complete with a VSPEX unicorn, let’s watch:

**The next shoot is last week of January at Cisco Live in Milan! If you want to be internet-famous, contact me ASAP to talk about being on the show.**

This is Engineers Unplugged, where technologists talk to each other the way they know best, with a whiteboard. The rules are simple:

  1. Episodes will publish weekly (or as close to it as we can manage)
  2. Subscribe to the podcast here: engineersunplugged.com
  3. Follow the #engineersunplugged conversation on Twitter
  4. Submit ideas for episodes or volunteer to appear by Tweeting to @CommsNinja
  5. Practice drawing unicorns

Join the behind the scenes by liking Engineers Unplugged on Facebook.



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After years of discussion, the upcoming release of Open MPI 1.7.4 will change how processes are laid out (“mapped”) and bound by default.  Here’s the specifics:

  • If the number of processes is <= 2, processes will be mapped by core
  • If the number of processes is > 2, processes will be mapped by socket
  • Processes will be bound to core
  • MPI_COMM_WORLD ranks will be assigned by slot

These are all the default values — they, of course, can be changed by the user via mpirun CLI options, environment variables, etc.

Continue reading “Open MPI: Binding to core by default”



Authors

Jeff Squyres

The MPI Guy

UCS Platform Software