Mobility

Wireless Strategies that Help you Save to Invest – Part 2

2009-06-29T23:36:45+00:00

A few days ago I wrote the first part in a series of blogs about the different ways mobility can help you save money. In that blog I focused on creating flexible workspaces in order to save on real estate costs. In this second installment of the series I will expand on that conversation to include teleworking.

Probably the most effective means to reduce your real estate costs for office space is to create policies that allow your employees to work remotely from home (or other locations). On average for each full-time teleworker an organization can expect to save $22,000 per year on commercial real estate.

Wireless Strategies that Help you Save to Invest - Part 1

2009-06-22T23:08:19+00:00

As I was negotiating for budget to fund certain projects last week, I thought that many of you must go through the same process in your organizations to get budget for projects and investments you deem valuable. Problem is, to win in this negotiation one has to prove their proposals have value and a high ROI.

In this multi-part blog series I will be discussing different wireless strategies you can employ to increase your ROI from a Cisco WLAN deployment. In the process I hope to arm you with some tools to help you make the right infrastructure investment decision as you negotiate for budget with your peers.

Strategy 1: Create Flexible Workspaces to Save on Real Estate Costs

It may seem counterintuitive in this tough economy that you would invest in creating flexible workspaces in order to reduce real estate costs, when your workforce may be shrinking due to downsizing. However, similar to future IT investment planning decisions, organizations should take a longer-term approach and plan for the inevitable upturn.

Reflecting on Wireless Security

2009-06-08T22:46:46+00:00

As we gear up for Cisco Live! 2009 in San Francisco, I’ve thought back to some of the other shows that I’ve been to over the past couple of months. In April, I had the opportunity to visit the RSA Conference 2009, where Cisco gave show attendees to RSA’s booth a sneak peak of the integration between RSA enVision and Cisco’s Context-Aware mobility service. And at Cisco Networkers Solutions Forum in Toronto, I had the honor to lead two sessions, one on strategies for 802.11n deployment and one on mobility services. On both occasions, I had the pleasure to interact with a number of customers and the same question came up: “Why do I need to worry about RF security if I don’t have a production wireless network?”

Business applications enhanced by network intelligence

2009-05-20T07:10:38+00:00

The ability to access network intelligence can really enhance business applications. By utilizing the open API of Mobility Services Engine technology partners are making network intelligence actionable. Steven Shalita , Vice President of Marketing for NetScout talks about the unique solution that is enhanced by adding contextual information like location to the NetScout application.

Enabling real-time collaboration through Mobility

2009-05-20T01:26:33+00:00

Mobility is a key component of the collaborative experience. By enabling collaboration businesses can reap operational efficiencies that can be invested elsewhere. They can unlock employee potential by giving context to data and making it actionable. Putting collaboration in motion enables companies to get closer to customers, bringing them into the product development delivery process, or taking the product delivery process to the customer. In this video, Chris Kozup, Senior Manager of Mobility Solutions discusses Cisco’s recent Collaboration in Motion launch and talks about what it takes for customers to connect multiple workspaces using a robust mobility platform.

(Interop) Las Vegas or Bust

2009-05-18T05:57:09+00:00

Interop Las Vegas kicked off today, and up until last Friday, I’ve been asked by many folks, “What does Cisco have in store for mobility at Interop?”

I will keep this short by asking you to tune into the video that gives you a little taste of what is to come.

To Tag or Not to Tag – Is that the question?

2009-05-12T23:01:37+00:00

This weekend I spent a considerable amount of time searching for a pair of expensive earrings that I misplaced. Not a fun job, especially since I wasn’t ready to write off the value of this asset or to replace it. That’s when I began to wonder – how cool would it be if I could use the Wi-Fi network in my house to keep track of my valuable personal inventory - jewellery, handbags and TV remote control by tagging them. The time I would save from looking for these items could definitely be spent productively on actually enjoying them.

While the concept and ROI of using active RFID tags with Wi-Fi networks for personal asset management might not be real just yet, it is definitely picking up steam in the business environment – especially in some key industries such as healthcare where tracking the location of assets such as infusion pumps, EKG monitors etc has saved some hospitals between $400,000-500,000 (for a typical 400 bed hospital) annually through loss prevention, fewer purchases, and labor savings. Manufacturing is another industry where the ROI of using Wi-Fi based location technology becomes very apparent – think of an aircraft or car manufacturer who deals with thousands of parts and needs to know their location in order to ensure timely availability in the final product assembly process.

A Clear Case for Mobile Collaboration in Healthcare

2009-04-30T07:14:47+00:00

In early April, I attended the HIMSS show in Chicago where I showcased our enhanced mobile collaboration applications. One of our solutions featured the Cisco Unified Personal Communicator application on newly Cisco certified Mobile Clinical Assistants (tablet PC’s designed for the healthcare environment) and the ability to share high bandwidth images over the Cisco 802.11n network. I also demonstrated the integration of location information made available by the Cisco WLAN on the Cisco 7925 Wireless IP phone. This information allows nurses to quickly locate medical equipment, patients and members of the healthcare team. Our demo’s generated a lot of interest and I was overwhelmed by the positive response from customers who agreed that these solutions would make a difference in the productivity of caregivers who are the backbone of the healthcare system.

Popcorn and the New Collaboration Effect

2009-04-17T00:48:32+00:00

Every couple of quarters the Cisco mobility marketing team gets together to reflect on what went well and to plan for the rest of the year. This year, we met at a colleague’s home and brought in those who were not in California over WebEx. To provide an audio connection to WebEx, we turned to a Cisco Unified Wireless IP Phone 7925G connected back to the corporate office using Cisco Virtual Office. The 7925G worked remarkably well as a conference speaker phone, delivering crystal clear audio. But when a team member from Ohio was delivering her presentation, inexplicably, we noticed intermittent issues with the audio quality.

Follow us on Twitter

2009-04-15T23:41:50+00:00

We are only a couple of days old, but tweeting away.